This is traditionally made with sour oranges. When in season, the sour, bitter juice of Seville oranges works well, chiming with the natural sweetness of slow-cooked pork and floral heat of scotch bonnet chilli. However, lime and orange juice, loosely based on a mojo, does the trick nicely the rest of the year.
Serves: 8-10 Ready in: 10 hours Source: The Observer Magazine, 05.04.26
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
- Pork shoulder: 2-2.5kg, skinned and boned
- Onion: 1, large
- Garlic: 2 whole bulbs
- Fresh coriander: a large handful
- Fresh mint leaves: a large handful
For the marinade
- Orange juice: 100ml
- Fresh oregano: a handful
- Lime juice: 200ml
- Ground cumin: 1 tbsp
- Ground coriander: 1 tbsp
- Scotch bonnet chillies: 3
- Brown sugar: 2 tbsp
- Olive oil: 50ml
- Flaky sea salt: 1 tbsp
Method
- Make the marinade: Juice the oranges and finely grate the zest; strip the leaves from the oregano. To a blender, add the citrus juices and zests, the cumin and coriander, oregano, 1 scotch bonnet chilli (deseeded), sugar, and olive oil with 1 tbsp of flaky salt and whizz to combine.
- Prep the pork: Remove any string from the pork joint and massage half of the marinade over the pork. Leave for a couple of hours or up to overnight. Refrigerate the remaining marinade.
- Setup the roast: Preheat the oven to 130°C/gas mark ½ and line a roasting tray with several layers of foil, leaving plenty hanging over the outside to wrap over the pork. Make a bed of sliced onion in the lined tray and sit the pork on it, fat-side-up.
- Assemble: Add the marinade the pork has sat in, along with the garlic bulbs and the remaining scotch bonnets. Season again with salt. Wrap up the pork under a tent of foil, leaving room for air to circulate.
- Cook: Cook for 5-8 hours, basting every now and then with the juices, until the pork is very tender. Leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- Create the sauce: Carefully drain the pork juices into a jug and skim off most of the fat from the top. Add 100ml of the pork juices to the reserved marinade. Squeeze the garlic from the bulbs, mash, then add to the sauce along with the chopped coriander and mint.
- Serve: Once the pork has rested, pull it apart, shredding the fat and mixing it through the meat. Serve with the sauce and your choice of accompaniments like rice, black beans, or tortillas.