Puerco Pibil - ONCE UPON... MEXICO 10 Minute Cooking School

[KcMsterpce]

I have follwed the directions of Robert Rodriguez' instructions on making this slow roasted pork dish.
I used Patron Anejo, because that's my favorite damned tequila.

It's cooking right now, and so I don't know how it tastes yet, but I'll be damned it smells so fucking gooood!!

One more hour and I'll find out if the flavor is as good as the odor. If it is, I think I'll have to shoot myself for making such a wonderful dish! ;)

So, I was curious if anyone else has done this or not...
If so, did you use the Cooking School version of ingredients, or did you make it of your own/family recipe/restaraunt version?

But damn if it doesn't smell tasty!! :p :D

[Dark_One79]

Hey KC,

How did it turn out? I watched that same feature on the disc and remember thinking that a few steps from the recipe were somewhat difficult. I can't remember what they are now though. I love to cook, and thought that the dish looked pretty damn good as well.

So... how was it?

[Scarface98.9]

If I wasn't such a crappy cook, I'd try to make that dish

[KcMsterpce]

Well, I'd have to say that it was a pretty darned good dish.

Not the best I've ever had, but I've had much WORSE. I invited a friend over to share in the 5 pounds of pork that I cooked (eegads!), because cooking that much food all for yourself is just depressing.
Needless to say, there are a lot of leftovers. It was very very tender, just like in the video from the DVD! My fingers are still stinging from all the hot spice handling. It was a pretty spicy meal. Mine came out a little more red than his version, but then again maybe the hue was off on my TV (hardy har har).

I kept the seeds of the peppers in the mix.

There were a few things that I did which strayed a bit from the video:

I used pre-ground spices (cumin, annato, pepper, cloves, etc...) instead of in their original form, because he recommended using a coffee grinder. A coffe grinder costs $40, and I would need two because I wouldn't want to mix ground spices with ground coffee... And if I had a coffee grinder, I'd want to make coffee with it. DUUUUHHH! :)

He said to use 8 allspice, which measured out to (I think) a teaspoon when it's powder. Don't quote me on that, I forget now.
I poured the measured spices directly into the blender.

I used 2 1/2 thai peppers for the spicy kick (with seeds), and poured it into the blender machine.

Then, I poured the OJ, vinegar and salt.
He said to use 8 cloves of garlic. I was like, "woah. 8 cloves? What does he mean by cloves? What KIND of garlic?" So I cut about a tablespoon worth of garlic into the mix.
Then I blended all of this mix for quite some time. Made sure it was all nicely mixed up! :)

I added the juice of 5 lemons (sore hands in the process), and a splash (about 2 ounces) of Patron Anejo tequila.

I blended again.

Then, I cut my pork shoulder into 2 inch strips, and put it into a huge plastic bag with the red paste. I zipped it shut, shook it around a bit, and let it soak while I prepared my cooking pan.

I used tin foil for everything, because Albertsons didn't have banana leaves. It worked fine. I cooked it for 4 hours at 325 degrees, and then ate it over white rice. And it was good.
But, to have tender meat, the best way is to SLOW COOK IT. ;)

I recommend this dish, and I think with a couple more tries I'll even have a BETTER puerco pibil than this first try.



I hope my instructions helped with some of the questions you may have had about the video, Dark_One79.

I say GO FOR IT! TRY IT OUT!!! WOOHOOO!!!

Ouch. My fingers are still spicy-stingy. Ouch. Man, that dinner smelled so good... *mumble mumble...*

[Dark_One79]

Hey KC, thanks for the reply. Glad you enjoyed it. I defintelely would like to try my own in the next couple of months.

And remember what Robert said, "Cooking is like sex. You have to do it for the rest of you life... so you might as well know what the fuck you are doing."

Or something like that. Anyway... good luck with the recipe in the future. And if you find anything that works well with it... post it here.

[Weapon X]

Originally posted by Dark_One79
And remember what Robert said, "Cooking is like sex. You have to do it for the rest of you life... so you might as well know what the fuck you are doing."

I don't remember him saying that. I do, however, remember him saying, "Not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to fuck."

...Followed at the end by "Coming Soon: Robert Rodriguez's 10-Minute Fucking School".

God, I love RR. :D

[SkeletorMessiah]

I made this!! it came out great! I had trouble getting a hold of the Banana leaves and the Annato(achiote) I got them offline and it was well worth it!! Fed it to my wife and kids and some friends and they loved it.

[KcMsterpce]

Well, I made another batch of this shit, and it is the shiznit!

The smell alone is enough to make me want to make it every week. My whole place smells like heaven when it's cooking (and for a few hours afterwards).

You haven't experienced heavenly perfection until you've pulled out a slow-cooked, freshly opened container of super super tender and tasty pork!

I cook often, so I've had the pleasurable experience before, but this has become one of my more favorite dishes. It smells so damned good!

In case you don't cook often; don't forget to make sure that your pork and sauce is well sealed! The steam is what cooks the pork (and keeps a lot of the flavor), so if you skimp on the foil wrap then you're going to come up with a burned and/or dry pork dish, which is nowhere near as good as a well sealed dish!
It's worth the extra $.50 trying to use extra foil - more than needed - than the potential $10.00 spent on a ruined supply of pork butt!

If you haven't tried this yet, it's well worth at least ONE attempt. :) :) :)