Mexican Asodo de Bodas
Traditionally a wedding dish, we have become used to making large batches of this heavenly slow-cooked pork with smokey chillies and an unctuous sauce enriched with chocolate. It’s a fabulous addition to stores in the freezer, and can be spooned into tortillas and tacos, served with rice, used on top of nachos, or used as a different spin on pie filling. Cooked with mild and flavourful Ancho Chillies, all palates can enjoy this dish – and those looking for more heat can top with fresh jalapeños.
Ingredients
1kg boneless pork shoulder or rear, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 10cm pieces
1 tbsp vegetable oil
5 garlic cloves, crushed
3 Herbie’s Ancho Chilli Whole, torn open and seeds removed
2 tomatoes (approx 300g), roughly chopped
2 Herbie’s Bay Leaves, (or 3 fresh if you have in your garden)
1 thick slice of white bread, torn
25g 90% dark chocolate
1 tsp caster sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 160C.
- Heat a large, heavy based frying pan to medium heat and dry-toast the chillies for 2 minutes. Remove and soak in 1 cup of boiling water.
- Add oil to pan with garlic and sear the pork pieces, removing once browned.
- Add chillies with soaking liquid and tomatoes and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. Using a food processor or stick blender, puree this mixture into a sauce with the bread.
- In a cast iron casserole dish (or slow-cooker) combine pork, pureed sauce, bay leaves, chocolate and sugar and add enough water to just cover.
- Cook, covered for 2 hours, stirring a couple of times – do not allow to boil.
- When pork is tender and falling apart, remove from cooking liquid and discard bay leaves.
- Place the cooking pot on the stove and reduce on high until the sauce has thickened to a gravy-type consistency. Meanwhile, shred the pork pieces with your hands or forks.
- Stir pork into the sauce, covering completely and serve with fresh jalapeños, lime and coriander.
Notes
- Mulato Chillies are very similar to Ancho, and can be used in this recipe as a replacement.
- For gluten-free diets, replace the bread with ground almonds
- For paleo diets, replace the bread with ground almonds and use sugar-free chocolate and omit the caster sugar
Find it online: https://www.herbies.com.au/recipes/mexican-asodo-de-bonas/
