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My deep, abiding love for cooking in and cleaning my cast iron skillet is no secret. I’m a bit old-fashioned when it comes to maintaining a super-slick, no-stick finish on my pan: I clean it with oil and salt, rinse with water, heat it to dry, and slick it with a little oil before storing. Sure, it sounds like a lot of steps, but the whole process takes about three minutes and I enjoy every second of it. So I was incredibly skeptical of a product that promised to make this task easier and faster. When Sir Scrubbington arrived in the mail, I set out to test it against my favorite method for speed and reliability.

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The next time you’re packing for a trip, pull out your travel toiletry bottles, your favorite jeans, and your plastic wrap. That’s right — plastic wrap. Plastic wrap, it turns out, is incredibly helpful when it comes to keeping order in your suitcase. Here are three smart ways you should use it.

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It’s hard to get motivated to clean the kitchen. There’s Netflix to be watched, and Instagram to be checked, and honestly has anyone ever felt truly inspired to scrub the floor? The problem is, if you procrastinate too much on the cleaning, it turns into a really big chore that can take hours to accomplish. So the key is to figure out a happy medium — the least amount of time you can spend on cleaning to be effective and not get burned out either.

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Carnitas are usually made from pork that’s slow-cooked in lard until the meat melts down into tender little morsels. Those little morsels are then fried until crispy around the edges. Pork carnitas is delicious, there’s no doubt about it. This version of carnitas is delicious too, although quite different from the classic recipe.

Instead of pork, lamb is subbed in. Lamb carnitas can be served in Primal tortillas or heaped in a bowl with cilantro, shredded cabbage, avocado, sour cream, and hot sauce. This is a flavorful departure from traditional lamb dishes and provides a delicious new way to ingest all the amazing nutrients lamb has to offer, like 8 essential amino acids, several B vitamins, niacin, zinc, iron and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

Instead of lard, the lamb shoulder is simply braised in water that’s flavored with orange, garlic, onion, cinnamon, cumin, and coriander. When the meat is tender, fry it up quickly in a skillet, and lamb carnitas is served.

Servings: 6

Time in the Kitchen: 2 to 3 hours to braise, plus 30 minutes hands-on cooking

Ingredients

• 2 to 3 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes (900g to 1.5 kg)
• 6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• Juice and zest from 1 small orange (use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to remove strips of orange peel, avoiding the white pith)
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander (10 ml)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (5 ml)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt (7.5 ml)
• Lard, tallow or coconut oil for frying

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300º F/150º C.

Place the chunks of lamb in a Dutch oven or wide ovenproof skillet with a lid.

Add enough water to cover the meat by 1 or 2 inches (25mm to 50 mm). Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Use a ladle or spoon to skim off the white that rises to the surface.

Add garlic, onion, orange juice and zest, coriander, cumin, cinnamon stick and salt.

Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 2 to 3 hours, until the meat is soft and tender. Check occasionally, turning the meat and adding more hot water if needed to keep the meat just barely covered with water.

When the meat is tender, remove it from the pot. Shred or slice the meat into tiny pieces. Taste the lamb, and season with salt if needed.

Heat a wide skillet over high heat with a tablespoon or two of lard, tallow or coconut oil, so there’s a very thin layer of oil in the skillet. In batches, add lamb to the skillet, frying just until crispy around the edges.

Lamb carnitas can be served with wedges of lime, cilantro, shredded cabbage, avocado, sour cream and hot sauce. Serve in a bowl, or, with tortillas – sneak in a corn tortilla, make Primal tortillas, or make cassava flour tortillas.

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