Smokin' Dinner: Puerto Rican-Style Smoked Pork Shoulder & Black Beans

When I invited two of my favorite Italian restaurant owners over for dinner, the last thing they were going to hear from me was, "Wait until you try my risotto. I think you'll love it!"

So I went in a completely different direction, to the small island east of Cuba that was hammered so mercilessly by Hurricane Maria a little less than two years ago, an island filled with our fellow American citizens who are still all but ignored in the sturm und drang of our current national crises du jour.

Going into the smoker.

It's hard to find this island's cuisine represented on our local dining scene, and while the flavors of cumin, garlic and chile are found in many Latin cultures, I thought it might be fun to make a dinner based on a Puerto Rican theme. Plus we love their take on pork shoulder, a dish called pernil that, though delicious when roasted in an oven or even on a grill, takes on a whole different character when left for several hours in the smoker.

With Dave primed to spend his day, beer in hand, tending the fire, I needed to come up with a side that would fit in. It just so happened that I had some black turtle beans from Anthony and Carol Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm in the pantry, so I put them on to soak while I did a little research.

Ready to go! (And check out that smoke ring.)

Similar to the black beans I make for taco nights at home, traditional preparations start with a sofrito of onions, garlic, cumin and chile powder, then add in chopped peppers, splashes of wine and vinegar, and chopped olives. These are best simmered for several hours, allowing the beans to get buttery-tender and for flavors to meld into a rich, stewy whole, so I put them on first thing in the morning. Cooking them overnight in a 250° oven would work, too, the only problem being you'd wake up wanting to make huevos rancheros after breathing in the heady aroma of the cooking beans all night.

Dave, of course, did his usual magic with the pernil, allowing the pork to roast low and slow, swathed in the smoke from the mix of charcoal and fresh oak. And the beans got their share of raves, along with sincere thanks from our friends, who, like most chefs I've cooked for, are just grateful to have someone cook for them for once!

Pernil
Adapted from Mark Bittman

1 pork shoulder, 4-10 lbs.
4 or more cloves garlic, peeled
1 large onion, quartered
2 Tbsp. fresh oregano leaves or 1 Tbsp. dried
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ancho or other mild chili powder
1 Tbsp. salt
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil as needed
1 Tbsp. wine or cider vinegar
Lime wedges for serving.

Heat oven to 300 degrees or prepare a fire in the smoker, allowing it to reach a stable temperature of 250-275°.

Score meat with a sharp knife, making a cross-hatch pattern. Pulse garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, chili, salt and pepper together in a food processor, adding oil in a drizzle and scraping down sides as necessary, until mixture is pasty. Blend in the vinegar.

Rub this mixture into pork, getting it into every nook and cranny. Put pork in a roasting pan and film bottom with water or, if smoking in the smoker, place it on a rack above a pan of water. Roast pork for several hours until an instant-read thermometer reads 180°. [Our 10-lb. shoulder took 6 hrs. - KB]. Add more water to the pan as necessary, until meat is very tender.

Let meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting it up; meat should be so tender that cutting it into uniform slices is almost impossible; rather, whack it up into chunks. Serve with lime.

* * *

Puerto Rican-Style Black Beans

1  lb. dried black beans, rinsed thoroughly

3  Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1  large yellow onion, chopped

2 poblano peppers, chopped in 1/2" pieces

4 to 5  garlic cloves, crushed

2 tsp. ground cumin

2 tsp. oregano

4 c. water

3  bay leaves

1 Tbsp. salt, plus more to taste

2  Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1/2  c. dry white wine

1/2  c. green olives stuffed with pimentos, thinly sliced

The day before cooking, soak beans overnight in large pot with water covering them by at least 3". The next day drain them and rinse. Set aside.

Heat oil over medium-high heat in large Dutch oven. Sauté onions until translucent, stirring frequently. Add chopped peppers and garlic and sauté until tender. Add cumin and oregano and sauté 30 seconds. Pour in water and add drained beans, olives, bay leaves, vinegar, and white wine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, for at least 2 hours. Check occasionally to make sure the beans aren't dry. If they are, add more water.

When beans are tender, if beans are too soupy remove lid and keep simmering until liquid is reduced. Remove bay leaves, turn heat down to warm until ready to serve.

