The bulk of the cooking of yesterday dinner's main course didn't take place yesterday, it took place the day before. None of the stores in my area, despite one of them having two huge aisles filled with "International" food - most of it Latino flavored - carry achiote paste. All of them, even the podunk one, carry annato seed or ground annato. Annato is the main color and flavor behind achiote paste.
I started with this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Traditional-Achiote-Recado-15385 . I didn't soak the annato seeds in water since I was starting with an already-ground spice. I did toast it, and the other spices. In the process of making this, I completely used up my ancho chile powder. It was worth it!
Once I made this sauce (it was really a marinade, not a paste) I put it into a zip-lock baggie where I had about a 3 1/2 lb pork butt roast waiting. It went into the fridge on Tuesday to wait for Wednesday morning.
Come the morning of Cinco de Mayo, I got the crock pot out and put the meat and marinade into it before I even had coffee. I gave it 12 hours. It did not need that much time. I went to turn over the roast at about the 8 hour mark and it fell apart on the end of my fork.
After having the previously-mentioned appetizers (a margarita and chips and some lovely salsa), I put on some yellow rice and made a salad. I was planning on making a dessert yesterday, but just didn't have room for it in the fridge until the pan of tres leches cake was gone. Now that's gone so I can play with desserts some.
Later today, one of my very favorite simple but yummy recipes that takes less than 30 minutes to make!
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