Roast Mojo Pork: Making the Cubano from the Film Chef, Part 1
Translated from my original Japanese post (2019). 日本語の原文を読む →
Hi! It's Yoko, your food blogger.
Out of the blue: do you know the Cuban sandwich (also called a Cubano)?
It's a panini-like sandwich: Cuban bread, which is similar to a baguette, is spread with butter and mustard, filled with roast pork, ham, pickles and cheese, then brushed with butter and pressed until crisp in a sandwich press!
The Cuban sandwich appears in the movie "Chef" (the film about a chef who starts a food truck), and it looks incredibly delicious...
And what's being roasted in the first half of this video is roast mojo pork!
Today I'm sharing a recipe for roast mojo pork, which is essential for this Cuban sandwich.
Roast mojo pork recipe
I wanted to make it just like in "Chef," so
I searched everywhere for the recipe and found it on reddit (an online forum)!
It was in a comment on a mojo pork thread posted by someone who appears to be the star of the film, Jon Favreau himself.
Here's the original English recipe by Roy Choi, the food director of "Chef."
Brine:
* 4 cups orange juice
* 3.5 cups water
* 1/2 cup rice vinegar
* 1/2 cup spiced rum
* 1/2 cup salt
* 1/4 cup sugar
* lots of minced garlic
* 1 tbs fresh thyme
* 1 tbs fresh rosemary
* 1 tbs fresh oregano
* 1 tbs fresh sage peppercorns
* 3 bay leaves
Mojo Marinade:
* 6 lb pork shoulder
* 2/3 cups olive oil
* 2/3 cups cilantro
* 4 tbs mint leaves
* 1/2 cups orange juice
* 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lime juice
* 7 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 ½ tbs grated orange peel
* 2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
* 1 tsp ground cumin
* 2/3 tsps. black pepper, ground
* 2/3 tsps. fine sea salt
Other items:
* Loaves of baguette
* American Yellow mustard
* Swiss cheese
* Pickles (sliced lengthwise)
* Butter Sliced ham
Method:
Brine pork shoulder for 12 hours. Prepare Mojo Marinade.
Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Marinate pork shoulder in Mojo Marinade for at least 2 hours.
Slow roast pork shoulder til 170 (76°C) internal temp (should still be a light pink on inside).
Baste pork with marinade throughout roasting. Let pork rest until cool enough to handle. If time allows, refrigerate to make it easier to slice.
Thinly slice, then grill.
Cut baguettes approximately 9″ long. Butter inside of baguette or roll and then toast until golden brown.
From bottom up, layer: 1) grilled sliced pork 2) grilled ham slices 3) swiss cheese 4) pickles sliced thinly lengthwise Slather mustard from edge to edge on top bun. Close sandwich. Generously brush melted butter on top of bread. Butter heated plancha and press until golden brown.
*Note that a US cup is 235 ml!
Everything up to the first paragraph of the Method is the roast mojo pork part.
Roast mojo pork recipe (in plain measurements)
I picked out the roast mojo pork part of the recipe and rewrote it with metric amounts.
The original recipe calls for a hefty 2.7 kg of pork, so this time I made it with 800 g.
I scaled the other ingredients down proportionally to match the weight of the meat.
This size makes about 8 Cuban sandwiches!
Ingredients for roast mojo pork
Pork 800 g
[Brine]
Orange juice 280 ml
Water 240 ml
Rice vinegar 2 tbsp
Spiced rum 2 tbsp
Pork shoulder 800 g
Garlic 2 cloves
Salt 2 tbsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Black pepper 1 tsp
Thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary 1 tsp each (fresh if you have it)
Bay leaf 1
[Mojo marinade]
Olive oil 4 tbsp
Cilantro 50 g (about 2 packs)
Mint 1 tbsp
Orange juice 2 tbsp
Lime juice 2 tbsp
Garlic 2 cloves
Orange zest 1 tsp
Oregano 1/2 tsp (fresh if you have it)
Cumin 1/3 tsp
How to make roast mojo pork
- Soak the pork in the well-mixed brine for 12 hours to 1 day.
- Take the pork out of the brine and dry it, then rub on the mojo sauce and marinate for at least 2 hours.
- After marinating, sprinkle the surface of the pork with salt and pepper and roast in an oven preheated to 140°C (284°F) for 2 hours.
- For the last 15 minutes or so, raise the heat to 200°C (392°F) or higher to brown the surface.
- Chill it thoroughly in the fridge, slice thinly, and pan-fry the slices. Done.
Tips for making roast mojo pork
Some things, like spiced rum and fresh herbs, are hard to find at the supermarket,
but don't stress about it and just give it a try.
If you can't find oranges without anti-mold treatment, boil the peel!
About the orange peel used in the brine: most oranges at the supermarket are imported,
and it's hard to find ones without anti-mold treatment.
The treatment sits right on the peel you want to use, so I looked for a way around it and found a good one!
According to experiments by Saitama Prefecture (2003) and the city of Fukuoka (2013), boiling the peel and discarding the water removes 60 to 80% of the anti-mold agents.
Doing it twice removes more than 80 to 90%.
The peel turns paste-like when boiled, but it keeps a decent amount of aroma, so I recommend it.
I haven't tried it, but marmalade might work too.
Be generous with the herbs and spices!
The original recipe calls for a ton of herbs, and fresh ones at that.
But they're hard to find... (sob)
So for the ones I couldn't get fresh, I used dried.
The amounts are just a guide, and being approximate is totally fine.
Be sure to add plenty of cilantro for the mojo marinade in particular. If it's too runny, it will be hard to spread.
Watch your oven temperature!
You want the center of the pork cooked to 76°C (170°F), with a faint pink remaining, while the outside is roasted until fragrant,
so the method is to roast at low heat first and finish at high heat.
Oven temperatures vary a lot from home to home, so adjust as needed.
(If you have an ANOVA, you could brine the pork, cook it sous vide at 76°C, and then apply the mojo marinade.)
Also, if you have a rack, roast the pork on top of it so the underside browns well too.
So that's how to make roast mojo pork.
It's essential for the Cuban sandwich, but it's also delicious just roasted and eaten as is, so please give it a try!
The Cuban bread recipe got long, so I'll put it in a separate post.
See you next time! Au revoir!
