This recipe was written by John Gregory-Smith, inspired by his recent trip to Ecuador…
Every morning in the central food market of Ecuador’s cool colonial capital, Quito, a queue of people forms around 9am, all waiting to get their hands on the heavenly hornado that’s cooked daily. It’s a wonderful pork dish, roasted in beer and spices, until soft and tender. The meat has a lovely fragrance and zesty pop from lashings of lime juice. It’s fabulous stuffed generously into a roll and served with a crunchy salad or over rice with aji chilli sauce.
Ingredients
- pork shoulder 2kg, skin scored
- garlic 8 cloves
- ground cumin 1 tbsp
- ground coriander 1 tbsp
- smoked paprika 2 tsp
- unsalted butter 50g
- limes 2, juiced, plus extra wedges to serve
- IPA beers 355ml
Method
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Step 1
Put the pork in a large dish and pat dry with kitchen paper. Blend the garlic in a mini food processor with the cumin, coriander, paprika, butter, the juice of 1 lime and a good pinch of salt. Slather the spiced butter all over the meat of the pork, avoiding the skin. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight.
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Step 2
Remove the pork from the fridge an hour before cooking, to come to room temperature. Heat the oven to 240C/fan 220C/gas 9. Transfer the meat to a roasting tray, pour the beer in around the joint (not over it), cover with a double layer of foil and put into the oven. Reduce the temperature to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6 and cook for 2 hours.
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Step 3
Remove the pork from the oven, baste really well (again, avoiding the skin), re-cover and return to the oven for 1½-2 hours or until really tender.
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Step 4
Carefully cut and pull the skin from the pork using a pair of tongs to protect your fingers, leaving as much fat behind as possible – this will help the crackling crisp. Put the skin on a baking tray and put back in the oven, uncovered. Cook until it has turned into really crisp crackling.
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Step 5
Trim and discard any excess fat from the pork then remove from the tin, cover and rest for 20 minutes. Pour the juices from the tin into a jug and skim off any fat. Add the juices left to a small pan with 300ml of water and simmer until reduced slightly.
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Step 6
Using two forks, shred the pork and pour over 1/2 of the reduced cooking juices. Squeeze over the remaining lime juice and season with salt. Toss together and transfer to a warmed serving dish. Serve immediately with the crackling, the remaining juices in a bowl, the lime wedges, chilli sauce and bread or rice.
Nutritional Information
- Kcals 491
- Fat 32.5g
- Saturates 12.6g
- Carbs 1.4g
- Sugars 0.9g
- Fibre 1.1g
- Protein 45.6g
- Salt 0.3g
