Gina's Mojo Pork

Gina’s Mojo Pork

This is the best roast pork ever!  It is a family recipe, cuban in origin, and usually includes black beans and garlicy white rice on the side with some of the juice of the pork poured over the beans.  

Ingredients:

Mojo Criollo (Found in your local Hispanic aisle I use Goya brand)

  or make your own Mojo Criollo

6 medium Onions

10-12 garlic cloves

1 cup sour orange juice (you may substitute 1 cup orange juice and 1/8 cup lemon juice)

5 lb Pork butt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

           

Place pork in Dutch Oven fat side up.  Score the fat and stud with ½ of the garlic. (I like to stab holes in the pork and stuff with garlic to further distribute the garlic flavor within the pork).

           

Cut onions into quarters and place in pot with the remaining garlic

Pour the Mojo Criollo into the Dutch Oven and add 1 cup of sour orange juice.

Cook for about 6 hours or until fork tender.

Cuban Mojo Marinade Recipes and Cooking Tips for Mojo

One of my greatest blessings is the kitchen aroma in my house growing up and the associated memories.

We were what is considered a "multi-ethnic european/latin family" . . . yes, ethnic groups have subgroups.  Back in the day, the mixing of those groups was frowned upon, but my generation in my part of the world seems to be one of the first to have embraced the mingling of those ethnic groups. 

Cuban cigar factories sprung up in Tampa, Florida that employed so many of the european latino and cuban immigrants that flooded the area and many grew up in the same neighborhoods and their children went to the same schools.

With the blending of those families came a blending of cooking techniques and customs.  The food that came from my childhood kitchen was italian, cuban and spanish in origin.  What a delicious combination!

In doing research for some local dishes I grew up with, I have come to realize that many are unique to this area of the world!

It is delightfully odd how writing a post about cuban mojo conjured up so many memories.  My fondest memories come from the smell of a roast pork in the oven marinaded and basted with cuban mojo and tons of onion and garlic as a bed for the pork.  Black beans served on garlicky white rice usually accompanied the roast.  When we make a roast pork, the aroma takes me back to Christmas Eve at my Godmother's house and the best black beans and rice with roast pork I have ever had! 

Ditto for the preparation of a roasted whole chicken, although the family had a strong preference for pork.

In Cuban cooking, mojo is a sauce/marinade that is made with garlic, olive oil and a citrus juice, traditionally sour orange juice.  Orange and lime juice can be used as a substitute if sour oranges are not available.

In my area, sour orange trees are prevalent since we live right on the line of the subtropical gardening zone.  When the sweet juicing orange trees would die from an occasional freeze, what grew back from the trunk was not a sweet orange, but a sour orange, much like a lemon, but sweeter.  Our house sits on a former orange grove, so the sour orange trees are still popping up from the birds scattering the seeds.  What a blessing!  I'm not even sure if they are locally sold in stores since I have never had to buy them.  I do know that you can buy bottled mojo in the ethnic section of the grocery store.

The Captain has developed quite a fondness for this concoction we call cuban mojo since we married and he was introduced to a whole new world of food and cooking.  He has become the official mojo maker, storing the mojo in old wine bottles that accompany all his other concoctions and sauces in the fridge.  He continues to experiment with the basic recipe by adding some form of hot pepper to the mix with some delicious results.

Honestly, all you need is a great mojo sauce to flavor your pork roast or whole chicken in a quick and easy prep . . . marinated and/or basted . . . cooked in the oven, grill/smoker or slow cooker does all the work.   For us, it is the most economical way for us to prepare them since we don't have to buy fancy, expensive sauces.

Some ideas for the use of mojo that we love:

Mojo is also used on seafood and beef. 

Add a splash of mojo to a shrimp scampi type of dish or baked fish with onions.

 Shrimp is awesome marinaded in mojo and grilled for a few minutes for a tasty appetizer. 

 Palomilla (a thin steak cut from the round) or cubed steak marinated in mojo and pan fried with grilled onions is awesome . . . put that steak and onions in some hot crusty bread for a sandwich that is to die for. 

 I love putting some mojo on black beans and rice for extra flavor! 

 It is one of those concoctions that can go a long way with a little imagination and creativity in your cooking.

Basic Cuban Mojo Recipe

½ cup of olive oil

10 garlic cloves, minced, but best processed in a blender with the juices  (You could use as few as 6 or 8, but in my opinion, the more garlic, the better!)
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup lime juice
¾ tsp ground cumin

¾ tsp oregano
½ tsp salt (or to taste)

Process the garlic cloves with the juices until garlic is minced super fine if a blender is available.

Stir in the olive oil and spices.

You can use bottled sour orange juice available in the Hispanic foods/ethnic section of most grocery stores, however, lime juice and orange juice work just as well in a 1 to 1 formula.

The mojo can be kept in the refrigerator for three days to a week, if it lasts that long!

If you don't want to mess with making your own mojo, there are some very good varieties available in the ethnic section of the grocery store.

Gina's Mojo Pork

Another recipe for Cuban Mojo Pork

Gina's Cuban Style Fried Rice

Although I shared many of my recipes when I first started this blog, I don't do it often enough.  One of the reasons is my method of cooking is difficult to explain for someone else to duplicate.  Best way I can describe it . . . I just throw stuff together and don't measure anything.  

Then there is the problem of taking good photos of the process!  Truth is . . . it is not a pretty process when either The Captain or I cook, although it is a much neater process when we work together, as we often do.  With that said . . . I'm going to make an effort to start taking photos when we cook and share more of our own recipes or variations of recipes that I post.

Anyway . . . here is how I make what I call Cuban Fried Rice.

It is rarely the same every time since it depends on what I have in the fridge, so use my method as a starting point and use what you like or have in the fridge.

Almost everything in this meal were leftovers.  We had a thick cut pork chop and some of a wild rice mix left over from the night before.  

I hate throwing food away and try to use it for another meal.

Saute two diced onions and minced garlic with a little olive oil . . . seasoned with cumin and cayenne pepper.  (If I have them on hand, I always add whatever type of peppers I have.  I use one or two depending on what I have.)

I didn't have quite enough meat from the left over pork chop, so I put in a frozen chicken breast in with the onion and garlic in the pan.  

When the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the onions caramelized, cut into bite sized pieces and add the pork chop cut into thin strips. Let them cook a bit (15-20 minutes) so the flavors blend.

Add the rice and a can of peas to the pan and stir well to blend all the ingredients together.  Turn the heat down to low, put a lid on the pan and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

I'm not in a hurry when I cook.  Each step blends the flavors together . . . taste as you go along!  The first step, caramelizing the onions and garlic with the seasonings, is the most important step since it is the flavor base of your meal.  Latinos call this a "sofrito."  

Usually I will turn the heat down and walk away from it between adding ingredients.  An important point to mention is that I strictly use stainless steel cookware which holds the heat well and will not burn your food if you don't cook on really high heat.  Sometimes I even turn the burner off for the last step as long as I keep the lid on the pan.  

I bought my set of cookware back when I was in high school!  A good set of cookware is an awesome investment since they will last forever. 

This is the style of cooking I learned from my Nana and it really does make cooking a meal a joyous thing . . . or maybe I was just a born foodie and naturally enjoy it!

I have so many variations for my "fried rice" . . . it is awesome with shrimp or fish too.  The vegetable and rice variations are endless!  It is fun to experiment with cooking :)

Hope my instructions made sense!  Feel free to ask questions through comments.