Cochinita Pibil
Here is a wonderful stew from Yucatan, Mexico. This stew is guaranteed to satisfy even the most demanding of stew lovers. The sweet and sour gravy with the tender pork is truly one of Mexico’s finest stew achievements.
Ingredients
- 900 gr of pork.
- 100 gr achiote.
- 1 kg bitter or sweet oranges
- 1 cup white vinegar (only if sweet oranges are to be used).
- 1 table spoon white pepper
- ½ table spoon black pepper
- 5 black pepper corns whole
- 1 tea spoon oregano
- 1 tea spoon ground cummin
- 1 tea spoon cinnamon
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 chiles habaneros
- 1 table spoon unrefined pork fat
- 2 purple onions
- 6 or 7 small green lemons
- 1 roll of bannana leaves
Preparation
Set out to make this stew early, because it takes a fairly long time to get everything done in the right order.
First juice all the oranges and add the juice to the blender, add the achiote, the vinegar (if sweet oranges are being used), and the spices (white and black pepper, the pepper corns, oregano, cinnamon). Also add the minced garlic, two habaneros (keep one for later). Remember to remove the veins and seed from the habaneros, because they are hot!
Blend everything together, and make extra sure that the achiote has blended in to the mix. Put the pork, cut in to bite sized pieces in a bowl and add the blended mix to let it marinate. This should probably be done over night, or a good 5 hours before doing the next step.
After you’re done marinating extract the pork meat and set it on a pan with the pork fat to seal. Add one chopped up onion (save the other onion for later) when you’re almost done.
Next put the banana leaves over a kitchen flame and make it turn a darker shade of green, this is done to give the leaf more strength and flexibility. You could just as well dip them for 30 seconds in boiling water.
The next step involves a large oven-safe bowl (Pyrex, metal or ceramic). Prepare the banana leaves so they cradle the pork and sauce when you pour it over them, finally cover the top with more leaves and put in the oven at 250ºC for 45 minutes to an hour.
To make the garnish, chop up the remaining habanero as fine as you can and mix it with the other chopped up onion in a small bowl and top it with lemon juice. This sauce is intended to go on top of the stew when it is served. This recipe serves four hungry stewfiles.