Poc Chuc

Pressed thin and in the sour orange for twenty minutes only, because the acid starts cooking it after that.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains lard, pork.

Ingredients

the pork

• 800 g pork loin, in 1 cm slices
• 200 ml sour orange juice, or 130 ml orange with 70 ml lime
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• black pepper

to serve

• 2 red onions, in thick slices
• 3 tomatoes, halved
• juice of 2 limes
• a handful of coriander, chopped
• corn tortillas, as on their own page
• refried beans, as on their own page
• 1 habanero, sliced very thin

Method

1. IT IS PRESSED THIN AND IN THE SOUR ORANGE FOR TWENTY MINUTES ONLY, because the acid starts cooking it after that. A centimetre-thick slice of loin, flattened under a rolling pin to about half that, has almost no mass and a great deal of surface. Sour orange juice is strongly acid, and on meat that thin it penetrates in minutes: twenty minutes seasons it right through and leaves it raw and pink. An hour, and the surface has gone opaque and firm the way a ceviche does, and that part-cooked layer will not brown on the grill -- it goes grey and squeaks. The marinade is therefore timed with a clock, not left while the fire is built.
2. THE SLICES ARE FLATTENED BETWEEN PLASTIC BEFORE MARINATING. A rolling pin or the base of a pan, worked from the middle out. Thin is what lets the dish cook in two or three minutes a side over fierce heat, which is the only way to get char on pork without drying it.
3. THE ONIONS AND TOMATOES ARE GRILLED AND THEN DRESSED SEPARATELY. Thick slices of red onion and halved tomatoes charred on the grill alongside, then chopped and tossed with lime juice and coriander into a warm relish. Grilling makes them sweet and smoky; raw they would be a pico de gallo, which is a different thing and is on its own page.
4. IT GOES ON A VERY HOT GRILL AND IS TURNED ONCE. The meat is thin and lean and there is no second chance: two to three minutes a side over embers, turned once, and off. Pork loin a minute past done is noticeably dry, and this cut has no fat to hide it.
5. THE SOUR ORANGE SUBSTITUTION IS A REAL ONE AND IS STATED AS SUCH. Sour orange is sharp and faintly bitter with little sugar. Orange and lime in roughly two to one is close enough to be worth doing; plain orange juice makes the pork taste sweet and the grill caramelises it too fast.
6. The pork slices laid between two sheets of plastic and FLATTENED with a rolling pin to about 5 mm.
7. The sour orange juice mixed with the garlic, salt and pepper.
8. The pork turned through it and left EXACTLY 20 MINUTES. Timed, and no longer.
9. A charcoal fire lit and let burn down to embers with no flame -- a hand bearable above them for about 2 seconds.
10. The onion slices and halved tomatoes laid on the grill and charred 8 to 10 minutes, turned, until softened and blackened in patches.
11. Chopped and tossed with the lime juice and coriander into a warm relish. Set aside.
12. The pork lifted out of the marinade and PATTED DRY.
13. Laid on the grill over the embers and cooked 2 to 3 MINUTES without moving.
14. TURNED ONCE and given 2 to 3 MINUTES more, until charred at the edges and just cooked through.
15. Taken off at once and rested 3 minutes.
16. Served with the grilled onion and tomato relish, tortillas, refried beans and slivers of habanero.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes