Lechon Asado (with pics)

My wife is half Cuban. Her aunt in Miami used to make a Cuban pork dish and they’d ship it up to Virginia for Christmas dinner. Tonight I made the dish for her. Lechon asado with Cuban black beans and rice. Along with the Cuban sandwich (which is made from this recipe), Ropa vieja, arroz con pollo and a couple of other dishes this is one of the classic Cuban dishes.

It starts with a mojo which is a marinade. First the garlic paste. This recipe calls for a lot of garlic.



Garlic, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper combined



Add olive oil to make a paste.



Make deep slices into a pork shoulder to work the paste into the meat







Now comes the marinade. A lot of recipes call for orange juice and lime juice. No. That does not work. You need Seville oranges (sour oranges) or it will not be right. Trust me, I’ve tried that recipe. You can use this orange juice as it is from Seville oranges. Also pictured is the olive oil I use which is a fantastic olive oil. If you can't get Seville oranges your local Latin market should have the sour orange marinade.



Into the pot to marinate for 24 hours along with two onions sliced into rings



Also soaking for 24 hours are the black beans



Time to bring it all together. Bacon, olive oil, garlic, onions, cumin, salt and pepper for the black beans. The recipe also calls for green peppers but my wife isn't a pepper fan so I skipped those.





The finished product.