Robert Rodriguez' Puerco Pibil!

When I first saw this recipe on Girlichef's Blog, I just about did a backflip because it called for cooking pork in banana leaves. I had been searching for the perfect recipe to make for my parents as a going away meal, and there was no doubt in my mind that this was it!

Lucky for me, the Girlichef blog is backed by a wonderful woman who is very patient and kind, and who does not mind being bombarded with questions about how she executes her recipes. Which is what I did. Despite all of her wonderful feedback, I still managed to have a royal time getting this dish on the table. The best way for me to share the experience with you, is to recap the email I sent to her and Miranda after my attempt. Read on....

"Okay....so a week ago Friday (June 19th to be exact), I attempted to recreate your Puerco Pibil recipe in my very own kitchen. Looking back now, I can laugh heartily at everything that took place that day...although I do wish I'd had a camera crew on hand to catch all of it on film :)

I started off by pulling that big beautiful piece of pork out of my fridge (the one from the local Latin market), and unwrapped it in all of its glory....do you remember when I asked you about trimming the fat off of it? In its frozen state, it appeared to have a very distinctive layer of fat, and I wanted to make sure it was okay to leave some of that on?....Well guess what. It was a two inch thick layer of skin. Yes. PIG skin. I was MORTIFIED. Never in my life have I had to trim anything so scary. I just kept praying "Dear Jesus don't let me puke" and took to it much like a woman who has never been faced with real, raw pig skin might.

What I also had not realized, was that the cut of meat was NOT in fact boneless (as I had expected), but had a large bone of some sort smack in the middle of it. Luckily, I had purchased a 9 pound piece of meat, and prayed once again that I would be able to trim five pounds off since that's what the recipe called for. And here's where it gets funnier (believe me, the look on my face when I saw the pig skin was fantastic...but the look on my face when I realized I needed to weigh the meat out was priceless). I started putting the meat in a plastic bag, and wondered how on earth I was going to know when I got to five pounds of meat. So I went and weighed myself. And then weighed myself again with the bag. A slight difference, not much, so I figured I needed to get more meat. The problem was, by the time I'd tripled the amount of meat in size, my scale hadn't budged since my first weigh-in. Crap. Strike two.

Then I realize I have a two pound bag of limes, which I attempt to use to see how heavy the bag of meat might be in comparison to the lime bag. It felt significantly heavier, so I figured I was good to go :) Hurray! On to making the sauce!

I'd specifically gone out and purchased a spice grinder as suggested, and got to work grinding all of my spices...that's about the time I realized I'd forgotten to get the 1/2 teaspoon of whole cloves. CRAP CRAP CRAP! So I added a little more allspice and prayed once again, for victory. I ground, and ground, and ground some more (well actually I pushed a button, but you know what I mean). I took four lemons and juiced them heartily, then added two limes and juiced them heartily (I love lime and wanted that in the mix). Then I got the orange juice, white vinegar, some great tequila that a co-worker gave me especially for the occasion, and 8 cloves of garlic and threw them all in. Then I added another clove of garlic or two because I love garlic :)

Then came to the habanero....you know, it's funny. I've never worked with a habanero before, and one would think that I might do some research on them before actually attempting to cut one, right? HA! Nope. So with bare hands I set to work, trimming the rib and seeds out and cutting the leftover slivers into teeny weeny pieces. I put all of these glorious things into my mini-food processor (which was a huge mistake, but I digress), and start pulsing everything together. Then I noticed that I had a huge leak from filling the processor too high. So back into the bowl everything went so that the liquid could be processed in smaller batches (why I didn't just go the blender route, I HAVE NO IDEA). I get all of this together and finally pour it over the meat in my freezer bag. Glory hallelujah!

I start to pull my banana leaves out of the package and notice a strange sensation on my right hand. Before I could even examine it, the whole thing felt like it had caught fire. I panicked a little, wondering what the heck was wrong with it, then remembered (like a last minute genius), that I'd been plucking at a habanero without any protection, and that perhaps that wasn't the brightest idea. So while the pork is marinating in its goodness, I set to work googling ways to reduce habanero burn from skin. I read about mixing bleach with water and soaking your hand in it~ didn't work. Then I had an ice pack on it, which helped for a bit, but again, didn't take the sting away completely. Then I tried soaking it in milk and that finally seemed to calm everything down. It wasn't until the next day that I was finally entirely free from the burn. :)

Anyway, after all of that I set to work on my banana leaves, bracing myself because everything I'd read online said that they were extremely hard to work with. Boy were they wrong! The banana leaves were the easiest part of the entire production! I'd purchased some frozen ones and thawed them for a few hours in the fridge, and after a little rinse, they were perfect! I lined the pan, threw the pork in, and put it in the oven for a good four and a half hours. It was around two hours that I noticed I couldn't "smell the smell" anymore, and that's when I found that my oven had randomly turned itself off, just to tick me off. HAHAHAHA!!!

Moral of this story: I love to cook, but holy cow am I just not fit for recipes like this. My parents were absolutely amazed and said over and over how amazing the dish was. But Me? Eh. I wasn't as impressed. The taste of vinegar was VERY strong, and I'm wondering if that had something to do with half of the juices leaking out when I was processing everything. The presentation of the dish was beautiful (everyone crowded around when I removed the banana leaves), but for me, all of the hard work just didn't pay off.

I might try it again one day~ this time with cloves, and maybe more orange juice and less vinegar~ but you can bet your bottom dollar that the meat I use will be purchased at my local Publix. Already butchered. :) :) :)"

Here's a picture of my Puerco Pibil over rice with a side of tostones and a side salad with avocado vinaigrette dressing. Good luck!