2 pound pork roast
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 bay leaf, crushed
2 cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons orange juice

3/4 cup orange juice, no pulp
2 tablespoons fresh ginger puree
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Whisk together the top ingredients, except the pork, and marinade the pork in this overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
3. Remove pork roast from marinade and place in a roaster just a bit larger than it.
4. Place the orange juice, ginger, brown sugar and cloves in a small saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce orange juice mixture to a syrup, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, and use this to baste the pork roast.
6. Place the pork in the oven and roast until the internal temperature is about 160 degrees, about 75-80 minutes, basting every half hour or so.
7. Allow pork to rest for 20 minutes before cutting and serve with warmed tortillas and salsa or citrus.

Makes 8 servings

1 large green plantain, peeled and sliced into 1" pieces
1/4 cup vegetable oil
water
salt and pepper

1. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat until very hot.
2. Fry the plantain pieces until brown, about 4-5 minutes, and then flip and fry the other side.
3. Transfer the plantain to paper towel and remove excess oil.
4. Flatten the plantain pieces in a paper bag (or wax paper or whatever you prefer) being careful not to break it.
5. Place enough water to cover the plantains in a small bowl and season it liberally with salt and pepper.
6. Soak the plantains in the water until cool, about 10 minutes.
7. Pat dry of all excess water and return to the oiled skillet, frying until crisped on both sides. Serve immediately.

Makes 2 servings

2 cups dried split yellow peas
1 pound smoked ham hock
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
1 bay leaf

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat and sauté garlic, celery, carrot and red chili flakes until garlic is tender.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, reduce the heat and simmer covered until all of the liquid has been absorbed, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove the bay leaves and ham hock.
4. Allow the ham to cool to the touch, then cut the meat into 1" pieces and return to the pot. Serve hot.

Makes 6 servings

1-1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
5 dark roast coffee beans
1/2 cup very strong coffee
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch

1. Bring milk, vanilla and coffee beans to a boil in a small sauce pan over high heat, then remove from heat.
2. Stir in the strong coffee and chill in the refrigerator until cold.
3. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
4. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar and corn starch.
5. Remove coffee beans from milk and gradually whisk it into the egg mixture.
6. Pour the mixture into greased individual custard cups.
7. Place the custard cups in a baking dish that can accommodate them and half fill it with water.
8. Bake until the tops have crisped brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about an hour.
9. All to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate before serving.
10. Run a knife around the outside of the custard and flip it upside down on a plate or eat as is. Optionally garnish with a baked plantain slice, toasted walnuts and a drizzle of honey.

Makes 4 servings

3/4 cup corn meal
1/3 cup grated cheese (mozzarella, Monterey jack or similar)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup boiling water
2/3 cup corn kernels
salt

1. Combine corn meal, 1 tablespoon of butter and a pinch of salt.
2. Gradually add boiling water, stirring frequently, until it forms a thick batter, then stir in corn.
3. Heat remaining butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
4. Add a heaping tablespoon of the batter, allow to brown slightly, then top with a portion of cheese.
5. Flip and continue to fry until cheese is crisped.
6. Repeat until remaining batter has been used.

Makes 6 servings

Tonight I cooked dinner for my mom. I was going to prepare this last night and then come up with something to her personal tastes for dinner tonight. It will have to wait until next time since we went out for dinner last night and I had all this stuff all ready to go.

This meal was very heavy and fairly bland. Bland in the way that appeals to me, like corn, bran flakes and plain bread. It seems strange to me that so much of the South American and Caribbean recipes I can find are for very heavy and starchy comfort foods that people here would enjoy. Perhaps it's just because I'm searching for the recipes from here and therefore yielding results most typical to a North American palette.

Pushing this dinner back a day definitely had an advantage: the Brazilian Pork Roast got to marinade for another 24 hours. I imagine this made a huge difference; the meat was completely infused with flavor and very tender. I kind of wish I'd made something else to go along with it in the tortillas, but it was still a delicious little wrap up of goodness. The flavor is a very mild citrus and ginger flavor with a bit of heat and smoke from the chili type spices. This was definitely my favorite of the bunch, but unfortunately mom was allergic to something in it, probably the ginger, and could not continue eating her meal.

The Corn and Cheese Arepas were very similar to the Broiled Polenta last week, except fried with crispy cheese! From my corn meal cooking experiments thus far, this was probably the best. Bites not including cheese were comparative to the other attempts, though.

We went to 4 different stores before we could find a smoked ham hock to make Split Peas with Ham. I thought that was kind of strange, but they had many at the butcher shop. We probably should have just gone there first! This is a very inexpensive dish that could feed many by itself. It's essentially split pea soup with ham, but with more heat and less paste that I remember split pea soup revolting me with. I thought that it was a bit salty, since I used bouillon instead of chicken broth, but other than that it was not only edible, but enjoyable. Go figure, maybe it's just the color of the peas.

I'd also like to mention that after many attempts of cooking with dried bay leaves and not even noticing a flavor imparted on the food I cooked them in, I decided to buy fresh bay leaves and try them out. Every time I watch a cooking show that uses bay leaves they always warn not to use more than one because they have such a strong flavor that will overwhelm the dish. I used two just to see what all the fuss was about and I'm still not sure I even know what a bay leaf tastes like. Maybe my taste buds are immune to the flavor of bay leaf or something, but I've got until these spoil to try and figure it out now. I also find it strange that buying bay leaves fresh come in such a large container if you can only use 1 in entire pot of food. You're bound to waste 95% of the bay leaves you purchased!

Anyhow, for the rest of the dishes I decided to prepare plantains 2 different ways, 1 sweet and 1 savory. I'd never really had them before, except during a brief trip to Mexico, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. The process of making Fried Plantains seemed like a very long one, and only for 1 plantain. The results were pretty bland, almost like a thick potato chip. I can't imagine I'll be preparing them this way again, but I'm sure a lot of people that are fans of Potato Chips will be all over this.

Grandma supervised my custard creation and pondered over the idea of making custard from scratch. Why do it the hard way if you don't have to? Because this Coffee Custard is delicious. I baked a plantain and used it as a garnish with walnuts and gave it a nice drizzle of honey. Considering how ridiculously strong the coffee I used in it, it was fairly subtle and the vanilla came out quite a bit. The plantain was much better baked and used as a sweet, but since bananas are so much less expensive I'd likely use one over plantain for dessert purposes, too.