Thanksgiving can be a daunting holiday to plan and organize, especially if you are on the hosting side of things. Seemingly endless food to prepare, family and friends to invite, and before they all arrive and start stuffing their faces, you’ve got some decorating to do… More than any other holiday, Thanksgiving puts the focus on the entertaining. Christmas is much more private holiday, waking up leisurely, putting on a pot of coffee and opening presents.
In my family, Thanksgiving is almost bigger than Christmas. We usually get together at one of my Aunt’s houses, but last year, my cousin Wanda volunteered to become the first of a new generation of hosts. I think she is still recovering. Because of our Puerto Rican heritage, we have a crossover Thanksgiving, serving traditional goodies like turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce, side-by-side with Latin staples like Arroz con Habichuelas (rice and beans), and Perníl (roast pork). An unbelievably delicious spread, but a bit mind-boggling to prepare.
Here is my mom, Nilsa’s recipe for Perníl, one of our families absolute best.
The weight will determine the cooking time
8 lbs picnic pork shoulder 12 minced garlic cloves ½ teaspoon black pepper 1 ½ teaspoon dried oregano 3 tablespoons olive oil 3 tablespoons white vinegar 8 teaspoons salt (or 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of meat)
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Wash the pork shoulder. With a sharp knife, make 1-inch deep cuts into the pork.
With mortar and pestle crush garlic, oregano and black pepper together. Add olive oil, vinegar and salt. Mix well.
Spoon some of the garlic mixture inside the small cuts around the pork and spread remaining all over the pork.
Place pork in aluminum turkey pan (skin side up) and cover with aluminum foil tightly.
Refrigerate at least 8 hours. (Mom has marinated this for as long as two days.) Turn it in the marinate
Bake in pre-heated 325° oven for about 5 to 6 hours. Remove aluminum foil and bake at 375° for another hour or until skin is crisp. Closely watch this so you don’t burn the skin (chicharrone). Pork should be well-done and tender.
What are some of your family Thanksgiving traditions? Any special decorations? Dishes? Cocktails? Tasty desserts? Share them with us!
11.21.08 @ 8:55 pm
Evette,
Thanks for sharing your recipes, I would like to try them, but I’am sure your dishes will be much better than what I will try!
thanks, Rick
11.23.08 @ 11:31 am
As a Puerto Rican living half of my life here in the States, I smiled reading your blog. I brought back memories of the Thanksgiving with my family in Puerto Rico. We will do the Turkey (with Latin flavor) plus the pernil, arroz con gandules (rice with pidgeon peas), tostones (fries green plantains). Thanks.
11.23.08 @ 11:48 am
With the pernil rolling from Christmas through the first week of February, we don’t eat pernil on Thanksgiving. Instead we go with the traditonal turkey fare with Boriqua flare. Can you say mofongo stuffing? Strong Spanish roots? Throw in a little chirizo for added spice and flavor. 12 green plantains will do the trick. Peel the plantians (Hint: to make it easier to peel, toss the plantains in the microwave for 30 secs to loosen the peel) Cut the platain in 2 inch sections and alow to soak in ligtly salted water. Dry them before frying until golden. When all are fried set aside. Use one head of garlic and mash up in olive oil, salt and pepper, toss in a little oregano. Mofongo is not mofongo with pork rinds (pork cracklings). Add 1 cup of pork rinds to the mix. You can either buy the fat back and cut it up and fry it or you can save time and buy the fresh pieces at grocery stores that sell latin food products…do not get the bagged snack food kind. If you are going to add the chorizo, which I highly recommend, any chorizo will do as long as it is dry. I recommend Spanish made chorizos, the paprika flavor can’t be beat. Slice p the chorizo and heat up in a frying pan. It’s already prepared to eat but to loosen up the natural oils of the sausage saute lightly and add the sausage and any drippings into the plantain mixture. Go back to your plantains and in a bowl smash up the section until the plantain flesh is broken up into a crumble. Toss in your garlic mixture and add the other incredients. Add additional olive oil and just a little more salt to flavor and give the mixture a nice gloss. Green plantians absorb a lot of liquid so I add 16 ounces of chicken broth mixed in with a sofrito base which you can buy in the frozen section at your grocery store. Heat that so that the sofrito and the broth are well incporparated and pour over the green plantain mixture. Mix well and stuff your bird. The additional stuffing mix that does not fit into your bird can be panned and if you can find one, covered with a banana leaf for extra flavor. You will have to add additional chicken broth to the pan to avoid it from becoming too dry. Heat that up in an oven set at about 350 for about 40 minutes.
