Cuban Pork Roast `a la POM

The gracious and generous folks over at POMWonderful sent me a box of 8 bottles of POM juice. I have made a punch with it, used it here-but have yet to drink it straight from the bottle. I should remedy that with one of the bottles left.

I first had a Cuban sandwich in 2001 when I took my daughters to Florida for a mini vacation at my Dad and step-mom's rental house. They were in the process of building their house and rented a home so Dad could oversee the construction. Since we went in June it was super hot outside. We literally went from air conditioned house to air conditioned car to air conditioned restaurant/store/other people's homes. They took us to a small restaurant and we had Cuban sandwiches. I of course don't like pickles so I had them hold those. That was one terrific sandwich. I have had a couple here in Minnesota, and while they were good, they didn't quite get the taste spot on.

I found a recipe for Cuban Pork Roast from Hamilton Beach while doing a search on-line. I didn't follow it exactly, but rather used it for a guide for some seasonings. It didn't taste like the pork in the sandwich either, but it was so good.

Cuban Pork Roast `a la POM

5 pound pork roast-used a bone in
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. southwestern season blend
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
3 TBSP fresh lemon juice, zest the lemon first
3 TBSP fresh lime juice, zest the lime first
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1/3 cup POM juice
the lemon and lime zest

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except roast and zest. Store zest in zipper bag in fridge.
Place roast in gallon size zipper bag and place the baggie in a bowl. Pour the marinade over the pork, squish around to cover meat and place in fridge overnight. In the morning, remove roast from the marinade and place in a slow cooker. Sprinkle with the citrus zest. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours.

We had this for dinner the first night, and I shredded the rest of the pork up, stirred in some barbecue sauce and served it as shredded pork sandwiches the second night. It was honestly delicious. It was flavorful and tender, not really sweet but had a small hint of the juice. The original recipe calls for red wine, but we are not huge red drinkers and I also made it on the work weekend, so I didn't want to open a bottle and have it sit in the fridge for 3 days until we could drink it.

Still looking at our options for the mini remodel of the kitchen along with the lower level bath remodel. I may have to lower my standards on the counter top and the dual fuel stove as our dishwasher broke and we needed to gut the downstairs bathroom because of a leaky shower and potential mold issue. I want to check with our remodel guy about the choices of the granite-look laminates and I found a stainless steel 5 burner, all gas model stove that is really nice-and about half the price of the dual fuel. While I would really like the electric oven for baking, I need to be realistic about what I want and what I need.

Had my MRI this week and just about tossed my cookies on the poor radiographer's shoes. I am so claustrophobic it isn't even funny. Everyone laughs when I tell them that I can't even watch people scuba dive on TV because I can't breathe. It is a pain and I feel like a big baby. I have a really high threshold for pain, but apparently narrow, white tubes that make loud clicky noises turn me into a sniveling mess. The only saving grace was that it was elbow they were looking at, so I had to put it up over my head in a kind of 'arm cuff' and they only pushed me in to about my chest. I was able to see out of the end so I didn't panic as much as I did last time. All that was running through my mind was how I could wiggle out of the cuff and escape if the power went out and they weren't able to get the slide to come out of the tube. I know, I need professional help! Hopefully we will know next week what we are dealing with and how long I will be out of commission. I need to get some more food made and pictures taken so I have some in reserves.

Off to catch up with every one's posts.