Barbacoa Beef Burrito

It's the first food post of my new blog.  I've spent the last week sick with a cold and stomach bug so I haven't eaten a real meal in awhile.  Now that I'm feeling better I was anxious for a good dinner.  I should start by saying that I rarely make a recipe as written.  Sometimes I make pretty minor changes and other times I change so much you could call it my very own.  Anytime I use someone's recipe I'll either link to the original or give credit and then talk about what I did different.  In this case, I'm using a recipe from thekitchn.com (which is a great cooking blog). 

This recipe calls for brisket... I went to the butcher and told them what I was making and they suggested I use a nice select beef roast instead... so I had them cut me a 5 pounder.  The first thing I did was slice it in half, then sear each piece on both sides in a skillet.  While it was searing, I put together the sauce.  I combined the chipotles (and sauce), onion, garlic, cloves, cilantro, salt, lime juice, and cider vinegar in the food processor.  I pulsed it until combined, added it to the crock pot and put the meat on top, then added 4 cups of beef broth.  I let it cook for 8 hours on low then shredded the meat.

Here's a little side note: I knew I was making pico de gallo and didn't buy enough limes for it, so before squeezing the juice from the limes for the barbacoa, I zested a few of them for use later in the pico.

A few hours before the meat was done I started on the pico.  I used equal parts tomato, white onion, and cilantro.  I added half of the fresh zest then some lime juice from one of those squeezer bottles.  Since I also forgot to buy jalapenos, I added a half diced red bell pepper.  For a little heat I added a few drops of Spontaneous Combustion hot sauce.  The pico was finished off with a bit of sea salt and oh my it was delicious!

Earlier in the day, I was cleaning out the garden beds - getting ready for spring planting.  I ended up pulling 10 pounds of carrots (and there's still more out there!).  As a snack while waiting for the main event, my husband suggested a carrot salsa... so here's what we came up with:

4 medium to large carrots, diced (we had 3 different colors)
4 roma tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped (could use more, but it's all I had left)
1/2 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced/minced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 to 1 teaspoon lime zest
juice from one lime (or equivalent from a squeeze bottle)
couple drops Spontaneous Combustion (or 2 jalapenos)
Salt, to taste

For the burritos: Flour tortilla, plain greek yogurt (instead of sour cream), shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, barbacoa meat, pico.  It was FABULOUS!

Changes I would make: next time I will use a little less ground clove and less broth.  I will stick with the roast instead of brisket and 5 chipotle peppers instead of 4.