I love Greek gyros, so when I saw this recipe in the Top Chef Cookbook, I knew I had to eat it. Though completely different in flavor, gyros and these Moroccan Cubanos are similar in spirit – a spiced meat with vegetables wrapped in a warm pita. It’s freakin’ awesome.
For Top Chef watchers, this recipe came from Season 1, Episode 5 where the contestants in teams (in this case Dave and Tiffani, a friendly pair) had to combine two culinary cultures of San Francisco into a street food.
The recipe itself is a slow-roasted shredded pork, flavored with ras al-hanout, then topped with pickled vegetables and served in a pita.
Morrocan Cubanos Recipe
For the pork, you’ll need a 4-5 pound pork butt, bone in (and trimmed), two tablespoons ras al-hanout, one cup chicken stock, and one cup veal stock. For the vegetables, you need 3 cups red wine vinegar (I think I cut this down to two cups – three was practically more than a whole bottle, it was fine), a cup of sugar, one tablespoon fennel seeds, four carrots, a red onion, and a few fresh jalapeno chiles. You’ll also need some pitas.
To begin, turn on your oven to 275º F and get your pork butt (be careful – it is not actually the butt, but the shoulder) out of the refrigerator. If you need to, go ahead and mix your ras al-hanout.
Rub the pork all over with the ras al-hanout and some salt.
Heat a large cast iron skillet or other heavy pan over a high-ish heat – whatever works well for browning. High heat would be way to high on my stove, so I used medium-high. Brown the pork on each side (a few minutes each probably). I’d also like to point out that the browning of the spices made me cough like crazy. Be careful.
Move the pork to a roasting pan and add the stocks and a half cup of water. Roast the whole thing for 4-5 hours at the 275º F.
You want it soft enough to pull apart with forks. Note: I occassionally basted the pork and turned it. Also, the liquid in my pan got a little too dry, so watch it and add more water if necessary.
At any point between when you put the pork in the oven and when it will be done, you can work on the pickled vegetables. First, julienne the carrots and onion, and slice the jalapenos thinly. Place them in a heat-proof bowl.
Combine your vinegar, sugar, fennel and 3 cups of water in a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
When boiling, pour your vinegar mixture over the vegetables and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. You need to let the vegetables steam for about 20 minutes before pouring out all but a cup of the liquid. Then you can go ahead and stick the bowl in the refrigerator until the pork is ready. The recipe says the vegetables should be about room temperature when serving.
When your pork is done, remove it to a cutting board or platter. Also, pour the juices in the pan into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. You want to reduce it to a little under a cup.
While the sauce is boiling, shred your pork with a couple forks, then mix it with your reduced sauce in a bowl.
To serve, warm a pita in a skillet over medium heat, remove it, then add some pork and pickled vegetables. Next? Feast.
How Was It?
It was fantastic. The ras al-hanout really gives the pork a different flavor than you’re used it. The pickled vegetables on top add a fresh crunch, along with it their vinegar-y flavor. It all goes really well together.
No-Look Cooking
Recipe
Season a pork butt with ras al-hanout, brown it, then roast it at 275º F with some meat and poultry stock until it can be pulled apart.
Top with pickled carrot, red onion, and jalapenos. Serve on a pita.
Techniques
Slow roasting pork / Shredded pork – Brown then roast at 275º F.
Pork butts make good shredded pork.
Pickling vegetables: combine equal parts red wine vinegar and water, add some sugar, boil then pour over vegetables. Allow the vegetables to steam, covered, then pour away some liquid.
Preheat the oven to 275º F. Season the pork butt with ras al-hanout and salt.
Brown the pork in a cast iron skillet over medium-high to high heat on each side. A few minutes per side.
Roast the pork in a roasting pan with the veal and chicken stock, plus about a half cup of water, for 4-5 hours, or until the pork can be pulled apart with a fork. You may need to add more water throughout the cooking so the stocks don’t solidify.
Boil the vinegar and 3 cups water with the sugar and fennel seeds. Stir to ensure the sugar is dissolved.
Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables, then cover with plastic wrap and let them steam for 20 minutes. Pour off all but a cup of the liquid, then store in the refrigerator.
When the pork is done roasting, remove it from the pan and shred it with two forks.
Boil the cooking juices in a sauce pan until reduced to a little under a cup. Combine the reduced juices with the pork.
Warm a pita and top it with the pork and pickled vegetables.
I saw this video of Mark Bittman from the 2007 TED conference. Not that you have to agree with everything he says (and I’m not claiming I do), but I think his history of food in America (at the 7:45 mark) is interesting, and it’s certainly not a bad idea to think more about what we’re eating. I know I should reduce my meat intake and increase my plant eating.
I’d never heard of ras al-hanout until I decided to make Moroccan Cubanos (recipe coming Monday, via the Top Chef Cookbook).