The Braise is Back: Beer-Braised Poblano Pork

Now, I'm not one to trumpet the end of summer and the beginning of that four-letter word beginning with "f" (and ending with "double toothpicks" for those of you old enough to remember that old saw). But I do appreciate the moderating temperatures during the day and the rapid cooling at night, making pulling up the covers a welcome necessity.

Yes, I'm a native Oregonian. Is it that obvious?

A drizzle of cilantro chimichurri? Sure!

While there's still plenty of grilling weather in the forecast, with salmon and albacore running strong, and tomatoes, peppers and a bounty of other delicious things coming in from local farms (whew!), it's also possible to turn on the stove without the fear of making your home feel like you're living in some hot, humid East Coast city. (No wonder those politicians in DC are so grumpy all the time, huh?)

The other day I'd picked up a pork shoulder at the store, pondering what to do with it when I got home—Chili? Posole? Pulled pork?—and then, while rummaging in the vegetable bin, found several large poblano peppers that had jumped into my farmers' market basket the weekend before. Excellent!

A little chopping, a little sautéing, a can of Hopworks pils from the fridge, and in under half an hour I had a pot of pork bubbling away on the stove. Then two hours later we were sitting down for what I have to say was a spectacular dinner. By the way, the chimichurri came about when during the aforementioned rummaging I ran across a bunch of cilantro that was soon to expire, so whizzed that up in the processor with some lime and garlic and, voilà, instant zhoosh!

Beer-Braised Poblano Pork

4 lbs. pork shoulder, cut in 1” pieces
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, in 1/2” dice
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 large poblano peppers, seeded and chopped in 1” pieces
2 serrano peppers, seeded and minced
12 oz. light beer (a Northwest pilsner works nicely)
2 c. chicken stock
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 bay leaves
2 tsp. salt plus more to taste

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until it shimmers. Add onion and sauté until translucent, then add garlic and peppers and sauté until tender. Add pork, beer, stock oregano, bay leaves and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cover. When pork is tender (almost falling apart), taste for salt and serve in bowls with rice or grain and a drizzle of chimichurri (recipe below).

* * *

Cilantro Chimichurri

2 c. cilantro
1/3 c. olive oil
2 large cloves garlic
2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp. lime juice

Salt to taste

Place all ingredients in food processor or blender and process until smooth.

Impromptu: Pork Tacos At Our House!

The plan had been in place for weeks, and we were looking forward to having a Saturday night dinner on the deck at the home of good friends. We'd even been given the menu, the better to whet our appetites in advance of the evening: cocktails and tomato-basil bruschetta to start, then grilled pork ribs, corn salad and the hostess's gramma's green beans. Boysenberry pie for dessert.

Yeah, we were drooling, too.

Pork before.

Saturday morning dawned warm and sunny, with the promise of a beautiful, not-too-warm Portland evening for the dinner. Then around mid-morning we got a call. A painting project had run over schedule, an unexpected memorial service had come up for that afternoon. Could we reschedule the deck dinner and go out instead? Maybe margaritas and Mexican at a place with outdoor seating?

Pork after.

Though there are several great places in town that fit that bill, I'd really been looking forward to spending time with our friends without the distractions and constraints of a restaurant meal. Why not just change locations and come over to our house? Dave's margaritas are as good, if not better, than any I've had out and, sticking with the Mexican theme, I could throw some pork on to braise for tacos and we could pot luck the condiments.

After hanging up I looked around, realizing the house was a complete shambles. Ack! Good thing we were eating outside…and we could clean up enough that, in the dim evening light, it might not look too awful.

Ready to go…take a seat!

On the way to the store I ran into my neighbor Susana, who waxed poetic about the dinner she'd made the night before featuring short ribs braised in apricots and cherries. We agreed it would be perfect for the pulled pork I needed for the tacos so, armed with her inspiration, I bought the necessary ingredients, came home, threw it all together and three hours later had the most luscious pulled pork ever.

And our dinner that evening? Perfection…just like we'd planned it all along.

Pork Tacos with Apricot, Cherry and White Wine Pulled Pork

For the pulled pork:
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1-2 medium yellow onions, chopped fine
3 large cloves garlic
2 c. cherries, pitted and halved (I used yellow Rainiers)
2 c. apricots, pitted and quartered
5 lbs. pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
2 1/2 c. dry white wine (I used a dry Pinot Grigio)
3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

For the tacos:
Corn tortillas (order them in advance from Por Que No…awesome!)
Cabbage slaw with lime vinaigrette
Guacamole
Corn or cherry salsa
Tomato salsa
Cotilla cheese, crumbled
Sour cream
Limes, quartered
Assorted bottled chile sauces

Preheat oven to 325°.

