This is my Mom's recipe for Cuban Style roast pork, which over time I have tweaked to take advantange of more modern seasonings. The secret here is the long (36 hours preferred) marinade time, so you cant rush it!
Ingredients:
- One third cup orange juice
- One sixth cup lime or lemon juice
- One sixth cup olive oil
- One fourth cup vinegar
- 8 cloves garlic, minced/chopped fine
- One teaspoon salt
- Worcestershire sauce
- Two teaspoons basil
- One teaspoon black pepper
- Oregano to sprinkle over pork
- Cumin to sprinkle over pork
- One quarter chopped onion
- One 10 lb pork shoulder with rind -do not cut this off!
Marinade:
- Bring together all the liquids (orange and lemon/lime juice, vinegar and olive oil) in a small saucepan.
- Add one half of the chopped garlic, pepper, salt, basil and all the chopped onion.
- Add Worcestershire sauce until the sauce becomes a light brown -almost hazel- color. Usually, three/four tablespoons does it.
- Bring the marinade to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes until the onions are soft.
- Set aside and let cool
- Unwrap the pork and rinse quickly under running cold water
- Place port with fat (rind) side up and with a good knife, make 1.5" wide cuts in the rind (top only) until you just get to the meat underneath. Do not cut further into the meat.
- Place the pork in a strong plastic bag (I use two plastic cooking bags) and pour the marinade over it. Seal the bags well and place in the fridge for 36 hours, turning every four to six hours so the marinade can work its magic.
Cooking:
- Remove pork from marinade bag. Dispose of all the marinade except for one-quarter cup
- Place the pork in the roasting pan.
- Take the other half of the chopped garlic you did not use in the marinade and rub it all over the pork into every nook and crannies you can find, including the cuts you made in the pork rind.
- Liberally sprinkle Oregano and Cumin over the pork, including rind and exposed meat areas.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Yes, I know most pork recipes call for 350 but that is too hot for our Cuban style pork.....350 will burn the rind....
- When oven in ready, place pork in oven uncovered. Plan on 45 minutes roasting time per pound.
- Halfway through the roasting time, pour the unused, reserved marinade over the pork and re-season with a sprinkle of Cumin and Oregano.
If you want to get really 'native Cuban', serve this pork with white rice and black beans -but that's another recipe altogether!
Purple Cow Tempranillo is the wine of choice for this robust, hearty, flavorful meat.
Thanks for your visit, enjoy and come back soon!
Jose I 'Galo' Galíndez
Purple Cow Vineyards
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