WarDamnEagle
SILVER Star
For some reason the Carnitas recipe inspired me to try to make Puerco Pibil. I found two good recipes (more or less taken from the cooking instructions which are on the DVD after the end of the movie). Here are the recipes that I found verbatum:
Puerco Pibil Recipe 1
If you've seen the film "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," you may have wondered how "puerco pibil" tastes. It's the dish Johnny Depp's character orders again and again until he finds the perfect version. Depp explains to Antonio Banderas' character: "It is a slow-roasted pork. Nothing fancy, just happens to be my favorite, and I order it at every dive I go to in this country, and honestly, this is the best it's ever been. ... It is so good that when I'm finished with it, I'll pay my check, walk straight into the kitchen and shoot the cook. Because that's what I do. I restore the balance to this country."
In the DVD, director Robert Rodriguez includes a lesson on cooking puerco pibil, so when my son had to bring a dish to his Spanish class, we decided to try it. "Pibil" refers to the Maya method of steaming meats in a pit, a "pib" in the Maya language. Many Mexican and Latin American cookbooks have recipes for it that call for making a seasoning paste ("recado") from annatto seeds, lots of other ground spices and citrus juice.
Rodriguez's cooking lesson is a little vague on procedure. He says grinding the many spices yourself is essential, but doesn't say anything about marinating the meat - a necessary step in all the other puerco pibil recipes I found. On our first try, following Rodriguez's recipe exactly, the meat simmered rather than steamed in the oven packet and as a result was a bit tough, though incredibly flavorful.
We watched the lesson again, saw that when Rodriguez opens his roasted packet there is no visible liquid, and determined that we needed to marinate. Adding this step meant the meat absorbed a lot of the liquid before going into the oven.
If you want to have a Johnny Depp puerco pibil party (and who doesn't!), here is my adaptation of the director's recipe, with a nod to Diana Kennedy's "The Essential Cuisines of Mexico" (HarperCollins, 1972).
We used an electric coffee grinder for the spices, but be aware it won't be suitable for coffee again. Another note: Leave the fat on the meat while it is roasting. We pulled it all off the first time, and the meat came out dry. Better to leave it on during the cooking and remove before serving.
Puerco Pibil a la Robert Rodriguez
5 Tbsps. annatto (achiote)
seeds
2 tsps. cumin seeds
1 Tbsp. peppercorns
8 allspice berries
½ tsp. whole cloves
2 habanero chiles
½ cup orange juice
½ cup white vinegar
2 Tbsps. salt
8 cloves of garlic
Juice of 5 lemons
Splash of tequila
5 pounds pork butt
Banana leaves or heavy-duty
aluminum foil
White or Spanish rice or
taco shells for serving
Place the annatto, cumin, peppercorns, allspice and cloves in a spice grinder and process to a fine powder.
Carefully remove the seeds and veins from the chiles and chop coarsely. (Habaneros are very hot; even breathing the fumes may make you cough. Removing the veins and seeds ensures the dish is fiery but not painfully hot. You can also substitute a milder chile.)
Process the orange juice, vinegar, chiles, salt and garlic in a blender or food processor until liquefied. Add the lemon juice and tequila.
Cut the pork into 2-inch chunks. Place in a large, self-sealing plastic bag with the marinade. Seal bag and turn to evenly coat the meat. Refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours, turning occasionally.
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Remove the meat from the marinade and wrap tightly in banana leaves or foil so no steam can escape. Place packet in roasting pan and roast four hours. Open packet carefully; the meat should shred easily with a fork. Serve with rice or shred, moisten with pan juices and use as taco filling. Makes 15 servings.
Per serving: 240 calories (35 percent from fat), 9.3 g fat (2.9 g saturated, 3.8 g monounsaturated), 92.2 mg cholesterol, 33.1 g protein, 5.2 g carbohydrates, 0.7 g fiber, 1,037 mg sodium.
Puerco Pibil Recipe 2
In the third installment of the El Mariachi trilogy, Once Upon a Time In Mexico, Johnny Depp's character orders a pork dish, puerco pibil, in every restaurant he visits. Director Robert Rodriguez included a rough version of the recipe on the DVD. I have written it down and made a few modifications.
Puerco Pibil
Marinade
5 T annato seeds (I couldn't find annato, so I used a 3.5 oz box of Achiote Red Paste by El Yucateco)
2 t cumin seeds
1 T ground pepper
8 allspice
1/2 t cloves
2 T salt
1/2 c orange juice
1/2 c white vinegar
2 habanero peppers, seeded and deveined
8 cloves of garlic
juice of 5 lemons (about 3/4 - 1 c)
a splash of good tequila
I place all the above ingredients in my blender whole and just run it until smooth. Spices can be ground first, but this seems to work well with minimal effort.
