The Cuban ladies of my mother's and grandmother's generation used their ovens for storage. The larger the oven the more they could store in there: pots, pans, utensils, rolls of aluminum foil, etc, and of course it was (is) the perfect place to ripen your plantains. Growing up, baking and roasting was not a usual occurrence in our household; after all, who would want to pull all that stuff out just to roast a chicken or bake a cake—and where would we put it all? With the exception of holidays or special occasions the oven stayed turned off and everything was prepared on the stove top.
I bought a 4 1/2 lb sliced pork butt the other day. I wasn't sure what to do with it. It was sliced into steaks and I've never really made pork butt steaks... didn't know whether to treat it like pork chops or pork shoulder. I did some research and found that this cut of pork needs to be cooked for quite a while to tenderize. I had a bit of running around to do, so I couldn't afford to have it sit on the stove top nor the oven so I took out the crock pot!
4 1/2 lbs pork butt steaks
1/2 green or red bell pepper (mine were frozen)
1 onion, sliced
For the mojo:
1/2 head of garlic, pressed
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 tablesppon ground cumin
2 cups sour orange or (1c sweet orange + 1c lime juice)
Prepare a mojo with the above ingredients and let marinate over night. The next place your onions and peppers on the bottom of the crock pot and layer your pork steaks on top. Put the lid on it and set it on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. That's it. The bones literally fell off. Serve with white rice, black beans and fried plantains.
I actually pan-fry them like the pork chops, or cut into small pieces, pour a little water over, salt, pepper add to them a big spoonful or more of lard, salt and pepper, and then let it reduce uncovered to render some fat and fry them until browned, then add the sofrito (garlic, onion, bell pepper) eventually a little tomato, reduce, the rice, mix it well, cumin, salt, a bay leaf boiling water and bijol a quick stir cover 25 minutes.
ReplyDeleteU have "Arroz Amarillo Con Carne de Puerco"
YUM! YUM! I want some with arroz blanco and frijoles negros and aguacate! XOXOXOXOX
ReplyDeletePedro,
ReplyDeleteI have all that in the fridge lol. the arroz, frijoles and some ripe avocadoes. also tons of fresh tomatoes, etc. usually those are always around i just have to cook the meat or seafood side dish.
Crockpot recipe!!!! Love it! And the oven is SUCH a good storage space! My mom's is full of pots and pans! But I didn't know about ripening plantains in there! What a great tip!
ReplyDeleteGotta love that crockpot!
ReplyDelete