Mom Says Just One Bite!: Cuban Night: Pernil, Moros y Christianos and Ensalada de Aquacate y Piña

I love ethnic food, but admittedly I am not very good at cooking ethnic food aside from maybe Italian and Mexican...although I suppose that a lot of the Italian and Mexican dishes I make aren't really very authentic! I guess it would just be safer to say that I have a pretty big lack of experience with foreign cuisine. Once in high school I did have to make an instructional cooking video as part of a group project for Spanish class. We chose Gazpacho and the end result turned out as bad as my Spanish was because my friend ended up spitting the cold soup out on film. I'd pretty much consider that a big FAIL!! So, I was very excited to try the Cuban dish that Brenna helped select from the white Rachel Ray binder of recipes in order to redeem myeslf...it's been a long time coming.

I've never eaten Cuban food to my knowledge. We were in Miami once for a few hours waiting for a flight home from a cruise we took. After 7 days of crazy lavish dishes, my husband and I really just wanted something simple so we settled for a hamburger. Sad, I know. I'm sure they have some fabulous Cuban restaurants in Miami! It's a shame we wasted the experience on something so American as a hamburger!! I'm sure there will be other times though. Last year my husband earned a paid vacation to Las Vegas for receiving his LOMA insurance designation. His employer paid for our stay at the Mirage as well as a dinner one night at their Brazilian Steakhouse called Samba. The waiters walk around with huge slabs of different meats and poultry on huge skewers and then slice them off as you request them. They kept bringing out all kinds of tasty chicken, pork, beef and I'm pretty sure lamb. I was so full at the end of the meal because I really wanted to try a little bit of everything, but they just kept bringing out new ones! For the record I did not get a chance to try everything! I was amazed at the variety and everything was wonderful...truly a flavor buffet! I would definitely go back...or at least try to find a Brazilian steakhouse a little closer to me than Nevada.

The dish I made was called Pernil and is basically a roasted pork dish that is marinated for up to 3 days in a oregano, garlic and vinegar based marinade. I have to say I was a bit hesitant because of the amount of oregano used in the marinade. I'm not a huge fan of oregano...or at least I wasn't before I made this dish anyway! The end results were so delicious I can't even put into words...the taste reminded me a lot of the lamb meat you get in gyros. It was a pretty big cut of pork so I have been eating leftover Cuban food for the past week...don't think I am complaining about this though. I mixed the chopped up Pernil with the bean/rice side dish I made and topped it with some chopped red onion and a diced avocado. I also have plans tonight to turn the leftovers into another Cuban dish from The Binder and possibly a taco filling if the meat is still good on Sunday.

I knew I wanted some type of bean and rice dish and also a salad, but wasn't initially sure what exactly to serve as side dishes due to my lack of Cuban cuisine knowledge. I turned my search to the internet and stumbled across http://icuban.com/food/index.html . The trio calls themselves "3 guys from Miami "...very clever saying as how they are in fact 3 guys from Miami! Maybe I should call myself "1 Moml from Ohio", but I guess that doesn't have as nice of a ring to it. Their dishes looked really tasty and they have apparently appeared on a Food Network show with Tyler Florence so their food must be halfway decent! I liked how they explained a little bit about each of the dishes they have under their recipe section...I love how food is so intimately combined with cultures, heritage, religion and history! I decided to try their Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians -- a black bean and rice dish) and Ensalada de Aquacate y Piña (Pineapple and Avocado Salad). Both dishes were a nice compliment to the Pernil, but I did overcook the rice. I don't think it was supposed to be as mushy as it turned out. The flavor was still there and luckily I actually don't mind mushy rice. My apologizes in advance to any Cuban readers that will probably laugh at my poor attempt at black beans and rice! I can't consider it as big of a fail as my high school Gazpacho attempt...maybe a C+ for effort! The salad was really good though...the dressing is awesome. Light and refreshing...very sweet and citrusy. I'll definitely be making it again this summer with different combinations of fruits....maybe some mandarin oranges, mango or guava would be nice!

So without further ado, please enjoy my first ever attempt at Cuban food brought to you by "1 Mom From Ohio".

