20040726

recipe: masas de puerco



okay, i have to tell you this is the name that i was told this dish is, and i've found validation for it on the web (snort)--it is a well known cuban dish--but um, i did pay attention in spanish class (i had some *interesting* teachers), so i'm pretty sure masas de puerco translates to "lumps of sluttishness" (or as i'd like to think: sluttish lumps)....masas de *puerca*, however, translates to "masses of pork", but i do realise it's probably a cuban-spanish thing, and really, both translations aren't far off from the truth.

as i said, it's a cuban dish: cubish pork marinated in lots of garlic, onions, herbs, citrus juice and olive oil, braised, then fried. it's traditionally served with fried plantains, rice, and black beans, but i don't remember why i didn't do with them. i just didn't.

the recipe, loosely:

make a marinade with the following ingredients:
olive oil
lemon juice
lime juice
orange juice
a head or two of garlic, peeled and roughly crushed or chopped
one onion, roughly chopped
a small bunch of thyme
a fistful of oregano
a dash of paprika or pimentón if you have it

marinate a chunk of pork (i used a 2½ lb.pork butt with the excess fat trimmed off--although from the photo above it looks like i missed a side), cut into 2-inch cubes, overnight. remove the meat from the marinade, add to a pot with a couple of cups of lightly salted water. bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the water is gone (about half an hour). add a generous amount of olive oil and fry the chunks until the meat turns a lovely shade of brown, add 1 sliced onion,sautée until just wilted. drain off the excess fat, add a squeeze of lemon, and serve.

4 comments:

Santos - this looks wonderful and sounds delicious! Are all the citrus juices in about equal proportions?

Hi Santos,

Yummy, yummy, yummy! I love Cuban food...ate tons of it when I lived in Miami a few years back! I'm going to try to make this sometime! =)

hi cathy

i used more lime juice than lemon and orange, just because i had more limes. basically, you want a marinade that's not too sharp or sour, so use the orange juice and the lime juice to round out the lemon juice. you still want the taste of the herbs to be quite pronounced.

hi reid

a friend of mine makes the same dish, only instead of braising the meat, she just cuts the meat a little smaller and deep fries the chunks of pork. the taste is the same but the texture is different. if you're rushed for time, you might want to try that method!

f pork........puerco does not mean slut....it means pork and can be used to describe something that is filthy...FYI, recipe was great i really enjoyed it,recommend it to all