Five pounds of pork butt (without the bone), cut into 2" cubes. (Your butcher will do this for you if you ask nicely.)
Pour the marinade over the pork and let sit for an hour or two.
As for cooking, there are a couple of methods. The video called for wrapping the pork in banana leaves and roasting in the oven. I tried it and although it added a little flavor, not enough to deal with the hassle of cleanup afterward. For me, I'll either place in a large covered pot/dutch oven, or I'll drop the whole shebang in my crock pot. If you do it in the oven, set it for 325 for about four hours. Crock pot, I use high for an hour or so, low for five to six hours. When done, the meat will fall apart completely, and can be shredded with minimal effort. Serve with tortillas, rice, maybe some black beans or pintos.
Enjoy!
Comment:
try doubling the banana leaves used, doubling the volume of tequila, and marinading it over night (at least). Makes a huge difference in terms of richness and flavor.
If you are brave, try slow cooking it in the oven at 175(f) for 9-12 hours.
I have cooked this 4 times now and it seems to get better every time. I marinate the mixture in a ziplock overnight and then cook the entire mixture slowly in a heavy magnalite pot with a tight fitting lid for about 9 hours. I have not tried cooking it in banana leaves. We have an Aga oven and I use the top left which stays at about 200 F. I think at this temperature you could leave it in the oven anywhere from 6 to 12 hours and it wouldn't make too much difference, as long as you use something with a heavy, tight fitting lid so that the marinade doesn't evaporate.
After 5 or 6 hours I remove the meat (difficult as it's falling apart at this point) and discard any remaining visible fat (more or less). I then pour the juices through a grease separator removing the grease from the liquid. The remaining liquids then go back into the pot with the meat and I let it finish cooking.
Instead of taco shells, we have been serving it with flour tortillas. We have also had sides prepared more or less as if we were having fajitas (refried beans, sour cream, salsa, lettuce, cheese, etc.).
What I like about this dish is it's simplicity. Get a pork shoulder (cheap), chop it into 2 or 3 inch cubes (or just slice it crosswise every 2 inches or so), mix up the marinade, put the meat and the marinade in a ziplock and store in the fridge overnight. Next morning dump the whole shebang into a pot with the oven on about 200 and forget about it. I think the optional degreasing step can be done anytime before serving or skipped altogether.
I have a batch in the oven right now and will take a photo to post before serving it this evening.
Puerco Pibil Recipe 1
If you've seen the film "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," you may have wondered how "puerco pibil" tastes. It's the dish Johnny Depp's character orders again and again until he finds the perfect version. Depp explains to Antonio Banderas' character: "It is a slow-roasted pork. Nothing fancy, just happens to be my favorite, and I order it at every dive I go to in this country, and honestly, this is the best it's ever been. ... It is so good that when I'm finished with it, I'll pay my check, walk straight into the kitchen and shoot the cook. Because that's what I do. I restore the balance to this country."
In the DVD, director Robert Rodriguez includes a lesson on cooking puerco pibil, so when my son had to bring a dish to his Spanish class, we decided to try it. "Pibil" refers to the Maya method of steaming meats in a pit, a "pib" in the Maya language. Many Mexican and Latin American cookbooks have recipes for it that call for making a seasoning paste ("recado") from annatto seeds, lots of other ground spices and citrus juice.
Rodriguez's cooking lesson is a little vague on procedure. He says grinding the many spices yourself is essential, but doesn't say anything about marinating the meat - a necessary step in all the other puerco pibil recipes I found. On our first try, following Rodriguez's recipe exactly, the meat simmered rather than steamed in the oven packet and as a result was a bit tough, though incredibly flavorful.
We watched the lesson again, saw that when Rodriguez opens his roasted packet there is no visible liquid, and determined that we needed to marinate. Adding this step meant the meat absorbed a lot of the liquid before going into the oven.
If you want to have a Johnny Depp puerco pibil party (and who doesn't!), here is my adaptation of the director's recipe, with a nod to Diana Kennedy's "The Essential Cuisines of Mexico" (HarperCollins, 1972).
We used an electric coffee grinder for the spices, but be aware it won't be suitable for coffee again. Another note: Leave the fat on the meat while it is roasting. We pulled it all off the first time, and the meat came out dry. Better to leave it on during the cooking and remove before serving.
