Rick Bayless's Pot Roasted Pork with yellow chiles, plantain and piloncillo

Last Saturday I saw Rick Bayless make this great pot roast with pork on his PBS show "Mexico: One Plate at a Time." Click here for the recipe. The sweetness of the plantains and piloncillo go really well with the pork. And the heat from the roasted yellow chiles really balances everything and makes it taste exciting.

Making it was fun, too, since I got to cook it in banana leaves. My apartment smelled like suman and bibingka! It was awesome. The tree behind my parents' house died suddenly, so I had to go to my local filipino grocery to get some frozen banana leaves. Strangely enough, they also had plantains. So I bought some black ones because they are supposedly very ripe and sweet. This is what everything looked like all packed up. You put the lid on and then let it sit in the oven for a few hours.

 

I used a bone-in pork roast so it took a little longer to get it very tender--fork tender to be exact. I shredded it a little bit halfway through the cooking process so every bit of pork could get a good soak in the juices.

It was delicious! I served it with some steamed brown rice and green beans but the recipe says it makes really yummy tacos. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow for lunch.