Sunday, February 6, 2011

Pulled Pork Tostadas

I made this recipe three days into my 21-day no-sugar detox and so far, so good! I decided to make pulled pork to use for several meals during the week. Here is the first, which is also my first go at almond flour tortillas. They turned out great. I ate two and was so stuffed! No guilt though, they are totally paleo and totally clean! My original plan was to make pork tacos, but when I was frying the tortillas, they ended up crispy instead of soft. They made perfect tostada shells and the taste reminded me of shells used for sopas. I cooked the pork in the crock pot and prepared the guac and salsa while the kids were in school so that when it was time for dinner, all I had to do was pull the pork, make the tortillas, and assemble. Enjoy!

Tostada recipe adapted from wheatfreeandglutenfreebreadrecipe.blogspot.com.


Makes 6 tostadas with leftover salsa and pork (3-4 servings).


Ingredients
Pork
1/2 cup water
1 5-pound pork butt roast (this actually comes from the pork shoulder, cut has a nice layer of fat on it)
sea salt
Tostada
2 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper, or more to taste
2 large eggs
1 tsp + 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Garnish
guacamole

Preparation
Don't these look good? Fry tortilla for
a shorter time if you want a softer shell.
  1. Place pork in a large crock pot, fat side up. Add water and season generously with sea salt.
  2. Cook on low for 8 hours.
  3. Remove any bones and chunks of fat. Use two forks to pull the pork. Reserve some of the juices and let the pork marinade in the juice until you are ready to serve.
  4. In the meantime, prepare the simple salsa and guacamole. They have similar ingredients and are quick to put together at the same time.
  5. To make tostada shells, combine almond flour, sea salt, and cayenne in a large bowl. Add eggs and 1 tsp olive oil and mix thoroughly with a spoon until a nice dough forms. If it seems dry, keep stirring for a bit. If needed, add just a touch of water.
  6. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Roll each piece into a ball. One at a time, place each dough ball between two sheets of parchment and press with the palm of your hand until you form about an 1/4- to 1/8-inch thick circle.
  7. Warm 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet. Fry each tostada, one at a time, in the hot oil for about 30-40 seconds on each side. Transfer to a double layer of paper towels to drain.
  8. To serve, place 1-2 tostadas on each plate, top with pulled pork and garnish liberally with salsa and guacamole.

7 comments:

  1. Well, my tostadas didn't turn out. The taste was very good but they were too sticky and I couldn't flatten them very well. Plus, I didn't have parchment paper! The pork was delicious and the whole family gobbled it all up, even though my tostadas resembled hockey pucks. :) I am anxious to give them a try again!

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    1. Well, that's disappointing, Sarah! Did you follow the recipe exactly? Next time, you can try wax paper or putting some extra almond flour on your hands and flat surface. Also, be sure to use almond flour, not almond meal. You can also add a little extra almond flour if the dough is really sticky. Eggs vary in size so if there's too much egg, you'll need to compensate. Glad you are going to try again!

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    2. I may have used almond meal! I'll have to double check. Not having the parchment paper didn't help either. I figured it was user error. :) We had extra pork that I froze so will definitely try these again for an easy freezer meal!

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  2. We tried to make these today and ended up adding to the recipe to make them work for us. We kept all the ingredients noted above, but added an extra cup of coconut flour (I also used Almond meal like the previous commenter). When I tried the exact recipe, I couldn't get them out flat enough and still have them stay together. With the extra cup of coconut flour, I was able to roll them out with a roller to super thin (between parchment paper). We also found that frying them in coconut oil instead of olive oil produced a more universal browning instead of just the edges. Amazing flavor (although I also added a bit of cumin and garlic powder to mine as well). Will definitely be having these again! Thank you for the amazing recipes!

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    Replies
    1. Lori, sounds like you made some good modifications. I'll have to try that version next time and see how they turn out. It would be nice to have a thinner tortilla. I'm so glad that you enjoyed the tostada. Thanks for letting me know!

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  3. Wonderful Recipe!! Lori I tried the Coconut flour as well since I went to three different grocery stores and could only find almond meal and it was perfect! So delicious. Thank you Pam for sharing!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the note, Nancy. I have been in the mood for these lately so I'm going to give the coconut flour addition a try. I appreciate the feedback!

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