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

 

Place the olive oil, vinegar, orange juice and sugar in a food processor and blend well until smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

The finished dressing.  Yummy!

Toss the lettuce, onion and pineapple in a large bowl.  Top with the dressing and coat everything well. 



Top with the avocado slices and serve.



Pernil and Moros y Christianos

Overall a successful Cuban night!

Apricot & Peach Chicken with Pineapple-Mango Salsa and Cilantro Lime Rice

My favorite meat, hands down, is chicken!  So I am bit embarrassed to admit how few ways I actually prepare my chicken!  I generally bake it with a little olive oil and some pre-made garlic seasoning blend.  Occasionally, I will roast a whole chicken seasoned with black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder.  I do have a variety of ways I use the LEFTOVERS from both these cooking methods, but I really need to start experimenting more with the initial chicken dish!!

I have a tendency to stockpile food in my basement when I find a good sale.  I call it my bomb shelter!  I'm not quite ready to sign up for an episode of Hoarders just yet, but I do admittedly have more down there than I need.  In case of an emergency, those who live close enough should consider setting up camp over here.  If you bring the bottled water (which for the record I have none of) I will have plenty of canned goods to go around!  A few months ago they had a sale on canned fruit so, like a paranoid doomsdayer, I loaded up my shopping cart.  When I got home, to my horror, I found a can of apricots that I had mistaken for peaches!!  Eeeek!  What was I going to do with this?!?  Panic started to set in and I seriously considered returning it, but then decided against this because it just seemed silly since I only paid like $.75 for it in the first place.  So I put it in the very back row of the shelf behind all the other fruit....and there it sat....and sat....and sat.  As the weeks went by, my kids slowly be surely depleted my stock of canned fruit until the apricots were rediscovered last weekend.  So, I concluded the time had finally come to find SOME way to use this lonely can of apricots.  I decided what better use than on the chicken...then not only would I be freeing them from a sad life on my basement food shelf, but also meet my desire to be more adventurous with my chicken preparation. 

For Sunday night's dinner I decided to puree the apricots and throw everything together in the crockpot.  As I was turning to leave and head back upstairs I eyed my supply of home canned goods from this past fall and decided that for some added sweetness I would throw in a small jar of peach jelly...the end results hopefully being some kind of an apricot glaze.

I'm not really sure what happened, but even after cooking for a whole day on the low setting in the crockpot, the chicken was a little on the dry side.  I have cooked chicken breast in the crockpot before with great results...usually so tender it falls apart with a fork.  Maybe it was the chicken??  I was happy with the "glaze" though...it was thick and sweet with a slight tartness courtesy of the apricots.  I might try it again on a whole pork roast.  The chicken did make pretty good leftovers as a topping for my spinach salad I ate on Wednesday, as well as inside a quesadilla I made for lunch yesterday afternoon.

I served it with cilantro lime rice which I was very happy with!  My husband commented that it tasted a lot like Chipotle's rice so I'm going to make some again for a filler the next time I make burritos.  Now if I can only figure out how to recreate their beans!!  My kids weren't huge fans of the rice though...oh well.  At least I talked them into trying one bite!

My absolute favorite part of dinner was the pineapple-mango salsa I threw together.  I used to be one of those people who thought salsa HAD to be made with tomatoes.  A few years ago, while we were on vacation we came across an Amish community that provided tours of their homes, both historic and more "modern".  They were also selling their various homemade baked goods, breads and other yummy treats.  I spotted some peach salsa they had set out to sample and fell in love with it from the first taste.  If you've never tried salsa made with fruit, you really need to give it a try.  I found a recipe online for a fresh pineapple salsa, but made quite a few changes to the original.  The addition of a can of black beans transformed it from a condiment to a nice side dish that complemented the sweetness of the chicken "glaze".  The added bonus was that there was a whole bunch leftover so I have been happily snacking on the remaining portion with tortilla chips this entire week!

Apricot & Peach Chicken

1 can chicken broth

1 small can apricots, drained

1 small jar peach preserves

1 small onion, diced

1 tsp minced garlic

1 - 2 lbs. chicken breast

Most of the ingredients.

In a mini food processor or blender, puree the apricots.

Add all ingredients to a crockpot and mix well.

I just threw my chicken breasts in frozen.

Place chicken in crockpot.

Cook over low setting for 8 hours.  Easy enough!

Pineapple Mango Salsa

1 c diced pineapple chunks (I used the canned kind and reserved the juice)
1 c diced mango
1/2 c diced red pepper
1/2 c diced green pepper
1/2 c diced onion
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 c frozen corn, defrosted
1/4 c chopped cilantro
1/3 c pineapple juice
1 tsp cumin (I love cumin so you might to start with 1/2 tsp and increase to taste)
Salt & pepper, to taste

Mix together pineapple, mango, red pepper, green pepper, onion and jalapeno pepper. 

