Finally got around to doing the Pernil Asado, Puerto Rican style (more or less).
First I ground these together in a mortar and pestle:
Sicilian sea salt
Mexican dried oregano leaves
black peppercorns
roasted cumin
Spanish smoked paprika
Then I added( (a food processor would've been nice, but it was at the other house):
Minced garlic (lots of it)
minced capers
minced Spanish green olives with pimientos
minced brown onion
olive oil
white wine vinegar.
I cut and folded back the skin on a pork shoulder, stabbed it deeply all over with a knife, packed the slits with paste, and slathered the outside of the meat thoroughly on all sides.
After folding the skin back over the top of the shoulder, I covered it with paste too. Then I placed it in a roasting pan, poured about half a cup of the juice from the olive jar into the bottom, slapped the lid on, and stuck it in the fridge for about a day and a half.
On the morning I cooked the pork, I started by placing it in a 250 degree (120 C) oven for four hours. Then I bumped it up to 350 (175 C) for another two hours. According to one of the recipes I found online, I was then supposed to pull the bone, crank the heat up to 450 (230 C), and crisp the skin.
But since I had cut the skin on one side, folded it back as a flap to season the meat, then laid it loosely back over, it shrank while cooking and pulled to the uncut side. So I cut it loose on the other side and placed it on-center while I blasted away for a few minutes with the hot oven, so it would baste the meat.
The skin didn't crisp, but the bone pulled out the end in one piece when I was done. Mission accomplished, so I broke up the meat and placed it in a glass pan for serving. The meat didn't shred. Instead it came apart in chunks that were tender, but not mushy or coming apart.
I didn't try to get 'authentic' with the side dishes. In fact I wanted collard greens, but good luck finding those in a Southern California supermarket. So I went with mustard greens instead - flavored with bacon, onion, vinegar and a dash of cayenne hot sauce. I slow-simmered them until the pot liquor was a nectar of the Gods....
The other side dish could've been a main course. It was a a pot of black-eyed peas - also with bacon, onion and a little cayenne sauce, plus chopped bell pepper and celery. I was going to do the Hoppin' John thing and ladle them over rice, but I got lazy and just stirred the rice into the peas instead. May Hoyt forgive me for that sacrilege....
This dish was mostly a combination of what I learned from these two sites (although adding the smoked paprika was strictly my own idea), and I thank the two ladies for posting their recipes:
http://mystilettos.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/roasted-pork-pernil-asado-puerto-rican-style/
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2013/04/23/pernil-asado-recipe-roasted-pork-shoulder/
add: I thought about thickening the juices in the bottom of the pan to make a gravy for the meat, but never got the chance because everyone just ladled them 'as is' over everything on their plates.
Also, the first picture was taken before the roast went into the refrigerator; the second was taken after it came out a day and a half later. Notice that the skin has already started shrinking, and pulling to the uncut side. I think maybe next time I'll leave the skin whole, and just stab right through it to make the slits for stuffing the paste into....
