Puerco Pibil

Hey everyone! A little about me to set the tone for the blog. I'm in north Texas, and I've loved cooking my entire life. I started when I was about 3, helping my great grandmother shake floured chicken in a brown paper bag for fried chicken on Sunday dinners. Both sides of my family cook the old way: delicious, and LOTS of food. I've learned a lot of the recipes that are with my family, and I've branched out to modify those existing recipes, and incorporate new ones. 

With that being said, I got this idea from Robert Rodriguez's 10 minute cooking school DVD. I've never even heard of a dish like this, so I wanted to give it a shot.

 The spices: Anatto, Cloves, Allspice, Cumin, Black Pepper. I tried to get whole spices as often as I can. It really does help the flavor when the spices are not already pulverized to a dust.

SSSSSPICY

 I got a coffee grinder for the spices. I could have used a mortar and pestle for the job, but I figured why not let technology work for me. 

After the spices were ground into a fine dust, came the most important ingredient....

It's for the dish. I swear!

Then came 1/2 cup of orange juice, 1/2 cup of white vinegar, 2 habanero peppers, 2 tsp salt, 8 cloves of garlic in a blender. Once I added the ground spices, I added the juice of 5 medium lemons. The last thing I added was the Tequila, 1 shot. Or maybe 2 shots, things got a little blurry....

Once this was complete, then it was time to cut up the 5 lbs of pork butt. 

Nice butt you got there!

Once it was cut into 2 inch squares, it went into a zip top baggie and marinated in the fridge for 20 hours. It can be as little as 4 from what I've heard. I just made this the night before and left it to mingle for several hours. 

The next day came the banana leaves. I accidentally got 2 packs from the frozen food section of a local oriental market, and soon learned my folly....

Hoooolllyyyy.....

So yeah, one pack is all you need for this dish. I cut off about 1/3 of the leaves. They smelled a bit musky, very much like cold black tea.

 I set the oven to 325, wrapped the entire package tightly in foil, put the dish in the oven and went about my business.

4 hours later, deliciousness.

The pork was pretty tender, it had a very unique flavor to it. If you've ever had adovada it's pretty close to that taste. I'll keep the seeds of the habaneros next time. It was a tiny bit spicy, I guess I got wimpy habaneros from the store. This was fun, tasty, and could feed a huge family! With the pork and 8 cloves of garlic, I don't think I have to worry about Jewish vampires bothering me anytime soon.

5 tbs Anatto seed

2 tsp Cumin seed

1 tbs Pepper (black)

8 Allspice seeds

1/2 tsp Clove

Powder the spices in a coffee grinder (for spices only, you don't want cumin and pepper in your coffee) or with a mortar and pestle.

2 chopped Habanero peppers (with or without seeds, your choice)

1/2 cup Orange Juice

1/2 cup White Vinegar

2 tbps Salt

8 cloves of Garlic

1 shot of Tequila

Blend all of the above in your trusty blender with the pulverized spices. Add the juice of 5 medium lemons.

Cut 5 lbs of Pork Butt into 2 inch squares. If you want more flavor, cut them a little smaller, less than 1 inch is not recommended though. Put pork in a zip baggie (1 gallon), add the blended spices. Toss, marinate 4 hours minimum. You can get away with less time, but it will be less flavorful.

Line pan (9X13 at least, bigger is better on this) with foil, banana leaves. Put the marinated Pork into the pan, cover with leaves and tightly wrap with foil. Bake 325 for 3.5-4 hours. Once this time has elapsed, remove and allow the dish to rest for 20-30 minutes. That's a lot of butt, you want it to cool down and reabsorb some moisture! Enjoy!