Puerco Pibil ... ish

The meal that Johnny Depp's character in 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico' will execute the Chef for if it is too good, thus restoring balance to the country.

Talk about cooking completely blind - I literally had no idea how to make this. I could read the recipes, look at the pictures, but had no cultural reference for ensuring authenticity.

Typical of me, I decided to do it completely different, hence the "ish" in the title.

I decided to use belly pork. I decided to slow cook the meat first and then marinate it afterwards.

I put a piece of belly pork in the oven at 100C for 6 hours while I went to work ... upon my return,  it was cool enough to touch and I set about pulling the fibres from the fat and skin. The skin made Pork Scratchings and the fat was rendered out into a ramekin for use later.

With the meat strands on a board, I seasoned it with ground cumin, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, celery salt, white pepper and a touch of cinnamon. Oregano was sprinkled over and the meat folded a few times to ensure it was all well covered.

Into a mixing bowl and the juice of one lime, a capful of cider vinegar and a good splash of Sherry vinegar. Doing it the right way, this, and a lot more liquid, would be used to marinate the meat prior to cooking.

Minced garlic was added along with generous helpings of Habanero and Chiptole sauces - Tabasco.

Left to marinade for a few hours and then cooked in a frying pan to reduce the liquid, shred out the meat and warm through.

Served with a helping of white rice - if you're not happy about the rice, use cauliflower rice, maybe some greens, whatever you like to use in place.

Most likely completely wrong and nothing at all like Puerco Pibil, but it was delicious! The taste was hot, sour, sweet, intriguing; the rice giving respite from the heat!

Right ... I'm off to shoot the Chef!