Ras al-hanout is a Moroccan/North African/Middle Eastern spice blend. Per wikipedia, the name means “head of the shop” in Arabic, which refers to it being a mixture of a shop’s best spices.
There is no single recipe, and the various spices that can be included are nigh infinite, though there is frequently cumin, cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, allspice, paprika…you get the idea.
In the recipe I made, it is a spice rub for meat, though it can also be used with rice or couscous.
Here is a simple recipe from the cookbook:
Combine -
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cayenne
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
It tasted great – I encourage you to make your own, whether following this recipe or mixing your own concoction.
I recently made chili for the first time, but instead of giving you the recipe, I’d like to discuss the components of chili to get a better understanding of what it is and how it’s made.
The recipe I followed was fairly simple (All-American Beef Chili from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook). I’ve also looked at a few other recipes to see what’s common in each and how they differ. My goal for the post is to get an understanding of chili so the next time I want to make it, without a recipe I can say, “I need ingredients A,B, and C (with various options for each) and need to do X, Y, and Z.” Let me know if the post is interesting or helpful, since it’s a slightly different way of looking at foods/recipes.
Ingredients
I’ve categorized the chili ingredients into five basic…categories: vegetables, meat & beans, spices, tomatoes, and liquid. Admittedly those are pretty general, and could apply to a number of different foods, so let’s take a closer look.
Vegetables – The standard veggie in most chili is the onion, so I’d remember that one. The second most common is the bell pepper, but outside of those two, there aren’t normally other veggies included (unless you’re talking fresh chilies, which I’m including in the spice section). Still, I’d use what you have and/or what you like – tossing in a diced carrot won’t kill anyone (except perhaps a chili purist).
Meat & Beans – You can use one or both – it’s up to you. Really, the only requirement on the meat side is that it should probably be ground. You can use beef, pork, turkey or chicken. It’s kind of the same with beans – red kidney beans may be the most common, but nearly any will work, including pinto, black, and cannellini.
Spices – Of course the most common is your chili powder, which can vary quite a bit by itself. Next, you’ll frequently see cumin and oregano (according to Mark Bittman your chili can just use ground chilies, cumin and oregano – excluding regular chili powder). Garlic is a big one too. Those are probably the big four to remember. Your always welcome, of course, to add fresh chilies if you have them. Other various spices I saw included allspice, cloves, paprika, bay leaf, cayenne, and chipotle powder.
Tomatoes – Tomatoes are often used to achieve the texture you want. There is usually some sort of tomato sauce or purée, but once you have that feel free to improvise. You can dice some whole tomatoes, or use canned crushed, stewed, or diced. Just remember that tomatoes are for texture.
Liquid – Not all chili will require a separate liquid – it is largely dependent on the tomatoes you use. For example if you are using diced tomatoes packed in juice, the juice will provide much of the liquid you need. If your chili is looking dry, however, feel free to toss in some water or various stock.
Cooking
Now that we have a basic idea of chili ingredients (vegetables, meat & beans, spices, tomatoes, and liquid), I’d like to discuss basic methods of preparation.
First, make sure your beans are cooked.
Next, you’ll probably want to brown the meat and sauté the vegetables. You can also spice the meat or veggies now if you want.
Finally, you’ll combine all your ingredients in a pot and simmer for a couple hours.
That’s about it – you have “five” ingredients, and “three” steps. As a disclaimer, I haven’t tried this without a recipe yet, but I would imagine if you’re tasting along the way you could come up with a pretty good chili.
This first time I tried to cook cauliflower (see my puréed Indian cauliflower soup) I butchered the cutting of the cauliflower. I was cutting straight into the florets (the bumpy outside), creating a huge mess of broken pieces and crumbs. Now this didn’t end up mattering, since the soup was puréed, but still, I looked like a total noob.
The key, I found, was getting underneath the florets to cut the numerous stems.
Think of cauliflower like a bush – it has a big middle stem at the bottom and a bunch of smaller branches that hold leaves on the end. The leaves are the florets.
To get whole florets, you have to get beneath the leaves – the bumpy outside – and cut the stem underneath. It is hardest for the first floret, since green leaves can hide the smaller stems.
After getting my first floret cut, digging underneath the leaves, it was a revelation seeing all the smaller stems. It is much easier cutting the rest once the first is removed.
So if you need pretty looking florets, flip your cauliflower head upside down, so the stem is facing up, and squeeze a paring knife in the space between a floret and the stem. Cut the easiest smaller stem you see, then continue to cut the smaller stems to get florets (now much easier with one removed).
I know this is a lot of words for a minor thing, but it provided one of those “ah-ha, now I understand” moments when I was cooking, so hopefully it can help someone else.
June 22, 2009 
Posted in Recipes | 
2 Comments » |
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