Lechon Asado Cubano: The Conclusion

Once again Iraqi Zaqi has come & gone. All that is left from his R&R are fine memories of good times & good food. The Cuban Pork turned out better than expected & this was obvious by the (disappointing) lack of left overs. Even the whole piece of skin that was peeled off of the seven pound pork picnic shoulder was devoured by the end of the night.

Instead of going on & on about how tasty it was, let me tell you how things went down.

After marinating in the brine for 24 hours the next step was to marinate the swine in a heady paste of a whole head of garlic, cumin, dried oregano, salt, pepper, orange juice, white vinegar & olive oil. But before the pork got the rub down of garlic-citrus paste, I cut slits all over the shoulder & stuffed a couple of handfuls of whole garlic cloves, that I first smashed with the back of my hand, so they would release all of their succulent garlicky juices. The next 24 hours were tough but finally the time came to smoke pork.

I smoked the shoulder using hickory wood for about 4 hours & then finished it in the oven for 2 hours at 300º. I am sure you could smoke the whole roast for the entire time. We ran out of wood but it turned out great anyway. Just make sure you cook it until a meat thermometer reads 190º in the thickest part of the meat.

The only regret I have is not taking a picture because it was a thing of beauty.

The wine list was as follows courtesy of Zach & I think Daniel brought a bottle or two also, 2003 E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône, 2001 Campo Viejo Reserva Rioja, 2004 Ventana Gewurtztraminer, 2001 Chateau Fonplégade Grand Cru St. Emillion, 2004 Domaine des Blaguer Syrah & when that was all gone we uncorked a magnum of 2004 Rosemount Shiraz. I can safely recommend every wine we had that night. They were all great wines but my favorites were the Côtes du Rhone, the Bordeaux & the Rioja. You can tell Zach grew up across the pond from all of his Old World selections & they were all fine specimens too.

This is definitely a recipe to try again. We are just waiting for the right occasion to celebrate. Hey Zach, when do you get some more R&R?




**side note**
We have been in a blogging funk lately, but fear not, we are back in action. We had a good friend from Copenhagen, Denmark staying with us for two weeks after Zach left, so we have been playing tour guide & host but are now back to the ol' riga-ma-roe. So expect to see us posting more.