Recipe taken from Aidelina Flores
Both in Guanacaste and in other parts of the country, pork shank or leg is a typical dinner to celebrate Christmas and New Year festivities. Aidelina Flores, owner of the store Papillo, is known in Nicoya for her delicious pork shank.
20 servings.
Ingredients
5 kg pork shank
2 heads of garlic
1 bag of cloves
1 tablespoon garlic and black bean sauce (known as frijolillo chino)
½ cup honey
3 tablespoons sugar
½ cup of soy sauce
1 beer
1 glass of orange juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
1. Pierce the leg all over and put garlic and cloves all over.
2. In a separate bowl, mash one head of garlic with a little salt to taste. Add a tablespoon of frijolillo chino along with ½ cup of honey with three or four tablespoons of sugar. Then add ½ cup soy sauce to that mix. The mixture should resemble a paste.
3. Once you have made the paste, rub all of the mixture on the leg with your hands. Ideally it should be spread uniformly all over since this is what will give flavor to the meat.
4. Then put the leg in the oven at a temperature of 250° C (482° F), covered in aluminum foil to prevent it from drying out.
5. During the cooking process, add a can of beer and a glass of orange juice.
6. After about five hours in the oven, the leg can be removed and served with pineapple or plum sauce.
Flores advised that it is best to marinate the leg a day beforehand to retain the flavor. In addition, she assures that it is better to put the oven on low heat to prevent burning or drying out, so she advised that it is best to be checking on it frequently.
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