Los Tres Chanchitos (The Three Little Pigs)

Mmmm! I am so glad I made enough for seconds. I'm taking my leftovers to the office tomorrow for lunch.

When's the last time you said that?

I call this The Three Little Pigs because I use three kinds of pork. There's a slice of pork loin here getting diced into little cubes. We have some Murciana Brand Chorizo Nica, and pork rinds.

A word about pork rinds and Mexicans. This is not just a snack food. A lot of Mexican cafés that serve up a respectable taco menu have chicharròn on the menu board. Chicharròn is Spanish for pork rinds.

You'll find a big steel bowl of it swimming in a tomato sauce, often with some jalapeños thrown in.

In this dish, the pork rinds are not going to skate around the skillet with the pork loin and Nicaraguan sausage. They'll be helping out the sweet potato.

Sweet potato, a Native American staple, is one of these foods that has an edginess to it. It can get a little too sweet and a little too bitter when its cooked. I want to round out its taste so it will go better with the two grilled pork meats.

I dice a sweet potato and put it in a pot with a clove of finely chopped garlic, salt, pepper, butter, some chopped ancho flake and just enough water to cover the bottom to about a half-inch. Cover the sweet potato and turn up the heat.

No pork rinds, yet. Just leave the pork rind bag on the counter. Okay, you can munch on a few, but don't ruin your appetite.

Hmm, how can pork rinds ruin your appetite? Worthy of debate.

Here's a look at some of our raw ingredients:

Now for the two meats. butter a hot skillet. Brown your piggies. Pour in a handful of pepitas (unsalted pumpkin seed), and stir. Open a can of Herdez Salsa Verde and pour in enough to get the whole skillet wet. Add a little salt and stir.

You don't need much salt, if any, with the meat. That Chorizo Nica should be enough. But I added a little.

Once cooked, take your meat off the heat.

Now about that sweet potato. If it's diced well, a little water will steam cook through fairly quick. Maybe 10 minutes? Check on it, don't let it go dry and don't add much water. Mash it into something like mashed sweet potato, pour in a couple handfuls of pork rind, put the lid on and leave it on the heat for one more minute.

You just want to soften the pork rinds to where they're a little rubbery.

Couple your sweet potato with the two pork meats on a plate. Now you've got Three Little Pigs. And that sweet potato is going to go very well with the two-meat entreé.

I don't normally suggest what drink to pair meals with, because I drink a dark beer with just about everything. But if I were choosing a wine, I'd suggest a dry white.

The Three Little Pigs

Buen Provecho!