My dads birthday was on the 4th and my Big brother Carlos has recieved an amazing opportunity to move to Georgia by getting a scholarship to an art school! the dinner was a perfect event to celebrate both. My aunt had thrown him a birthday party for him on the Saturday before but me and my mom had already had a small family dinner planned for him the Friday after his birthday so we didn't want to cancel the plans we had already made.
We decided on pernil (pork shoulder) white rice and mofongo (plantains fried pork fat aka chicharones and garlic) and a small salad.
Just so you know at celebrations we usually have arroz con gandules with the pernil but we wanted to stray from that. I love family get-togethers for the simple fact that i get to cook larger portions and try to something a lil different.
My dad seemed a lil irated when he got home but when he found us all hiding in his room and yelled "SURPRISE!" his demeanor changed and that was a relief , we wouldn't want the man of the hour to be uncomfortable at his event.
how we did it!:
did you expect me to do this by myself???
so the pernil is probably the easiest out of the rest besides the wait time, that's the hard part.
what you will need:
6lb pork shoulder nice layer of fat bone in.
1 clove of elephant garlic minced (it exists, its a root!)
1 1/2 cups of lemon juice from the bottle or fresh squeezed
2tbs of salt but its up to you on how much salt you want to use
2 1/2 tbs of ground oregano
so after you have your little assembly line soak that bad boy in the lemon juice we usually just place it in an aluminum oven tin. stab it with a really large knife (kind of like the one from the classic movie Psycho.) stabbing it just makes little flavor pockets so that while it cooks it distributes thru the meat.
then i rub the garlic in to the meat, like a massage :)then sprinlke the oregano and do the same. obviously you make sure the yummy fat layer is facing up so as it cooks it melts into the meat! (drooling) place in oven for 4-5 hrs at 350 dergrees.
the mofongo is harder becuase it has multiple steps but 1st things first
what we used.:
6 green platains
i elephant garlic and 6 regular cloves of garlic
1 ib of bacon or chicarones (go to a latino butvher dont buy then at the closest 7eleven)
salt to taste
peel all the plantains and cut them in to 1/2 inch pieces then deep fry them til golden brown, once the garlic is all minced use 1tbs of the oil you used to fry the plantains to cook the ). in a large pilon (mortar and pestle) mash the plantains til they break up and start adding to garlic by the teaspoon after you add all the garlic start adding the chicharone and also mash it up in the pilon as you mash up everything the pilon will srart filling up so start to place it in an aluminum oven tin, once its done put the tins in the oven with aluminum foil just to keep it warm.
White rice! too easy...
FYI-* in my house we measure the rice with coffee mugs so when i say 2 cups be aware i mean coffee mugs.*
2 cups of rice (long grain)
3 cups of water
1tbs canola oil
1/2 tbs of white vinegar
salt to taste
and drop it in the rice cooker, make sure to give the rice a good wash b.c if you dont it will look very milky so WASH IT.
We decided on pernil (pork shoulder) white rice and mofongo (plantains fried pork fat aka chicharones and garlic) and a small salad.
Just so you know at celebrations we usually have arroz con gandules with the pernil but we wanted to stray from that. I love family get-togethers for the simple fact that i get to cook larger portions and try to something a lil different.
My dad seemed a lil irated when he got home but when he found us all hiding in his room and yelled "SURPRISE!" his demeanor changed and that was a relief , we wouldn't want the man of the hour to be uncomfortable at his event.
how we did it!:
did you expect me to do this by myself???
so the pernil is probably the easiest out of the rest besides the wait time, that's the hard part.
what you will need:
6lb pork shoulder nice layer of fat bone in.
1 clove of elephant garlic minced (it exists, its a root!)
1 1/2 cups of lemon juice from the bottle or fresh squeezed
2tbs of salt but its up to you on how much salt you want to use
2 1/2 tbs of ground oregano
so after you have your little assembly line soak that bad boy in the lemon juice we usually just place it in an aluminum oven tin. stab it with a really large knife (kind of like the one from the classic movie Psycho.) stabbing it just makes little flavor pockets so that while it cooks it distributes thru the meat.
then i rub the garlic in to the meat, like a massage :)then sprinlke the oregano and do the same. obviously you make sure the yummy fat layer is facing up so as it cooks it melts into the meat! (drooling) place in oven for 4-5 hrs at 350 dergrees.
the mofongo is harder becuase it has multiple steps but 1st things first
what we used.:
6 green platains
i elephant garlic and 6 regular cloves of garlic
1 ib of bacon or chicarones (go to a latino butvher dont buy then at the closest 7eleven)
salt to taste
peel all the plantains and cut them in to 1/2 inch pieces then deep fry them til golden brown, once the garlic is all minced use 1tbs of the oil you used to fry the plantains to cook the ). in a large pilon (mortar and pestle) mash the plantains til they break up and start adding to garlic by the teaspoon after you add all the garlic start adding the chicharone and also mash it up in the pilon as you mash up everything the pilon will srart filling up so start to place it in an aluminum oven tin, once its done put the tins in the oven with aluminum foil just to keep it warm.
White rice! too easy...
FYI-* in my house we measure the rice with coffee mugs so when i say 2 cups be aware i mean coffee mugs.*
2 cups of rice (long grain)
3 cups of water
1tbs canola oil
1/2 tbs of white vinegar
salt to taste
and drop it in the rice cooker, make sure to give the rice a good wash b.c if you dont it will look very milky so WASH IT.
