How to cook Rodriguez's Puerco Pibil and how to find ingredients!

italian version here

I finally did it again, and this time I did it right. It's puerco pibil, the dish that Robert Rodriguez shows in his "ten minutes cooking school" in the extras of "Once upon a time in mexico" DVD. And I'm writin
Here is mr Rodriguez orginal explanation.



and here's the recipe Rodriguez gives:

5 whole table spoons of annato seeds
2 whole tea spoons of cumin seeds
1 tea spoon peppercorns
8 whole allspice seeds
½ whole tea spoon cloves

Grind the above in a spice mill/coffee grinder.

2 habanero chiles, stems and seeds removed, chopped
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 table spoones salt
8 cloves garlic

Combine the above with the spice mix in a blender, and puree.
Add the Juice of 5 lemons, and splash of the finest tequila.

Cut cut into 2-inch cubes 5 pounds of pork butt. Combine all ingredients in a zip-lock bag and shake well. Let it rest in fridge for some hours (at leasst 5-6).

Line a 9x13 pan with banana leaves; add the pork mixture; fold over the leaves to cover, then cover tightly with foil.

Bake 4 hours at 325 fahreneith (175 celsius) and serve over rice.

The dish is not hard to cook, and it doesn't take much working time. But you need some hours to MARINARE the meat and 4 hours to cook it. So you can make it the morning for the evening (or if you use to sleep at morning, the night for the evening).

The main problem is to find all ingredients. Expecially it's hard to find banana leaves, annato seeds all spice seeds and habanero peppers. Here in Italy Banana plants are not hard to find, expecially in the country. You can use just some leaves (they're big) with tin foil, and you'll get that special flavour and appareance. Annato seeds aren't hard to find in spice or ethinc shops, while all seeds and habanero are. A place in Milan where you can find Annato is "Surgelati dal Mondo" in corso 22 Marzo. I've been able to find All Spice in a market in Dominican Republic, but I've never seen them in Italy. Habanero are hard to find too, and I've been forced to replace them with some very strong african chili peppers.

For what concern the recipe, a coffee grinder is exential. You need to spices them well to have the good flavour. The meat is important too. Use pork butt, no second choice.
Rodriguez recipe uses the juice of five lemons. That's definitely too much! I think 2-3 can be the right amount! Don't forget the splash of Tequila, and put the meat to rest.

After the right amount of time, prepare your CASSERUOLA with tin foil and Banana Leaves. Put the meat inside, cover with leaves, and fix well with foil. Put it in the Oven at 175 Celsius, and leave it alone for 4 hours. Don't open it, don't watch it too much.. Just smell it if you're worried.

Serve with rice, since if you use the right amount of chili, it's gonna be really strong. And now it's time to taste!