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| Juicy meat (not broiled), rice and beans, and yuca bursting with garlic and citrus flavor. |
I had done a little research trying to figure out what cut of meat it was, and what it was supposed to be used for. I read that a pork shoulder is best cooked over a long period of time on low heat, but it wouldn't even fit in my slow cooker. But then a light bulb went off as I came across this site. I have an Instant Pot!
First of all, that source is not really authentic, but it does pretty much follow the same guidelines as most recipes I looked at. Except, you really don't need any additional fat at all whatsoever, because pork shoulder is very fatty. More on that later.
I am not going to go into the history of each dish or how they got their names. I'm going to provide links to sites I used for instructions and describe what I did and what worked for me.
Lechon Asado: Cuban Roast Pork
I marinaded my 10 lb pork shoulder overnight in:
-1 cup sour orange juice (mine was 1/2 regular orange juice and 1/2 lime juice, because we had it on hand)
-1 head of garlic
-2 tsp salt
-1 tsp pepper
-1 heaping tsp oregano
The Three Guys From Miami recipe says to add 20 cloves of garlic, which makes me think it would have been more to my liking, but it was still very tasty.
The following day, when I was ready to cook the pork, I placed it in my 8 quart Instant Pot and set it to:
-Manual, High pressure, 150 mins (2.5 hours), natural release
Based on the Instant Pot instructions I found earlier. She suggested 120 mins for an 8 lb roast, so I added another half hour for the 10 lb roast. Otherwise it would have taken 8-10 hours on the slow cook setting. In retrospect, while the outer layers were falling off the bone, the inner parts could have used more time.
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| Most of the fat removed, in the process of removing the meat from the bone. |
So, I generally don't like working with meat on the bone, or with fat- but it adds flavor. It was a mess but worth the hassle. When it was done depressurizing, I put the roast on a cutting board and removed chunks of fat while I took the meat off the bone.
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| Pulled off the bone out of the Instant Pot. |
Afterwards, I skimmed as much liquid fat as I could out of the remaining liquid in the pot and then put the shredded meat with the liquid into my 4 quart crock pot (which it filled to the very top!) I left it to simmer while I used the Instant pot for the next part of dinner: rice and beans. Before we move onto that, I have to add that while we ate the soft, shredded pork straight from the crock pot that first night, I reheated the leftovers by broiling the meat for about 15 mins on high, flipping it mid way through. I liked it much better this way. The only things I think were missing from the pork were onions (both recipes contained them but I failed to add it) and fresh squeezed lime on top.
Moros y Cristianos: Black Beans and Rice
I have never made this before, either- it's a version of black beans and rice that uses the black water from the beans to cook the rice, giving it a dark color. I have made black beans many times before and I have to say I need to perfect this method because it was a little bland for my tastes. I followed this recipe, even though it says "Congri" which I believed to be red beans and rice- but there is a bit of controversy and confusion over the name "Moros" but I'm just sticking to what I know here.
I put the following in the Instant Pot, and turned it to the "Beans/chili" setting.
-1 lb of dry black beans
-6 cups of water
-1 Tbsp of bacon fat
I let it do its thing and depressurized after 10 mins of natural release. Next, I drained the beans in a colander over a bowl to save the liquid. Then, on the saute setting, I cooked just until softened:
-1 large onion
-1 large onion
-4-5 cloves garlic
-1 large green bell pepper
Then added the remaining ingredients, mixing them together and cooked it on the Rice setting, again releasing pressure after about 10 mins after the cooking was completed. There was just enough liquid to cook the rice and everything turned out well.
-1/2 tsp cumin
-1/2 tsp oregano
- 1/4 tsp of bay leaf powder
-2-3 cups of long grain rice (I used 3) + equal amount of liquid reserved from beans
-drained beans
I feel it lacked something, then I remembered I failed to add salt and pepper. I've also seen recipes add vinegar, tomato paste, or red bell peppers, too. I usually add Sazon Goya to my black beans, I think I'll try that next time.
Yuca con Ajo
Finally, I made some Yuca (from frozen bought) and made it exactly as this recipe suggested from the Three Cuban Guys site, which is NOT done in an Instant pot. It's the easiest recipe out of all of these, though. It is boiling yuca for about 30 minutes and cooking garlic and onion in olive oil (with salt and lemon, of course). It was so delicious. For some reason, this always comes out a thousand times better than any yuca I've ever had in a restaurant. Maybe because I love the strong flavors of garlic, salt, and citrus together. It's pretty perfect. The only things I changed were that I crushed the garlic in a press and mashed it with the salt in a bowl, and that I like cutting the onion in slices so that there are rings of it when it's cooked, instead of dicing it up. The same thing goes for the pork.
There you have it. It's a lot of work (initially) but it's doable when you don't have a Cuban restaurant handy nearby, and if you're like me you can make a HUGEMONGOUS amount of food and feast all week long. Or invite your friends and family, like we did that first night. Or freeze some for later.
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| Lechon reheated under the broiler in the oven- slightly crispy. |
Not pictured: about the fourth meal into this pork, we bought some frozen maduros (sweet plantains) from the supermarket and baked them in the oven. It caramelized them and made them slightly crisp on the outside. Yum!
