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the avra valley dispatch: October 25 2004 -- Recipe Time! Puerco de Pibil
As mentioned previously in the dispatch, the BBQ rib lunch special at Jimmy's Diner on Valencia made me hop off the veggiefishatarian bandwagon with gleeful abandon.
To fully celebrate, I went to Food City on Friday and purchased a hunk of meat to prepare for a small Sunday soiree. The recipe called for "pork butt" and when I asked the friendly young butcher for pork butt he grinned, "I have pork shoulder butt!" I think he was kidding, but I still have some earnest humourlessness left over from the veggiefishatarian days and I believed him. I went home happily with my pork shoulder butt.
During dinner on Sunday, then, one of my friends gave me pause when I was describing the preparation of the Puerco: "...the butt or the shoulder?"
"Uhh...the shoulder...butt. The..end..of the shoulder??"
[Light comes on in her haid, or the wine -- synaptical lubricant -- sets in; either way Molly now realizes she was the butt of the butcher's folly. Har, har.]
In any case, the recipe I prepared was Puerco de Pibil, which was the Johnny Depp character's favourite dish in Robert Rodriguez' "Once Upon a Time in Mexico."
It feeds 10, if the hostess and her boyfriend go light on their servings; 8 if everyone pigs out, which they will want to do as it is so tasty.
Puerco de Pibil
5 pounds pork butt (or shoulder...)
5 T annato seed (sometimes called achiote)
2 tsp cumin seed
1 T ground pepper
8 whole allspice
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 cup freshly squeezed oranges (two navel oranges, approximately)
1/2 cup white vinegar
3 or 4 key limes
2 habanero peppers
2 T salt 8 garlic cloves, minced (or 2 T pre-minced garlic, like the Christopher Ranch in a jar sort)
splash of tequila (I used Zaffarancho Silver)
banana leaves for lining the pot (this is what's called for in Rodriguez' little special feature on the DVD of the film; I used corn husks)
Trim and cube the pork and put the pieces in a gallon sized Ziplockie bag. Grind the whole spices in a coffee grinder, and sift the pepper in with them. Finely chop the habanero peppers -- carefully remove the seeds and stems. You may want to wear latex gloves to do this; habaneros are quite volatile.
Over a medium sized glass bowl, juice the oranges and limes; add the vinegar and garlic. Swirl it all together, then add the ground spices and the habaneros. Mix everything smoothly, then add a splash of tequila. I tipped the bottle over the bowl and counted to two.
Pour the mix over the pork cubes in the Ziplockie and close it up tight. Give it a little shake and get the marinade all worked in. Meanwhile, line a small roasting pan -- I used a 1 gallon cast iron lidded crock -- with aluminum foil, and then the corn husks (I soak mine first). This will keep all the flavours and steam in; it also makes clean up easier.
Transfer the marinaded pork cubes
to the pot, and cover the top with corn husks, seal it with aluminum
foil, and pop the lid on the pot. Cook in a 325 degree oven for about
four and a half hours. Serve over rice (3 cups dry calrose rice plus
6 cups liquid came to more than enough) -- I'm going to make coconut
rice next time!
To accompany this, I made a huge
green salad with quickie vinaigrette (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dried
basil, thyme, and parsley; and S and P) and grilled a variety of sweet
and hot peppers that had been marinading in orange juice, olive oil, and
balsamic vinegar.
Serves 8 - 10 adults; moderately spicy.
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