In our home, Christmas Eve is a mix of Italian, Cuban and American foods, but the signature dish has to be the Cuban-style citrus-marinated roast pork.
Normally I’m feeding anywhere from 15 to 25 people on Christmas Eve, but with us downsizing and the pandemic, we’re having a much smaller gathering. I normally get a pork leg that weighs around 25 pounds, but will be adjusting this recipe to deal with a smaller piece of pork.
In SOUTH BEACH LOVE, my May 2021 release from Hallmark, the two dueling chefs are both working on roast pork recipes for their big events. Tony Sanchez, the hero, is using the Cuban spices on Italian-style porchetta while the heroine, Sara Kelly, is learning the traditional recipe from her Cuban sister-in-law. who do you think will win that challenge? You can find out more about SOUTH BEACH LOVE at http://bit.ly/SouthBeachLove.
Ingredients:
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10-15 navel oranges
10 lemons
10 limes
6-8 Seville (aka Sour) Oranges
6 pink grapefruit
10-20 gloves of finely chopped garlic
Ground cumin
bay leaves
Pork leg/shoulder/picnic ham
Directions:
Juice all the above citrus into a large pot. We use one of those large buckets in which your grocery store deli gets its potato salad, etc. Drop by and ask them for one! Ours is only used for the Christmas Eve pork.
The citrus mix should be sour, but with a strong hit of sweet (the navel oranges and grapefruit really help with that). You should have enough citrus juice to fully cover your piece of pork. Once you’ve tasted the sweet/sour mix, then add 3 to 4 bay leaves, about a half cup of garlic (less for a smaller piece of pork) and about 1/4 cup of cumin. Mix this all up.
Take your piece of pork and make multiple slits in it so that the marinade can penetrate into the meat. Place the pork leg in the citrus juice, cover, and refrigerate. You’re probably wondering how I keep that big a bucket cold? Put the bucket in one of those big party tubs or a cooler, place it in your garage (which should be slightly colder anyway) and fill the tub with ice. It should be icy cold in the morning unless you are in a really hot environment in which case you will need to keep on adding ice to keep the meat cold.
In the morning (around 6 a.m. or so) pre-heat the oven to 425. Remove the pork from the citrus and place it in a large roasting dish. Keep some of the citrus juice, bay leaves and garlic for use as a marinade. Discard the rest. Ladle about 1 to 2 cups over the pork and then stick the pork into the oven for one hour at 425. For a small piece of pork, cut down this initial high temp roast accordingly. For ten pounds make it around 30 minutes, anything smaller than that no more than about 15 minutes.
Do not baste the pork during this high heat roast.
When the high heat roast time is up, baste the pork and lower the oven temp to 325. Then cook until the meat pulls away from the bone in the leg and is starting to fall off. Marinate every half an hour during the cooking process. For a 25-pound pork leg, I will cook it for about 8 to 9 hours. The pork will turn a beautiful mahogany brown and just melt in your mouth.
For smaller pieces of pork, adjust the cooking times. A 10-pound picnic ham may take only about 4 or so hours. The key is to keep on basting and cooking at a low temp to keep the meat juicy.
If the pork begins to brown too much, just cover with aluminum and keep on cooking until the meat is fork-tender.
