This Must Go On Your Dinner Table

You can blame Aaron Sanchez for the obsession.   I had a rare moment a few weeks ago where I actually sat down and turned on Food TV.  I don’t watch it much anymore, because there isn’t as much real cooking as there used to be, but I turned it on, and what was on was the holiday version of “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”.  Chefs were sharing their favorite dishes for the holidays- many sounded tempting, but nothing like what Aaron shared as his must-have dish. His choice was Pernil- a slow roasted, highly seasoned pork shoulder, tender and juicy on the inside, crispy and delightful on the outside.  The way he spoke about this roast, I just knew that somewhere down the road, I’d be making this beautiful pork shoulder.

Fast forward a few days, and we were trying to decide what to make for our family Christmas Eve gathering.  Everyone kind of agreed we wanted something simple, but we could not all come up with an idea for something that sounded easy enough to not spend the day slaving away in the kitchen- yet be celebratory to be worthy of our Christmas celebration.  A few ideas were tossed about, but we were all stumped.  Even I was having a tough time coming up with this crowd pleasing idea.  And then as if an angel appeared before me, I saw Aaron Sanchez in my head, rolling his eyes back into his head as he took a bite of this Pernil, and our Christmas Feast was decided.

But then a few days after that, after a very busy couple of weekends with the Nutcracker, I opened up my inbox late on a Sunday to find an e-mail from the newspaper- sure, it was last minute, but could I come up with something to put in the paper?  Of course I could, but I was racking my brain trying to come up with something that would be Christmas worthy.   I asked Andy if I’d made anything spectacular in recent memory that he thought would work and he casually asked about Christmas dinner.   Hmmm… well, I needed to work out a recipe yet anyway, so I hunted down a few variations of Pernil, bought a pork shoulder, and decided that if it was good enough to be our Christmas dinner, it was good enough for the paper.

The best part about this roast is that it is so, so, so much more than good enough.   Seriously, my blog-friends, if you make this roast, it will be one of THE best things you’ve ever eaten.  And I don’t say that lightly.   This roast had our mouths watering before it even hit the oven.  It begins with a paste.  A simple paste made of garlic, oregano, salt, cumin, pepper, cider vinegar and olive oil.  Blended together and then rubbed into every nook and cranny on the roast.  Oh- and that roast?  Do get the pork shoulder roast.  It’s a fabulous cut- the perfect marriage of plenty of meat and layers of fat to melt and tenderize the roast throughout.  After the paste is smeared on the roast, it goes into the oven for hours at 300ºF.  Friends, this roast cooks itself!  I had to add water to the roasting pan every hour or so, but it just cooked away all day long while we did other things!  At the last minute, I decided to whip up a black bean and rice dish to go with, because Cuban pork just screams beans and rice.   And that was good too- but this pork.  Oh, this pork!

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows that we’re just not big leftover people.   Well, we made this roast on Tuesday and had it for dinner (along with sharing some).  Then Andy and I had it for both lunch and dinner on Wednesday. I used some of it on Thursday, and again Saturday and Sunday before we’d consumed the whole thing.  It was that good that we ate it every day- and still wanted more.  My mouth is watering just thinking about making it again in just a few days!

So without further ado, here is my recipe for Pernil.  Buy the biggest pork shoulder you can- I expect a 10 pound roast will feed about 16 adults very comfortably, but your mileage may vary depending on what you serve with the pork.

Cuban Style Slow-Roasted Pork

Serving Size  : 16

1 10 pound  pork shoulder
4 cloves  garlic — or more to taste (I used 6)
1 onion — quartered
1 Tablespoon  dried oregano (I ended up using 2 TBS of Mexican Oregano)
1 Tablespoon  ground cumin
1 teaspoon  chili powder
1 Tablespoon  salt
1 teaspoon  ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons  apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup  olive oil — or as needed
3/4 cup  water — plus more as needed

Preheat oven to 300ºF.

Score the meat with a sharp knife all over the roast- especially where there is a layer of fat on the pork shoulder- make a 2-inch diamond pattern on the surface of the pork.

Pulse garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, chili, salt and pepper together in a food processor or blender, adding oil in a drizzle and scraping down sides as necessary, until mixture is pasty- you may not need all the oil. (Alternatively, mash ingredients in a mortar and pestle.) Blend in the vinegar.

Rub this mixture well into the pork, getting it into every nook and cranny. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty, just get them in there and massage the paste into the pork. Place the pork in a roasting pan and pour the water in the bottom of the pan

Roast pork for several hours (a 4-pound shoulder may be done in 3 hours, a 10-pound roast could take as long as 6 or 7 hours), turning every hour or so and adding more water as necessary-to keep the juices from burning in the bottom of the pan, until meat is fall-apart tender. (On average, add about 3/4 cup of water every hour to the bottom of the pan.) Finish roasting with the skin side up until crisp, raising heat at end of cooking if necessary.

Let meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting it up.  The meat should be so tender that slicing it really doesn’t work so well.  Instead, just pull it apart into chunks and serve.