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add onions and garlic and sauté till translucent. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Cover and place pot in oven for 3 hours until pork is falling apart.

Remove pot from oven, and transfer the chunks of pork to a large platter, leaving cooking liquid in pot. Bring liquid in pot to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, and reduce until most of liquid has evaporated and it is a syrupy consistency. While liquid is reducing, smash pork with back of spoon or pull apart with a fork. When liquid in pot has finished reducing, add pork back to pot and combine.

Serve with condiments.

This pulled pork would be amazing with any recipe calling for pulled pork, and is infinitely variable with any seasonal fruit…think plums, peaches, apples, etc. You could also add whole chiles like ancho or poblano to give it some heat.

Taking the Slow Route to Mexico

I'm one of those people that retailers hate. First, I despise shopping unless it's for food. Clothes, jewelry, even books. And forget makeup counters. All those women just standing there with their faces made up like sad clowns give me the willies, not to mention the cologne samples they're armed with, spraying innocent bystanders with live fire in a battle for scented domination.

Give me a farmers' market with smiling vendors, their tables loaded with produce, ready to talk about the weather, the latest gossip or the best way to prepare their purple carrots, Savoy cabbages and parsnips. And that includes the produce aisle in a local supermarket, brimming with local produce, along with a well-stocked butcher's case. Pork shoulder for $3.29 a pound? I'm in!

That's just how I ended up with a four-and-a-half pound hunk of some pig flesh the other day, and since I was in the mood for a taste of Mexico I pulled one of Diana Kennedy's books off the shelf. With some ancho chiles in the pantry, it made perfect sense that the book would fall open to her extremely simple recipe for pork braised in a red chile sauce.

This would be perfect for a slow cooker*, and walking in the door after a long day's work would be like stepping into a beach cafe in Mazatlan or PV. Make a little rice, heat some tortillas and pull up a seat under the nearest palapa. A squeeze of lime juice over the top (or splashed in a margarita) would make the scene complete. (Can you tell I need a vacation?)

Carne de Puerco en Chile Colorado

Adapted from Diana Kennedy's Recipes from the Regional Cooks of Mexico

Sra. Rosa Margarita J. de Mejía, a talented cook from Chihuahua who has introduced me to many of her regional dishes, gave me this particular recipe. It is made with the chile de la tierra, which has a wide distribution and a variety of names.

2 1/4 lbs. boneless pork, with some fat, cut into 1/2" cubes
2 tsp. salt, or to taste
3 1/2-3 3/4 c. water, approximately
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/8 tsp. cumin seed
1/4 tsp. oregano
8 chiles de la tierra [a mild chile - I used ancho chiles - New Mexican chiles would work as well. - KAB]
2 Tbsp. peanut or safflower oil, approximately
2 tsp. all-purpose flour

Put the meat, salt and 1/4 c. water into a heavy pan in which the meat will just fit in two layers. Cover the pan and cook over a low flame, shaking the pan from time to time to prevent sticking, until the meat is just tender, all the liquid absorbed and the fat rendered out—about 45 minutes, depending on the cut of meat and how tender it is. If it becomes too dry during the cooking time, then add a little more water. Remove from pan and set aside.

Remove the stems from the chiles (leave in the seeds and veins), cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the skin is soft. Drain and transfer to a blender jar, along with 1 c. of the water, the garlic, cumin seed and oregano and blend till smooth. Set aside.

Heat the oil and fry the meat lightly, turning it over from time to time. Sprinkle the flour over the meat and keep turning and frying until it browns slightly. Add the chile sauce and fry for a few minutes longer, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan. Add the remaining 2-2 1/2 c. of water—the sauce should be rather thin—and cook for 1-2 hrs. Smash the cubes of meat (they should basically fall apart on their own) and stir.

* If you're doing this in a slow cooker, cube the meat and make the chile sauce the day before and refrigerate, briefly fry the meat and add the flour in the morning, then put the meat and the sauce in the slow cooker and cook on low.

