Calabacitas con Puerco

The courgette salted only in the pan and never before, because salted early it floods the dish with water.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, lard, pork.

Ingredients

• 600 g pork shoulder, in 2 cm cubes
• 700 g courgettes, in 2 cm dice
• 200 g sweetcorn kernels
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 serrano chillies, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons lard or oil
• a sprig of epazote
• salt, only in the pan
• 150 g crumbly white cheese, to serve
• corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve

Method

1. THE COURGETTE IS SALTED ONLY IN THE PAN AND NEVER BEFORE, because salted early it floods the dish. A courgette is about ninety-five per cent water held in cells, and salt on cut surfaces draws that water out by osmosis within minutes. Diced and salted in a bowl while the pork browns, it will sit in a pool of its own liquid, and all of that liquid goes into the pan and turns what should be a dish of distinct browned pieces into a watery stew. Added dry and unsalted, and seasoned once it is already in the hot pan and cooking, it holds its water until it is eaten.
2. THE PORK IS BROWNED AND LIFTED OUT BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE GOES IN. It needs a hot pan and dry surfaces, and the moment onion or tomato joins it the pan temperature drops and it stews. Browned in two batches, lifted out, and returned later.
3. THE COURGETTE GOES IN LAST AND IS BARELY COOKED. Seven or eight minutes. It should keep a slight bite and its edges should still be square. Twenty minutes in the pot and it collapses into a grey purée that binds everything together -- which is the usual fate of this dish and is why people think of it as dull.
4. THE PAN IS WIDE AND IS NOT CROWDED, which matters more here than the recipe suggests. Seven hundred grams of diced courgette in a small pan is three layers deep; the bottom layer fries and the top two steam in the vapour and go soft. A wide sauté pan, or two batches.
5. THERE IS NO ADDED LIQUID AT ANY POINT. No stock, no water. The tomato and the courgette between them produce exactly enough, and anything added makes it a soup. If the pan looks dry before the courgette goes in, that is correct.
6. The pork patted dry and the lard heated in a WIDE pan over a high heat.
7. The pork browned in TWO batches, 4 minutes a batch, until well coloured. Lifted out and set aside.
8. The heat lowered and the onion, garlic and chillies cooked in the same fat 6 minutes.
9. The tomatoes added and cooked 8 MINUTES until collapsed and most of their water has gone.
10. The pork returned with the epazote, the pan covered, and cooked 35 MINUTES over a low heat until tender. NO liquid added.
11. The lid removed and anything loose cooked off, 3 minutes. The pan should look fairly dry.
12. The courgette diced and added DRY and UNSALTED, with the sweetcorn.
13. THE HEAT TURNED UP to medium-high and everything turned through.
14. SALTED NOW, in the pan, for the first time.
15. Cooked 7 to 8 MINUTES only, turned twice, until the courgette is just tender.
16. TESTED: the dice should still have a slight bite and square edges. The epazote lifted out.
17. Served with the cheese crumbled over and tortillas.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes