Tortilla Pie

We love Mexican food, and we like making it at home not just going out to eat it at the restaurant. While trying to figure out what to do with some country style pork ribs, we thought we'd try using it in tortilla pie. We just had tacos with Jade's special bean dip not too long ago, so we didn't want to have the same thing again. We still had some tortillas left though, so we thought this would be a great way to use them up. This recipe is based on the Tortilla Pie with Chorizo recipe on Mexican - healthy ways with a favorite cuisine by Jane Milton. We didn't have chorizos or ground pork as called for in the recipe, so we improvised a bit. Here is our version.

In a large pot, add the following ingredients:
2-3 pounds boneless country style pork ribs
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water

Simmer everything over medium heat until the pork meat is tender and very little liquid is left. About 1 to 1 1/2 hour. Drain meat from the sauce, cool and shred.

To assemble the pie you will need:
Corn Tortillas
3 cups grated Monterey Jack Cheese
1 1/4 cups light whipping cream

In a glass dish or oven safe dish, start layering the meat, cheese, cream, and tortillas until you fill the dish or run out of ingredients. This should make about 3 to 4 layers. Bake in a 400 degree oven until bubbly. Remove from the oven and during plating, top the pie with the tomatilla sauce below.

Make Tomatillo sauce. In a blender, add the following:
2 cups drained canned tomatillos
4 tablespoons water
2 fresh serrano chiles, seeded and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves
small bunch of cilantro
1/2 cup of sour cream

Process all the ingredients, except for the sour cream, until smooth. Transfer the mixture in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until it comes to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the sour cream into the sauce and adjust the taste with salt and pepper as needed. Pour this sauce over the baked tortilla pie before serving and sprinkle with more chopped cilantro.

NOTE:
I hated to throw away the cooking juices from the pork; so in the same pot, I heated the oil and a bit of the sauce left in the pan, added three cups of raw rice and pan fried it for a minute. Added a 3 cups of water to deglaze and cook the rice. Cover until all the liquid has been absorbed by the rice and it is cooked through. Mix before serving.

Also, after the pie came out of the oven, it was a bit drier than I would have liked. I think next time I may do away with the cream (too much added calories, not much added in terms of flavor - all I coult think of while eating is how much cream is absorbed in the dish!), and use the tomatilla sauce to moisten the layers instead of waiting to pour it on top. Otherwise, this dish is very flavorful.