Pork roast with a Cuban vibe

So often lately, while contemplating what to cook for dinner, I keep getting drawn back to the same old standby and feel the desire to roast a shoulder of pork. Just how long this will last, I don't know. As long as they are for sale so reasonably and continue to come complete with the skin for crackling, I will not be able to resist buying one for convenience sake alone. But, I'm beginning to tire of the flavour.

Completely unadorned, the meat can be bland. They require aromatics like onion, garlic and bay leaf to bring them to life and give them oomph. The pork shoulder's virtue lies in its versatility and any flavours you throw at it will only improve its qualities. Once again, I found myself staring at one I had bought, blankly gazing at the large hunk of meat, waiting for inspiration to come. Then it struck me, I remembered seeing a recipe for Cuban pork roast several times in different magazines and cook books. I found a recipe and decided to try it out.

For the recipe I found, I needed to dry roast and grind some spices and combine them with such exciting things as orange, lemon and lime juice and dry sherry. The pork marinades for 24 hours, during which time it soaks up the liquids like a sponge, ensuring tenderness and flavour.The result was a piece of meat with the strong punch of earthy, curry-like cumin and black pepper, with undertones of citrusy, floral orange juice and the tang of lemon and lime. It provided good flavour and a definite 'vibe' to the meat. Hog with a Latin flavour.

As much as I hate to jump on the admiration bandwagon, I can't help but want to share with you that nothing inspires food love in me as much as the 'crispy bits' of meat. I don't want to be a Nigel Slater wannabe, who I know for sure, adores the gooey, marmite-y bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pan. But, like our birthdays, I share this love with him. See that really dark bit in the photograph? That is the best meat eating you will ever encounter. Tasting like Marmite has been slathered liberally over it, it is so rich and intensified it is like umami nirvana.

I have never understood recipes that state "remove skin before eating" and show an image  of a glistening, tarnished chicken, its skin crispy and inviting or "remove the fat and skin" for pork shoulder, the crackling by far the prize of long slow cooking and intense heat at the end. Yes, I know it's not exactly healthy in this climate of alfalfa sprouts and lean meat, but, really, if you make the choice to be a carnivore, why not embrace the concept of eating the whole beast, or at least other, less desirable parts of it? 

The skin, crispy bits and goo are like little areas of concentrated goodness, savoury and rich in the extreme. As much as I understand why people choose lean chicken breasts over thighs, complete with skin, bone and dark meat (gasp)! I sometimes wonder whether this is a knee-jerk reaction or a desire to eat 'healthily'? Probably these people have never considered eating a crisp, slow cooked thigh, falling off the bone, not because they think it sounds unappetizing, but simply because it has never entered their cooking repertoire. I always like to try something new, a piece of meat I have not considered before, (I only discovered flank steak in Canada), or a new recipe, but, nothing, NOTHING will persuade me to eat liver, kidneys, heart or brain. Why would I want to eat an organ that detoxifies the rest of the body?

Recipe: Cuban pork roast

2 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns (I used smoked which gave a nice, chargrilled edge to the meat)
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup dry sherry
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp salt
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf, torn into pieces
1 handful sage, finely chopped (optional - I didn't actually use any, I just thought it sounded like a nice addition).
1 tbsp olive oil


Dry roast the cumin seeds and black peppercorns in a frying pan over medium heat until fragrant. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Mix together the orange juice, sherry, juices, sage and bay leaf in a large bowl.
Crush the salt and garlic together and add to the marinade.
Finally, either pound the spices in a pestle and mortar or whizz them to a powder in a grinder and add to the marinade also with the oil. Stir everything together and pour over your piece of pork shoulder. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, turning once. 
When you are ready to cook, Remove the pork from the marinade and wipe any excess off otherwise it may burn in the pan. Keep the marinade to baste and to make a sauce. Preheat the oven to 425oF and roast the pork in a baking pan, uncovered, for 30 minutes to get the crackling going. 
After 30 minutes, turn down the heat to 325oF, cover with foil and roast for a further 5.5 - 6 hours. 
Baste the meat occasionally and check the baking pan as mine turned black pretty quickly from the marinade residue. Remove from the oven, let rest for 30 minutes and serve.


To make a sauce, simply place the marinade in a saucepan, add 1/2 cup water and 4 tbsp cream and reduce over medium heat until thickened.