Here Piggy, Piggy!

One of the things my husband and I have in common is our love for latin food. He's orignially from Key West, Florida, and I was born a bit north of that near Tampa, Florida. Both areas are rich in latin culture, which brings an an abundance of influence to the culinary scene. Both of us grew up with latin food in our lives as much as other kids did eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We are both very lucky to have had that kind of ethnic exposure.

His sister can make a flan that will bring tears to your eyes, and I, my friends, bring you a Spanish Roasted pork that will make you weep. It's not something to be rushed, but the end result is nothing short of ecstasy. For this, you will need:

Spanish Roasted Pork

1 Pork Shoulder Picnic (anywhere from 5-9 lbs, depending on how much you want)
1 - 2 heads of garlic, peeled (large cloves to be sliced in half length wise)
Sazon Spanish seasoning by Goya (found in the ethic section of the grocery store)
Adobo all purpose seasoning by Goya (again in the ethnic section)
4-6 T olive oil

Now, the first thing you want to do with your piggy is give it a good rinse off and pat dry. Grab a small knife, then make slits in the piggy for the garlic cloves. This little piggy was about 9 lbs., so we used about 1 1/2 heads of garlic cloves. A smaller piggy probably just needs one head worth of cloves.

Next, stick the garlic cloves in the slits you made. Be sure to do this ALL over the piggy, skin side too.

Once that is done, sprinkle anywhere from 3-5 packets of the Sazon seasoning total all over the piggy. Follow that with a LIGHT dusting of the Adobo seasoning. Be careful with the Adobo, as too much will make the piggy too salty. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place Mr. Piggy on a heavy bottomed roasting pan (not aluminum), skin side up. Add the olive oil to the bottom of the pan (or you can do that before you put Mr. Piggy in...'prolly easier). Cover Mr. Piggy and roasting pan completely with a large sheet of tin foil and roast 3-5 hours. One hour before finishing, remove the foil and continue roasting. Our piggy took the enitre 5 hours because he was so big.

Once Mr. Piggy is done, remove from the oven and slice off the top fatty skin and discard. Do not drain the grease from pan (I know this goes against everything that you've ever learned about healthy eating, but trust me...it's worth it!)

Use a fork and knife to slice/shred meat off Mr. Piggy. Discard bones.



Then toss the meat with the grease/juices, and all its porky goodness. Try not to moan too loud when you try this.


We ate ours with white rice and red beans...HEAVEN!