Add black beans and corn.

Chopped cilantro.

Cumin, salt and pepper.

Add pineapple juice, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper.  Mix well and chill until ready to serve.

Cilantro Lime Rice (The best part about this rice is you can easily adjust the amounts of lime zest and lime juice depending how much lime flavor you want!!)

2 c water

1 tbsp butter

1 c long grain white rice

1/2 - 1 tsp lime zest

1 - 2 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/2 c chopped cilantro

Salt to taste



Bring water to boil in a medium sized saucepan.  Add butter until melted.

Add 1 c rice to boiling water.  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 20 mins.

Meanwhile, zest and juice the lime.  Set aside until rice is cooked.  I REALLY need to get one of those micro planers!!  The box grater isn't really meant to zest fruit...and it's really hard to clean!!

Chop the cilantro...you can make it as fine or coarse as you like.  I like slightly larger pieces of cilantro in my rice.

Once rice is cooked, fluff it with a fork.  Add the lime zest, lime juice, cilantro and salt.  Mix well and serve immediately.

Apricot & Peach Chicken, Pineapple-Mango Salsa and Cilantro Lime Rice.

Not just your regular white rice!!  YUM!

Apricot & Peach Chicken with Pineapple-Mango Salsa.  A nice pairing!

Strawberry-Banana-Pineapple Smoothie

So when is the best time to make smoothies?  Easy....whenever you have fruit that is about to go bad!!  My kids think I'm making them to be nice which is partially true and I'd rather give them a "dessert" that is made up almost entirely of fruit.  We have tried lots of different combinations of fruit and juices.  Sometimes I will throw in a scoop of yogurt if I have some in the fridge, but this is hands down our favorite combination.  In the past, I have tried freezing the fruit to skip the step of adding ice, but honestly, smoothies are almost always a last minute decision in my home so I don't have the added bonus of time to prep the fruit and throw it in the freezer.  I know you could always buy the fruit ahead of time and have it pre-frozen for when my kids need a smoothie fix, but honestly I think it's just easier to throw in the fresh fruit, some juice and a cup of ice and whizz it up in the blender.  I haven't found the ice to water down the smoothie too much or dilute the sweetness of the fruit at all.  It actually is almost needed to balance out the sweetness of the fruit.  Plus, when you are making smoothies for 5 people (6 in a year from now!!!), the ice is a nice filler.  I'm all about stretching out your resources and making a little go a long way!

Bananas rarely make it to the point of even starting to brown in my home.  I've even tried buying an extra bunch in the hopes of them turning brown for banana bread or smoothies (pretty much the only 2 ways I use "old" bananas) and all that happens is my family ends up eating more bananas.  Not a bad thing, but not helpful in making the bread or smoothies.  Banana bread without bananas would just be bread and that's silly!  Strawberries were on sale this past week for only $1 per 16 oz. container!!  I couldn't believe it!!  So I stocked up and bought 3 containers.  The strawberries acted as a nice diversion from the bananas allowing them to start turning brown.  Yeah!  So in went the last 2 bananas, the last container of strawberries (which were starting to turn a little questionable themselves), half of a 20 oz can of pineapple chunks in their own juice, a little orange juice and a big cup of crushed ice.  Blend it well and serve immediately in glasses. 

Smoothies are so easy to make that it's a shame and a waste of money to buy at those expensive smoothie places.  Plus in the time it takes you to get in your car, drive out to the smoothie place, wait in line and then fork out your cash, you could easily have already made your own at home!!  Sure I don't have powdered supplements to add in or any wheat grass growing on my window sill, but fruit is fruit whether you buy it in the store or pay twice as much or someone else to buy it and prep it for you.  Plus, most of the smoothies you buy have hidden sugars in them somewhere!  The only exception I will ever make to the rule is when I meet a friend out for smoothies, but I'm pretty much paying for the conversation and a child free evening, not so much the smoothie itself.  Every now and then it's good to pretend that even for just a few hours I am still an adult, not just a mom!!

1 container strawberries, washed and hulled of course.  I suppose if you really want to use the top green parts of the berry you could, but I probably wouldn't recommend it!!  2 bananas, 1 20 oz can pineapple in 100% juice and some orange juice.

Throw in the bananas, berries, 1/2 the can of pineapple chunks and 1/2 the juice, and a splash of orange juice.  At this point my blender is pretty full so I have to blend it once to make room for the ice.

I never thought I would ever take a picture of a glass of ice, but here it is in all it's glory! The oooohhhs and aaaahhhs may commence now!  =)

Add ice to the blender and process until smooth....thus the name smoothies.

Pour in a glass and serve.  Sorry, we were out of straws and those little umbrella things.  It still tasted the same without them though.