Wednesday, October 15, 2008

"Cafe Rio" like recipes



Cafe Rio is a restaurant in Utah & Arizona (maybe other places too) that's known for good fresh food. I found these recipes online & decided to try them. I didn't have pork, so I made the meat with beef. I made some flour tortillas & served the meat in the tortilla & topped it with the cilantro rice, black beans out of the can (I just warmed them up & put a little of the cooked meat juice in them), cheese, & the creamy cilantro dressing (which is good on any salad). It was really really good. The meat was sweet with a back heat on it. I will definitely make again.

Cafe Rio Recipes
(not for sure that these came from Cafe Rio, but we made them last night and they sure taste awesome!)

Pork
3-5 lb Pork Loin or Pork Roast (I used beef)
1 ½ cans Coke (I've heard you can also use sprite)
1 c. sugar
7oz can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce –provides alot of heat (or plain adobo sauce for sweeter sauce)
1 tsp dry ground mustard (heaping)
1 tsp cumin (heaping)
1 tsp minced garlic

Place the contents of the can of chilies in a bowl and cover with soda to get as much of the adobo sauce off the chilies. Remove the chilies and throw them away, or if you want the meat to be hotter, leave one or two chilies in. Rinse can of adobo sauce with soda to get all the sauce out. Place pork in crock pot and pour sauce over it. Cook for 4-6 on high or 7-9 hours on low. Carefully turn roast over halfway through. Cook in sauce until it pulls apart and then shred. Take pork out and shred. Then put it back in the juice and stir to get all the juice back into the meat.

Rice
1 c. rice
2 c. water
3 cubes chicken bouillon
½ tsp dried onion
1 tbsp oil
1 fresh lime
1/4 bunch cilantro
Cook rice with all ingredients (except lime and cilantro) in pot or rice cooker. Squeeze fresh lime juice over rice and mix in cilantro before serving.

Creamy Cilantro Dressing (for a salad version)
1 envelope buttermilk ranch dressing
1 c. mayo
1 c. milk
½ bunch cilantro
2 tomatillos
½ serrano peppers with seeds removed

Blend in blender, let sit to thicken.

2 comments:

Laura said...

We LOVE Cafe Rio. I will have to try this one for sure.

Julie said...

I love Cafe Rio also. I have a recipe for their salad - I'll have to pass it on to you!