Puerco Pibil

Robert Rodriguez is the freaking man. He directed Sin City, Desperado, Spy Kids, and several other films. On the DVD of his film, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, features a "Ten Minute Cooking School" because, as he puts it, not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to... er, make sweet love to a woman. You're going to be eating for the rest of your life, so you might as well eat well. Specifically, the recipe he demonstrates is for a dish called puerco pibil, a slow-roasted pork item ordered by Johnny Depp in the movie (a dish that tastes so good it inspires him to kill the cook). In the cooking school he shows you how to make the dish. So I made it too.

Puerco (or Conchinita) Pibil

Ingredients:
5 Tbs. annato seeds
2 Tbs. salt
1 Tbs. peppercorns
8 whole allspice
2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. whole cloves
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 habañeros (deveined, seeds removed)
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
juice of 5 lemons
splash of tequila
5 lb. pork butt, cut into 2" cubes
1 lb. banana leaves (or foil if you can't find banana leaves)

You're also going to want to buy a coffee grinder ($15-20 at your local Kmart or Target) to grind up and pulverize the seed form spices. I cannot emphasize enough how cool and easy it was to make powdered fresh spices from the whole seeds. Took me a while to find Achiote, eventually locating it in Safeway in the hispanic food isle with the cheapo bags of spices... ironically enough, two hispanic groceries I went to did NOT have Achiote.

So you grind up all the spices together (takes 30 sec with a grinder, hours with mortar and pestle) Then you combine the powder, juice, vinegar, peppers, garlic, tequilla, and lemon squeezins in a blender. Then cut the pork ( I use boneless lean country ribs) into 2" cubes and marinate them in the Achiote mixture you've created. Then line a 9x13 pan with leaves and/or foil, dump pork mixture on top of it, and cook for FOUR hours at 325. When it's done, you'll be in heaven. Serve over rice.