Café Rio recipes

Sweet Pork

3 lb. picnic pork roast

1 cup Salsa (any kind you want)

1 ¼ cup brown sugar

Cook in crockpot on low for 8 hours then add another ½ cup brown sugar and 1 tsp chili powder to pork. Shred the pork and cook for another hour. The pulled pork will soak up a lot of the juice, but you still want some juice to keep the pork moist. You can turn the crock pot on high for the last hour and it will cook a little faster. You will probably only need to cook it for another 30- 45 mins if you turn it on high. I use less sugar than this.

Lime Cilantro Rice
1 cup uncooked rice
1 tsp butter or margarine
2 gloves of garlic
1 tsp lime zest
1 can chicken broth
¼ cup of water

Cook rice with above ingredients. You can add all these ingredients to a rice cooker and it will cook great. If you are cooking on the stove, boil and then cover and cook for 20 mins on medium heat. Once the rice is done, add the below ingredients:
2 TBS lime juice
2 TBS sugar
3 TBS chopped cilantro

Black Beans
2 cloves of garlic (you can use minced garlic as well)
1 tsp cumin
2 TBS olive oil
1 can of black beans
1/3 cup tomato juice
½ tsp salt
2 TBS chopped fresh cilantro (add this right before serving)

Cook all the above ingredients together until beans are warm. Add the cilantro right before serving.

Tomatillo Dressing
Juice from 2 limes
1 cup sour cream
½ envelope of fiesta ranch dressing mix
1 envelope regular ranch dressing mix
1 glove garlic (or minced garlic)
6 tomatillos, husked and cut in half
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Husk tomatillos and rinse in cold water cut in half. Put the first 6 ingredients in a blender, in order. Blend until smooth then add the cilantro and blend. If you would like the dressing thicker you can add some cream cheese. Here's another variation I found for the dressing: 1 1/3 cups sour cream, 3/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 bunch of cilantro, 1 package ranch dressing mix, 4 tbsp. salsa verde (green salsa), 2 cloves of garlic, 1/8 tsp. Tabasco sauce, juice of one lime. Mix together in the blender... and that's it!

Corn Tortilla Strips
Corn tortillas
Olive oil spray

Cut tortillas into thin strips, just like Café Rio. Lightly spray with olive oil and then place on an un-greased cookie sheet. Broil on Hi turning the tortillas strips every couple of minutes. Cook until golden brown. I think it takes about 10 minutes.

Fresh Tortillas
I buy the fresh tortillas at Costco and cook them. I sprinkle grated cheese on them while they are still hot. You can also roll this up in a burrito style. If Costco doesn’t have the tortillas you can buy fresh tortillas at most any Mexican restaurant. Or you could always make your own.

Serve this all together as a salad, or rolled up as a burrito, or in tacos. This feeds a large group, so you can adjust quantities, or freeze leftover meat.