Sunday, July 5, 2009

Week 1 - Wednesday

Cilantro-Lime Pork Roll-Ups with Caramelized Onions

2 teaspoons grated lime peel
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound boneless pork loin chops or tenderloin, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 small onions thinly sliced
1 (16 oz.) can fat free refried beans
1 (11.5 oz) package flour tortillas for burritos (8 tortillas)
2 cups finely shredded pepper Jack or Monterrey Jack cheese
1 to 1/2 cups chunky salsa
1 (8 oz) container sour cream

In a large resealable Ziploc bag, mix lime peel, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, red pepper flakes and 1 tablespoon oil. Add pork; seal bag and turn to coat with lime marinade. Refrigerate 30 minutes to 2 hours.

In a medium - large sized skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add onions; cook 7-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions turn golden brown. Remove onions from skillet; keep warm.

Heat oven to 375 F. Remove pork from marinade; drain pork on paper towels to remove excess moisture. Discard Marinade.

In the same skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Add pork; cook 5 - 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink in the center. Remove skillet from heat; set aside.
Spray a 13 x 9 inch pan with non stick cooking spray.

To assemble, spoon t tablespoons beans down center of each tortilla. Top with pork, onions and cheese. Roll up tortillas; place seam sides down in baking dish.

Bake uncovered 18 - 24 minutes or until edges of tortillas are golden brown. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

These were really quite delicious. There are a couple of changes I will make when I make them again, and I WILL make them again. First, I am going to leave out the beans. The flavor of the beans doesn't quite go with the rest of the dish, I don't think. (I also don't love beans. If you are a lover of beans, I am sure you will enjoy them immensely.)

Second, I will either double the recipe, or use smaller tortillas. I guess I used tortillas that were too big, because the recipe only made 4 roll ups for me. I cut them in half and had 8 smaller ones, which is really all we needed, but If I needed 8 large tortillas worth of roll-ups, doubling the filling would be in order.

Finally, I did not think it needed salsa or sour cream at all, and that is saying quite a lot because I am addicted to sour cream. It is a food group for me. I put it on anything with melted cheese... except pizza, but that is only because I didn't think of it until now.... Maybe I'll try that. Anyway, I scooped the sour cream out of the container and onto my plate because by golly it called for sour cream, so I was going to use it. It didn't need sour cream. It was so delicious just by itself, that I didn't use ANY sour cream after the initial bite. In case you haven't been paying attention up to this point... The Cilantro Lime Pork Roll-Ups with Caramelized Onions are DYNAMITE!

Note: Brad and I ate the leftovers on Friday for lunch. I sprinkled a little extra jack cheese on top and microwaved until melted. Then, I topped the hot roll-ups with a dollop of sour cream and some chunky salsa. It was dynamite this way, as well.

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