hello again.
It’s been a while. I always seem to stop posting when we get really busy in the early summer and am able to start up again late winter.
So here I am.
As you may or may not know, we just returned from a lovely family vacation in the Yucatan peninsula and Chiapas, Mexico. Lots of pyramids, rivers, waterfalls, jungles, beaches, colonial towns, cenotes and some great and not so great food.
The eggs and poultry in Mexico left much to be desired. Actually, they made me miss our meat terribly and made me even more grateful for our ability to produce the food we do. The fruit was refreshing and there were a few good cheeses too. (the mezcal wasn’t terrible, though the hubby will tell you how lacking the beer was) The pork, however, wasn’t half bad. They do tend to raise their hogs larger for more tender, less lean meats that are often slow cooked in many ingenious ways, depending on the level of development they enjoyed. I remember (not this trip) fire pit cooked pork to die for as well as local banana leaf boiled pork tamales and all sorts of goodness. One of the traditional pork dishes enjoyed in the Yucatan is called ‘Cochinita pibil’ and I’m going to share my canadianized version with you here. We made it tonight and it was delicious. It’s like mayan pulled pork. We hope you may wish to try your own version too.
Cochinita pibil a la Featherstone
Ingredients
One amazing tamworth shoulder roast
Juice of 3 limes
2-3 Tablespoons of achiote/annato (this is a red seed extract from the tropics that has many uses probably found in mexican specialty stores; I’ll check the local Fortinos tomorrow for more)
Update: the wonderful folks at Beckys on Guelph line can help with Achiote needs as well as many other wonderful Latin food flavours.
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp dried Oregano
1 Tbsp Chili powder
2 Tsp cumin
1 Tsp cinnamon
Salt to taste
Habaneros- chopped, to taste ( I left these out as I was cooking for the whole family, hot sauce can be added later)
Method
Place roast and all ingredients in slow cooker. Add an extra cup of water.
If you are like me, the roast is still frozen, but defrosted is ideal I suppose.
Then cook, covered, on low, occasionally flipping and basting until fall apart tender.
I pull out any bones and extra fat off that has not melted about an hour before dinner time and pull the rest of the meat apart so it absorbs all the lovely juices.
This can be served in many ways, on buns, with rice, on nachos, in tacos, burritos, you name it!
Enjoy.
Buen provecho!
Featherstone Farm 