Pining for Posole

I don't know about you, but I get hankerings. And since Mexico is one of my favorite places on the planet, its tastes and smells are a frequent source of my cravings. Somehow the flavors of lime, chiles and cilantro slap me upside the head and suddenly I'm sitting on the rooftop at El Nido in Puerto Vallarta looking out over the Bahia de Banderas or zipping through the streets of Mazatlan with street vendors hawking fish and freshly made tortillas.

On the Plazuela Machado in Mazatlan.

So when I saw a package of dried corn at my local New Seasons Market, it was like running across a doorway into Mexico right there in the aisle. I saw the table under the palms in the Plazuela Machado, the waiters carrying big trays over their heads to their waiting customers, the evening breeze carrying the smell of meat simmered all day in a sauce of dark red chiles.

Needless to say, the little package came home along with a couple of pounds of pork shoulder. A few hours of simmering, to build anticipation as much as anything, and we sat down to our dinner. In Mexico.

Posole Rojo

12 oz. dried posole or hominy
6-8 dried ancho chiles
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. oregano
Salt to taste
2-3 lbs. pork shoulder cut in 1 1/2" cubes
Juice of 1 lime

Put dried posole into non-reactive bowl or Dutch oven and cover with water. Soak overnight. Drain posole and put back in Dutch oven in enough salted water to cover. Bring to boil and simmer for at least 2 hours until softened. Drain and reserve.

Remove seeds, ribs and stems from chiles and tear into large pieces. Place in heat-proof bowl and cover with boiling water. After half an hour, when chiles are soft and somewhat cooled, drain them, reserving the liquid. Put chiles, onion, oregano and garlic in bowl of food processor and process, adding reserved chile-soaking liquid to make it a thick sauce. Season to taste with salt.

Add meat and chile sauce to cooked hominy in Dutch oven and stir to combine, adding more chile-soaking liquid or water if needed. Bring to a boil on the stove, lower heat and simmer for two hours or until meat can be mashed with a wooden spoon. Stir in lime juice and serve with rice and tortillas.

Budget Cuts: A Roast Less Traveled

Ruts, like the ones that gradually wear into the roadways from thousands of vehicles, are so easy to get into and so hard to get out of.

Making meals, if you have to do it on a daily basis, can be like that, too. Paging through my cookbooks or going online seems like too much of a hassle when it's so easy to pull out a standby, the good old go-to recipes I can practically make in my sleep.

I'd hauled a pork shoulder out of the freezer to thaw when the subject of dinner came up in a chat with my neighbor. The subject of our conversations is often food and, as a fabulous cook and teacher at the local culinary school, she suggested roasting it with a rub. Now, to me, pork shoulder is perfect for braising, especially with the spices of Mexico.

The shoulder, happily marinating away.

But a rub...that intrigued me. I had some dried ancho chiles in the pantry along with some cocoa nibs, so I decided to go for a variation on the Pollo Asado con Chipotle from my article on Por Que No taqueria.

A couple of hours of marinating, turning it once or twice to make sure it was absorbing all of that chile goodness, a little time in the oven and we had a main course that would go with any number of sides from saffron rice to braised greens. Plus the leftovers made some amazing sandwiches and would have been great chopped and refried for pork tacos.

And it showed me once again that those side trips off the main highway are so worth taking!

Chile-marinated Pork Shoulder

3-4 lb. pork shoulder
4 dried ancho chiles
1 dried hot red chile or chipotle chile
1 Tbsp. cocoa nibs (optional)
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/3 c. vegetable oil

Place pork shoulder in a heavy-duty self-sealing plastic bag or large mixing bowl. Place chiles and cocoa nibs in the blender until they are coarsely ground. Add garlic, salt and vegetable oil and blend till it becomes a thick slurry. Pour over meat and massage in bag or turn in bowl until it is well coated. Marinate 2 hours or up to overnight in the refrigerator. Remove meat from marinade and cook over indirect heat on a charcoal grill or in a roasting pan in a 350° oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 130° on an instant-read thermometer. Place on carving board, cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Slice and serve.

Look for other recipes in the Budget Cuts series: Stuffed Pork Leg Roast with Kale and Pine Nuts;  Grilled London Broil; Pork Tagine with Pistachios, Almonds, Pine Nuts and Golden Raisins and Pork Leg Roast with Prosciutto and Lemon Stuffing with Roasted Vegetables.