Camp Cooking: Pit Cooking Pork (Cochinita Pibil)

I recently went Mamping (Man camping, duh) with 2 of my good buddies up into the local mountains. It really isn't the best time of the year to go camping, the water is mostly dried up, the plants are dead and it's pretty hot, but we wanted to get out of the city. We did find a small campground out in the Cuyamaca Mountains that had plenty of shade, higher elevation (cooler temps) and within an hour drive of downtown San Diego called Cibbet's Flats. The main purpose of the trip was to have some fun, drink some beers and eat some good camp food.






Speaking of camp food, I have wanted to try pit cooking for a while now. The basic idea is you dig a hole, make a fire, wrap your meat and bury it for a while. It is the primitive way of slow cooking. So basically you can do any dish that you would normally slow cook. Think Crock-pot meals except I would advise against anything stew-like unless you have a dutch oven. To me slow cooking means pork. Pork is great because it is highly fatty, which breaks down over time into moist flavors.

After looking through a bunch of online recipes I decided on Cochinita Pibil. I'm still not quite sure if it is Mayan or Yucatecan, more than likely both.

Here are a list of the best recipes I found:
- CHOW
- Simply Recipes
- Dad Cooks Dinner

The Basics and you can scale howeer you need:

• 3 lbs pork chopped in chunks (get the cheapest, fattiest stuff you can = more flavor)
• Marinade - Blend until smooth(ish)
• 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
• 2 bell peppers - pick your favorite colors
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• ~4 oz of achiote paste
• 1 orange (sour or Seville preferred, I just used under ripe Valencia Oranges)
• 2 cloves garlic
• oregano -  If fresh, a small bunch, dried 1/4 tsp.
• 2 bay leaves

Marinate for 24 hours in ziploc bags.

Wrap in Foil (Traditionally banana leaves, but these were harder to find than I thought) - don't be shy with the foil - this is the only thing preventing dirt in your food. I used the weave technique and had good success. And then I added a second layer over the whole package.

Dig a hole or use a fire pit. Then line the pit with rocks (these retain your heat).

Start a fire - A decent sized fire with some charcoal added helps. We cooked our bacon-wrapped veggie burgers over the coils for Friday night's dinner. Side note: Bacon wrapped veggie burgers are legit, you can wait till the bacon is cooked without risking the burger getting overcooked. Top with caramelized onions and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce.

Once you are done with you fire for the night. And done drinking (we got to taste a bunch of homebrews), then put the foil packs right on the coils.

Bury the "goods" with dirt to trap in all the heat.

Open the foil carefully and get ready for beautifully cooked pork.

Serve on corn or flour tortillas with eggs, potatoes and hot carrots for breakfast. And then for lunch or dinner, serve on bolillos to make great tortas.

Yum. Ideas for next pit cooking session include: Carnitas, Chile Verde, Beer BBQ Pulled Pork

Homemade Mustard - Using (Non)Native Plants

It took me a long time to figure out that mustard can taste good. I actually found out when my wife and I traveled to Germany. In Deutschland, they let you order your sausage by the meter and keep filling your glass till you surrender (or cover it with a coaster). It was there that I got adventurous and decided to give mustard another shot; I'm so glad I did. And then I started paying more attention to this condiment and realized the numerous amount of combinations. I relate this to the eye-awakening experience of finding out that more than fizzy yellow beer exists.




From that point forward, I tried all sorts of different mustard. And that eventually lead me to want to make my own. It didn't seem like it would be too difficult and has a lot of similarities to beer making. Here are the basics:

• Cold Liquid produces Hot Mustard, Hot Liquid produces Mild Mustard 
• Similar to Beer Mashing - your temperature will determine how much you denature compounds (myrosin (enzyme) mixes with sinigrin or sinalbin (glucosinolates) that produce the heat (mustard oil))
• Amount of heat will peak at 15 min, then start dropping
• Add acid to preserve your heat level
• Another way to denature compounds - lower pH
• White Mustard (mild), Brown Mustard (medium), Black Mustard (hot)
• Different amounts of sinigrin or sinalbin (glucosinolates)
• Must grind or crush the seeds to get access to the compounds
• Food Processor or Spice Grinder or Mortar and Pestle
• Make 24 hours in advance to allow bitterness to subside

Now you now the basics, so how about an easy recipe that you can easily adjust for your tastes

MUSTARD - 1 cup serving

• 6 tablespoons mustard seeds (Collect your own - see below)
• 1/2 cup mustard powder (Cheap at Ethnic Grocery Stores)
• 3 tablespoons vinegar (cider, wine or sherry) 
• 1/2 cup wine, beer or water 
• 2 teaspoons salt 

Optional ingredients that I really enjoyed:

• Chipotles in Adobo sauce with Black mustard (Super Hot)
• Honey  (Commercial versions are 1:1 ratios)
• Sour Beer (Great for lowering the pH to set the heat level)

Living in California we have a ton of Black Mustard growing thanks to those Spanish Missionaries. I decided late summer to try and gather my own. The gathering part was quite easy once I figured out a good system:

• Wear gloves
• Wear a big basket or bag around your neck
• With nice thick gloves just grab each stalk and strip the seeds right into your bag/basket

The sorting part is time consuming and I don't have it figured out perfectly (if anyone knows a better way, I'd appreciate knowing)

Start with a gross sort using a strainer or colander - keep sifting. Then I washed the seeds several times in big plastic bowls. And then into the spice grinder and followPublish Post the above directions.

EDIT 2/24/12 - I had to change the title so my environmental friend would not correct me. Black mustard is actually an invasive non-native species. So please collect the seeds.