Hornado de chancho

All Recipes taken from laylita's recipes

Hornado de chancho (Roast Pork)

Ingredients:

20 pound whole pork leg (for about 40 people)

Juice of 3 limes

40 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tablespoons of ground cumin

3 tablespoons of salt

1 tablespoon of ground pepper

8 cups of beer for marinating and 6 cups of beer for baking

12 ounces of butter (3 sticks)

2 tablespoons of ground achiote or annatto seed

Optional: 8-10 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut in half

Preparation:

Make sure the pork leg is clean and place it in a large non-reactive roasting pan (make sure it will fit in the fridge as well as the oven).

Prepare the “aliño” by mixing the crushed garlic, ground cumin, salt and pepper.

Drizzle the lime juice all over the pork leg.

Make several deep incisions on both sides of pork leg and begin stuffing the incisions with the “aliño”, also rub the “aliño” all over the meat. Let rest for 24 hours in the fridge.

Pour the 8 cups of beer over the pork leg and let it marinade for another 48 hours, turning the leg every 6-8 hours.

Pre-heat oven to 400F (200C), let the pork leg bake for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, in a small saucepan, melt a stick of butter on low heat, stir in the 1 tablespoon of the ground achiote and mix well.

Lower the oven temperature to 350F and pour the melted butter mix on the pork leg.

To keep the pork leg from drying out you will need to “bañar” or bathe the pork leg using a soup ladle with the pan sauces about every 20 minutes.

When the pan sauces start to dry up, melt the remaining 2 butter sticks on low heat, mix in the remaining 6 cups of beer and 1 tablespoon of ground achiote and pour over the pork leg. Make sure the mix is hot to keep the pork skin from cracking.

Turn the pork leg over after about 3 hours of cooking and lower the temperature to 325F. Continue bathing every 20 minutes.

After 3 hours, turn the leg back over, some of the skin might have begun to peel off due to being directly in the sauce, try to place the skin back in place and bake for the last 2 hours. Add the potatoes at this point if you want to bake the potatoes with the pig leg, they will absorb the yummy sauces and be delicious.

Total roasting time should be about 8 hours for a 20 pound pork leg, internal temperature should be 160.

For a quicker version

Agrio sauce (Tomato and onion salsa)

Agrio is a tangy sauce made especially to accompany traditional pork dishes, especially hornado or roasted pork.

Ingredients

½ tomato, finely diced

½ shallot, finely sliced

2 tbs finely chopped green onions

1 red aji (I used a Fresno pepper – but you can use any hot pepper or a small bell pepper if you

don’t want it spicy), seeded and sliced

1 cup bitter orange juice or replace with 1 cup orange juice + juice of 2 limes

1 tbs finely chopped cilantro and parsley

½ tbs white wine vinegar

1 tsp grated panela or brown sugar

1 tbs light olive oil or sunflower oil

Salt to taste

Instructions

Place all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well and let rest for at least an hour before serving

Aji criollo ( Chilli Sauce)

Ingredients:

4 ajies or hot peppers

½ bunch of cilantro (stems and leaves)

½ cup of water

3 garlic cloves

Juice from ½ lime or lemon

3 tbs finely chopped white onion (scallions can also be used)

Salt

Preparation:

Combine the hot peppers, cilantro, water, garlic cloves and lime juice in the blender and blend well.

Add the chopped white onions and salt to taste.

LLapingachos (Potato cakes)

Ingredients:
4 pounds white potatoes

1 onion, chopped fine
2 tablespoons achiote oil
1 egg yolk

1 cup shredded white cheese (queso fresco, farmer's cheese, or mozzarella
4 green onions, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Peel the potatoes and add them to a large pot of boiling salted water. Cook until tender when pierced with a fork. While the potatoes are cooking, sauté the onion in the achiote oil until soft. Set aside to cool. Whip the boiled potatoes in a standing mixer to mashed them, or run them through a ricer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (If using paprika instead of achiote oil, mix the paprika in with the mashed potatoes).  Mix the cooked onions and the egg yolk in with potatoes.Chill potato mixture for at least two hours, or overnight. Mix the grated cheese with the minced green onions. Shape the mashed potato mixture into balls slightly larger than a golf ball. Make a large hole with your finger in the middle, and press about a tablespoon of the cheese mixture into the hole. Close the mashed potato mixture over the cheese center, and then gently pat the ball into a pancake about a half inch thick. Chill the pancakes for 30 minutes. Heat 3 to 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a skillet. Fry the pancakes in batches, about 3 minutes on each side. Keep pancakes warm in a 200- degree oven until ready to serve.