I season my turkey the same way I season my pernir and cook it the same way. Bon Apetite or as we say “Buen Provecho!” Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
11.24.08 @ 1:08 am
the above recepies are great and right down to the core. Everything and all is “K-Okeedokee”. Happy Thanksgiving to all and bon-apetit - Buen Provecho.
11.24.08 @ 11:35 am
Wow! Thanks guys for taking me back to my roots. As a Newyourican I’m always looking for authentic Boriqua recipies. I will try Teri’s Mofongo Stuffing it sounds delicioso! Buen provecho!
11.24.08 @ 6:03 pm
Wow! Memories of wonderful gatherings in my puertorican comidas “meals”. I have been away from my puertorican family for several years.There is nothing much more inviting and warming than pernil, arroz con gandules and deliciuos coquito (cocunut drink). Thank so very much for sharing your memories and making my memories alive!.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
11.25.08 @ 8:54 am
Teri,
That Mofongo stuffing sounds AMAZING!! I am going to try that this year!!
Gracias for the recipe deliciosa! I will post our Coquito recipe after Thanksgiving…stay posted!
Buen Provecho!!
11.26.08 @ 10:29 am
These recipes are bringing back those fine memories from when I lived in Bayamon. I now live in North Carolina where my husband, not PR, and his family always have me cook something on thanksgiving. I think they like that latin flavor I add to the dishes. Just remember, before you start cooking, make some homemade sofrito. My grandmother sends me some every year, so I haven’t made it in a very long time, but I am sure some one here knows the recipe.
Thanks for the memories…I haven’t had Monfongo stuffing in years
11.26.08 @ 12:04 pm
I was soooo super happy reading this post! Viva Puerto Rico!!!! my mom always cooks pernil for christmas too!! Whats also important during the holidays is cooking pasteles de puerco!! Will post the recipe soon. Happy Holidays everybody!
11.26.08 @ 1:30 pm
I found these posts by accident and Aye, Padre!!! You are taking me back home!!! I’m a mix of PR, with twists of the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba/St. Maarten), French Antilles (St. Martin, Guadeloupe), Anguilla and the Dominican Republic!!! We are definitely having Thanksgiving a la Caribbean, arroz con gandules y platanos included. Now if I would just start planning my Christmas dinner early, I could really do a fully traditional Caribbean one…….with some sorrel, guavaberry, coconut tarts, a “ti punch”, mauby, black cake, roast pork, ham and so on, and so on ……
Thanks for wonderful memories!
11.26.08 @ 8:30 pm
VIVA LA RAZA
11.26.08 @ 10:22 pm
you can go on the internet and there are many puertorican recipes . I have tried many and they are great.
you can also find the recipe for sofrito.
viva nuestra Isla del encanto .
11.28.08 @ 2:40 pm
I need some more help regarding Puerto Rican dishes. My son-in-law is Puerto Rican and he misses the dishes that his family made. I’m Scotish so I need help. Please offer more Puerto Rican dishes. I want to do a PR Christmas for my son-in-law.
11.30.08 @ 12:40 pm
My husband and I tried Teri’s mofongo stuffing receipe and boy it was dilicious. Thanks so much for sharing it.
12.01.08 @ 5:19 pm
Susan,
I married a Puerto Rican so I have learned how to cook many PR recipes. This website has puerto rican recipes and also sells and ships to the States many puerto rican items if you can’t get them locally (Goya products are great).
http://www.elcolmadito.com/USRecipesenglish.asp
Enjoy!