Down & Dirty Pernil Asada

Going through my pork loin recipes, I found an old one for Orange Pork that I’d clipped from a Gourmet magazine many years ago, but had never gotten around to. As I read the ingredients I realized it was our old Cuban friend, Pernil, under a different guise. A simple version, in fact.

I had to make some adjustments to ingredients and cooking times. But the end result was fabulous. Here’s the recipe as I prepared the loin:

ORANGE PORK

Tie a 3-4 lb pork loin crosswise at one-inch intervals with kitchen string. With a sharp knife make small slits over the surface.

In a mortar crush 8 garlic cloves with 1 tablespoon coarse salt and two teaspoons each of oregano and ground cumin, and rub the pork with the mixture. Transfer the pork to a large plastic bag, along with a small onion, minced, and add 1 ½ cups orange juice acidulated with the juice of one large or two small limes.* Let the pork marinate in the fridge, turning and massaging it occasionally, for at least 24 hours.

Transfer the loin to a rack set in a roasting pan, reserving the marinade, and roast it in a preheated 400F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325F and roast the pork, basting frequently with the reserved marinade, until a meat thermometer registers 150-155l which can take up to 3 ½ hours.

Remove the string, and let roast ten minutes or so. Slice and serve.

*While researching my recent Cuban themed dinner http://www.foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/comidas-criolas_topic4215.html?SID=1987170a8e42a8e46914891dd3eae637962963, I can across numerous ratios of lime juice to orange juice; one was actually 1:1, which might as well be lime juice. This combination---roghly one tablespoon lime juice per cup of orange--- comes as close to the taste of Seville orange juice as I’ve come. Of course, if you can find naranja agria to begin with, that would be even better.

Very similar, Dave. I believe Ron's was a bit more complex to put together, iirc. But the flavor profile is probably exactly the same.

Sour orange, garlic, oregano, and cumin just add up to Cuban.

Glad it evoked something for you, Murray.

We do a themed meal about once a month, based on a country or ethnicity, which I post here. The latest was Cuba, which can be found at http://www.foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/comidas-criolas_topic4215.html. I'd be glad to hear what you think.

I've read that book, btw. Didn't care for it all that much. He was an unhappy child, whose bitterness and angst he blames on everything else. Seems to me he'd have grown up pretty much the same even if the separation had not happened.

My favorite is Memories Of A Cuban Kitchen. Essentially a memoir with recipes, it tells the same story (i.e., growing up in Cuba in an upper-class family, pre-Castro) but from a much happier point of view. Basically, there's much more joy in the food, IMO.