Puerco Pibil a la Robert Rodriguez
5 Tbsps. annatto (achiote)
seeds
2 tsps. cumin seeds
1 Tbsp. peppercorns
8 allspice berries
½ tsp. whole cloves
2 habanero chiles
½ cup orange juice
½ cup white vinegar
2 Tbsps. salt
8 cloves of garlic
Juice of 5 lemons
Splash of tequila
5 pounds pork butt
Banana leaves or heavy-duty
aluminum foil
White or Spanish rice or
taco shells for serving
Place the annatto, cumin, peppercorns, allspice and cloves in a spice grinder and process to a fine powder.
Carefully remove the seeds and veins from the chiles and chop coarsely. (Habaneros are very hot; even breathing the fumes may make you cough. Removing the veins and seeds ensures the dish is fiery but not painfully hot. You can also substitute a milder chile.)
Process the orange juice, vinegar, chiles, salt and garlic in a blender or food processor until liquefied. Add the lemon juice and tequila.
Cut the pork into 2-inch chunks. Place in a large, self-sealing plastic bag with the marinade. Seal bag and turn to evenly coat the meat. Refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours, turning occasionally.
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Remove the meat from the marinade and wrap tightly in banana leaves or foil so no steam can escape. Place packet in roasting pan and roast four hours. Open packet carefully; the meat should shred easily with a fork. Serve with rice or shred, moisten with pan juices and use as taco filling. Makes 15 servings.
Per serving: 240 calories (35 percent from fat), 9.3 g fat (2.9 g saturated, 3.8 g monounsaturated), 92.2 mg cholesterol, 33.1 g protein, 5.2 g carbohydrates, 0.7 g fiber, 1,037 mg sodium.
Puerco Pibil Recipe 2
In the third installment of the El Mariachi trilogy, Once Upon a Time In Mexico, Johnny Depp's character orders a pork dish, puerco pibil, in every restaurant he visits. Director Robert Rodriguez included a rough version of the recipe on the DVD. I have written it down and made a few modifications.
Puerco Pibil
Marinade
5 T annato seeds (I couldn't find annato, so I used a 3.5 oz box of Achiote Red Paste by El Yucateco)
2 t cumin seeds
1 T ground pepper
8 allspice
1/2 t cloves
2 T salt
1/2 c orange juice
1/2 c white vinegar
2 habanero peppers, seeded and deveined
8 cloves of garlic
juice of 5 lemons (about 3/4 - 1 c)
a splash of good tequila
I place all the above ingredients in my blender whole and just run it until smooth. Spices can be ground first, but this seems to work well with minimal effort.
Five pounds of pork butt (without the bone), cut into 2" cubes. (Your butcher will do this for you if you ask nicely.)
Pour the marinade over the pork and let sit for an hour or two.
As for cooking, there are a couple of methods. The video called for wrapping the pork in banana leaves and roasting in the oven. I tried it and although it added a little flavor, not enough to deal with the hassle of cleanup afterward. For me, I'll either place in a large covered pot/dutch oven, or I'll drop the whole shebang in my crock pot. If you do it in the oven, set it for 325 for about four hours. Crock pot, I use high for an hour or so, low for five to six hours. When done, the meat will fall apart completely, and can be shredded with minimal effort. Serve with tortillas, rice, maybe some black beans or pintos.
Enjoy!
Comment:
try doubling the banana leaves used, doubling the volume of tequila, and marinading it over night (at least). Makes a huge difference in terms of richness and flavor.
If you are brave, try slow cooking it in the oven at 175(f) for 9-12 hours.
I have cooked this 4 times now and it seems to get better every time. I marinate the mixture in a ziplock overnight and then cook the entire mixture slowly in a heavy magnalite pot with a tight fitting lid for about 9 hours. I have not tried cooking it in banana leaves. We have an Aga oven and I use the top left which stays at about 200 F. I think at this temperature you could leave it in the oven anywhere from 6 to 12 hours and it wouldn't make too much difference, as long as you use something with a heavy, tight fitting lid so that the marinade doesn't evaporate.
After 5 or 6 hours I remove the meat (difficult as it's falling apart at this point) and discard any remaining visible fat (more or less). I then pour the juices through a grease separator removing the grease from the liquid. The remaining liquids then go back into the pot with the meat and I let it finish cooking.
Instead of taco shells, we have been serving it with flour tortillas. We have also had sides prepared more or less as if we were having fajitas (refried beans, sour cream, salsa, lettuce, cheese, etc.).
What I like about this dish is it's simplicity. Get a pork shoulder (cheap), chop it into 2 or 3 inch cubes (or just slice it crosswise every 2 inches or so), mix up the marinade, put the meat and the marinade in a ziplock and store in the fridge overnight. Next morning dump the whole shebang into a pot with the oven on about 200 and forget about it. I think the optional degreasing step can be done anytime before serving or skipped altogether.
I have a batch in the oven right now and will take a photo to post before serving it this evening.
