Hornado: Ecuadorian roast pork

Region

The Andes

Type

Main course

Serves

8

Time

Overnight, plus 5 hours

What it is

Hornado means “baked”, and in the markets of Quito, Riobamba and Latacunga it means a whole pig roasted in a wood oven and carved to order. The marinade is simple: garlic, cumin, achiote for colour and something sour to tenderise. Traditionally that is chicha, a lightly fermented corn drink. Orange juice and beer are the usual stand-ins, and they work well.

What makes it hornado rather than any roast pork is the plate around it. It is served with llapingachos, mote, curtido, avocado and a spoonful of agrio, a sharp, juicy dressing made from the cooking liquid.

Cooking it in a British oven

A bone-in shoulder is the best cut for a home oven. It stays moist over a long cook and the skin crackles well. Ask your butcher to leave the skin on and score it for you. Achiote paste is sold in Latin American shops and online; ground annatto works too. If you have neither, a teaspoon of sweet paprika gives the colour, though not quite the flavour.

Hornado recipe

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 2.5kg bone-in pork shoulder, skin on
• 8 garlic cloves
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp achiote paste, or 2 tsp ground annatto
• Juice of 2 oranges
• 330ml lager (in place of chicha)
• 1 tbsp sea salt, plus more for the skin
• 1 tsp black pepper

Method

1. Score the skin in a tight criss-cross, cutting into the fat but not the meat.
2. Pound the garlic with the salt, then mix in the cumin, achiote, pepper, orange juice and half the lager to make a loose paste.
3. Rub the paste into the meat side and into the cuts. Leave the skin as dry as you can. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
4. Take the pork out an hour before cooking. Heat the oven to 160°C (140°C fan). Pat the skin dry and rub it with salt.
5. Roast for 4 to 5 hours, basting the meat (not the skin) with the remaining lager and pan juices every hour, until it pulls apart easily.
6. Turn the oven up to 220°C (200°C fan) for the last 20 to 30 minutes to crackle the skin. Rest for 20 minutes.
7. For the agrio, mix 100ml of the pan juices with the juice of a lime, half a finely chopped red onion, a chopped tomato and coriander.

Where to try it

Several of London’s Ecuadorian kitchens serve hornado, often at weekends only. See Ecuadorian restaurants in the UK.