historia del pueblo negro en Ecuador lenin g: hornado ecuatoriano

Ecuadorian hornado de chancho usually means a whole roasted pig, which are commonly found in the mercados or markets in the Andean highland cities. Most people go out to a restaurant to eat hornado, but will make it at home for holidays or special events. It’s a great dish for Christmas/New Year’s or even for Thanksgiving if you want to incorporate Latin flavors to the meal. This pork dish is traditionally made by marinating the pork in chicha, a fermented corn drink, for several days and then baking the pork in a wood burning clay oven. I’m still dreaming of the day that I will have my own outdoor clay oven so that I can cook a whole roasted pig. In the meantime, I make hornado de pierna de chancho or roasted pork leg at least once a year – usually for New Year’s Day lunch. I’ve already shared the recipe for the roasted pork leg, however the recipe is for a large piece of meat (20+ pounds), and the preparation involves several days of marinating, so for a special occasion or party with a lot of people I recommend trying the whole leg.

The crispy pork skin, called cascaritas or cueritos in Ecuador, are also a delicious part of this dish. You will get more if you make the roasted pork leg; however the pork shoulder still has some skin on it. In Ecuador, one of the things they do to get the skin crispy is to sprinkle it with cold water during the last minutes of roasting it. Some people also use blow torches to torch the skin until blackened, and then use a sharp knife to scrape off the blackened part to reveal a yummy crispy skin. You can either turn on the broiler during the last minutes to get the skin crispy, and the scrape the blackened/almost burnt parts of with a sharp knife. Another way to get the skin extra crispy is to cut the skin off, and removed the layer of fat, then place the skin only under the broiler (or use a blow torch) until crispy.

Ecuadorian hornado can be served with a variety of side dishes; some of the most popular side dishes are llapingachos or potato patties, mote or hominy corn, fried ripe plantains, avocado slices, a tomato and onion salsa called curtido, and a tangy vinaigrette sauce called agrio. For additional spice serve some aji criollo or Ecuadorian spicy salsa on the side. Boiled yuca or cassava and Ecuadorian style rice are also good side dishes. The hominy can be served plain or you can also use some of the juices from the hornado to sauté it and make mote refrito en salsa de hornado. When I make hornado at home I like to add whole potatoes during the last hour of roasting, the potatoes cooked in the hornado sauce and make the best baked potatoes ever. Even if you are using a small roasting pan, you can still make them by removing the pork meat after it is done and roasting the potatoes while the roasted pork rests.