Pernil
*The recipe called for a bone-in cut which I FINALLY found at the third grocery store I went to. My cut looked nothing like the picture on the recipe, but I figured since the label read "Bone-In Pork Shoulder Roast" it would be okay. I'm not sure exactly why it was necessary to be bone-in, but I wanted to follow the directions as printed. Next time I would use a boneless cut...it would have made cutting it much easier! I was going to use the bone to make a nice pork stock, but as I was cleaning up the kitchen, Ethan started crying for his dinner so I accidentally threw the bone in the trash. Oops! The recipe also calls for you to serve the skin on the platter, but you couldn't pay me to eat the fatty skin! I'm not going to judge you if you do, it's just one of the parts of the animal I can not bring myself to eat...boil it in a stock, yes....directly chew it up and swallow it, not so much!!

12 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp black peppercorn
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
5 lb pork shoulder roast, skin-on, bone-in

Ingredients for the very tasty marinade!

Smashing garlic is easy. Just place the flat side of the knife against the clove and hit it with the heel of your hand. These were some of the biggest cloves I have ever had!

Grind the garlic cloves, salt, oregano and peppercorns in a food processor.

Add the olive oil and vinegar, then continue blending it until you have a paste.

I think it turned out more like a wet rub than a marinade...although my food processor isn't the greatest and didn't grind up to peppercorns very well. Maybe a better food processor would make a paste.

Using a knife, make slits all over the roast as deep into the meat as you can. Fill each slit with the marinade and then rub the remaining paste all over the roast.

Cover and place in the refrigerator or 1 - 3 days. Mine sat for 2 days.

Place the roast skin side up, on a rack in a roasting pan. Roast for 1 hour at 450 degrees, then lower the temperature to 400 degrees for an additional 1 1/2 hours.

Let the roast rest for 15 mins before carving. I think my roast was too close to the heat for the first hour because it started to burn a little. I lowered the oven rack for the last hour and a half of cooking. The top layer of skin and fat just peeled off though so I wasn't too worried! Slice the meat parallel to the bone and serve.

Moros y Cristianos

*This recipe makes A TON of food. I should have only made 1/4 of the recipe. My husband hated it because there were so many onions and green peppers in it that it was impossible for him to pick them all out so he just gave up! Brenna and Tyler weren't big fans, but I loved it (despite way overcooking the rice) and Aiden ate it pretty well.

1 1/2 cups dried black beans

1/4 cup olive oil for sautéing

2 1/2 cups white onion, diced

2 1/2 cups green peppers, seeded and diced

4 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped

3 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

1 bay leaf

3 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

4 1/2 cups chicken stock

3 cups long-grain white rice

In a saucepan, place the beans and 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 mins. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for one hour.

Drain and rinse the beans. Add enough water to cover the beans and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer about 50 mins.

Funny how the black beans look like purple beans in this picture. Drain the beans and set aside. Meanwhile, rinse the rice in a strainer until the water runs clear and then set aside. This surprisingly took way more time than I thought it would....I forgot to take a picture of the rice! Oh well!

In a large stockpot, saute the onions and green peppers in the olive oil until tender.

Add the garlic and saute another minute.

Add the tomato paste, black beans, oregano, cumin, bay leaf, and vinegar. We had a plumber here fixing our toilet and at this point he asked for my help to see if it was still leaking through to our basement so I didn't get a chance to add the back beans while it cooked.

Once the plumber left I added the black beans and mixed it up well. Make sure to stir gently or the beans will break apart. Cook for 5 mins.

Add the chicken stock and rice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice is tender about 20 -30 mins. Remove the bay leaf and discard. Add the salt and pepper and adjust seasoning according to your taste. Apparently I didn't take a picture of the finished rice/bean dish!!

Ensalada de Aquacate y Piña

*I made some adjustments to their recipe because I knew we didn't need as much salad and nobody but me likes raw red onions. We did have a little leftover which I put in the fridge, but honestly the lettuce was WAY too soggy to eat the next day because the dressing is tossed into the salad. If you make this, don't plan on keeping the leftovers!! Here is what I used.

1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil (recipe calls for the use of a good Spanish olive oil. I just used my regular extra-virgin olive oil and it turned out fine)
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of fresh pineapple chunks (I used canned)
1 large avocados, peeled and sliced
3/4 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
1/4 medium sweet red onion, sliced thin