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Cooking Challenge / Cochinita Pibil-Puerco Pibil

How ironic that you brought this back up. I was going to bring it up today as well. I liked this recipe so much that I have made up a bunch of the spice mixture. How much is a bunch? Enough for six batches of puerco goodness! I'm also going to try making it in a pressure cooker and see how that affects taste and texture.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
How ironic that you brought this back up. I was going to bring it up today as well. I liked this recipe so much that I have made up a bunch of the spice mixture. How much is a bunch? Enough for six batches of puerco goodness! I'm also going to try making it in a pressure cooker and see how that affects taste and texture.

Nice! I need to try this in the crockpot very soon and see how it goes! Love that stuff!

I think I read somewhere that you can freeze the spices if you are not using them right away.
 
Nice! I need to try this in the crockpot very soon and see how it goes! Love that stuff!

I think I read somewhere that you can freeze the spices if you are not using them right away.

My only concern with a crockpot would be that you can't brown the meat in the crockpot. You could prep everything in a regular pan and then transfer to a crockpot to finish cooking.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
My only concern with a crockpot would be that you can't brown the meat in the crockpot. You could prep everything in a regular pan and then transfer to a crockpot to finish cooking.

That's a good point, I was going to seal the meat first and see how I go. I have another batch lined up as I have access to a cast iron pan... I might split my batch in half to see the difference but I think that cast iron will win taste-wise!
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
All right guys, I've been to a place in Montreal called "Sabor Latino - 436 Belanger St, Montreal, QC H2S 1G3". They had about 3-4 different brands of annatto seeds, tomatillos, poblano chilli, etc. One of the best Latin groceries I've been in! So if you go there, you will find, easily, everything you need to do this. Alternatively, Kim Phat also stocks a large selection of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Peruvian, Columbian and Cuban products now, they have their own section (including Annatto).

For my friends in Ontario, this place: http://www.latortilleria.ca/collections/groceries/products/el-yucateco-achiote-paste-3-5oz

They list 4 locations in Toronto. That's the brand that I usually buy (Australia or Canada) on top of it when I cannot find the seeds...

So, who else will do this challenge?
 
All right guys, I've been to a place in Montreal called "Sabor Latino - 436 Belanger St, Montreal, QC H2S 1G3". They had about 3-4 different brands of annatto seeds, tomatillos, poblano chilli, etc. One of the best Latin groceries I've been in! So if you go there, you will find, easily, everything you need to do this. Alternatively, Kim Phat also stocks a large selection of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Peruvian, Columbian and Cuban products now, they have their own section (including Annatto).

For my friends in Ontario, this place: http://www.latortilleria.ca/collections/groceries/products/el-yucateco-achiote-paste-3-5oz

They list 4 locations in Toronto. That's the brand that I usually buy (Australia or Canada) on top of it when I cannot find the seeds...

So, who else will do this challenge?

I plan on doing it again and again and again.
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
I'm told that the Achiote seeds are available at many of the Chinese or Asian grocers around the Toronto area. Luc, can you post pictures of the seeds again?
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
I'm told that the Achiote seeds are available at many of the Chinese or Asian grocers around the Toronto area. Luc, can you post pictures of the seeds again?

I can post some tomorrow but they are very similar to the ones that I got in post 1
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
I'm told that the Achiote seeds are available at many of the Chinese or Asian grocers around the Toronto area. Luc, can you post pictures of the seeds again?

I took a few snaps of the achiote seed. It doesn't look like that I have a package of grinded annatto at the moment. It seems that the older the seed gets, the less red and more brown it goes. I got old seeds here but they are still tasting fine. I won't get as much colours out of it, that's all.

The Asian grocers usually carry them as they are used in Thai cooking. Beware, they are not always with the spices for some reason.
 

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If I remember right, Ouch posted a while back that if you toast them and put them in an low temp oil bath you can pull a lot of color out of the seeds.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
I made it again tonight, really one of my favourite dish!

I took a picture at the store(Asian Grocer) of the Achiote (Annatto) paste. The $1.29 isn't right, those go for $1.99 around me. You should be good with 4-6 batches with a small box like that.

I did not try the white box on the left but the yellow on is what I used to buy in Australia (and here in Canada).
 

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Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
Funny that Lima beens are at the bottom of your pic. Not a favourite of mine but I've not even seen them for the last 40 years or so.
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
I keep looking for this and the hot black been Ouch secret sauce for stir fry . . . Haven't seen either yet. That being said even main stream supermarkets are getting into selling large containers of spice. This is a win.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
I made the sauce yesterday in the vitamix and cooked it on the barbie! Different and not the exact same as it was a bit dryer but this stuff is nice! I got enough sauce to freeze in the sous vide for next time!
 
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