Irish Tacos Recipe: Guinness Braised Pork with Cilantro & Toasted Cumin Crema

The North Texas Irish Festival brings together a wide variety of exhibitors, workshops and demonstrations. Experience, pick up a few culinary tricks for modern Irish cuisine and sample it at The North Texas Irish Festival’s Chef Stage.

Guinness Braised Pork with Cilantro & Toasted Cumin Crema Ingredients:

For Spice Mix
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder
• 1 Tablespoon paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

For Pork
• 2 bottles Guinness
• 3lb bone in pork shoulder
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 5-6 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole

For Crema
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1small bunch of fresh cilantro
• Zest and juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin, toasted slightly in dry pan

For Serving
• Corn or flour tortillas, whichever you prefer
• Crumbled Cotija Cheese
• Shredded cabbage, I prefer Napa cabbage
• Avocado for garnish (optional)
• Lime wedges for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Combine all the spices together in a small bowl and rub them all over your pork shoulder. Make sure it's rubbed in really well and completely covered.
3. Let the spice rubbed pork sit at room temperature while you heat up a dutch oven on your stove over medium/high heat with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil or any other high temp oil for searing.
4. Sear the pork shoulder on all sides, letting it sit on each side for 3-4 minutes without moving so it gets a good dark brown crust.
5. Slice your onion and peel your garlic while the shoulder is searing.
6. Scatter the onion and garlic cloves around the pork in the pot and pour in both bottles of Guinness to deglaze and as the braising liquid. Cover and move to the pre-heated oven. Cook for 3 1/2 - 4 hours until it is fork tender.
7. When the pork is done, use two forks to shred the meat. Remove the bone and any fat that you don't want. Return the meat to the braising liquid and rendered meat juices.
8. To make the crema, combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend for a few seconds until well blended and smooth.
9. To serve, heat up two tortillas and pile them up with braised pork, shredded cabbage, cilantro – cumin crema and crumbled cotija cheese.

The North Texas Irish Festival 2020 runs March 6 - 8 at Fair Park in Dallas. This cultural celebration in DFW is named one of the largest Irish Festivals in the U.S. Don’t miss out! For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.NTIF.org.