A mouthful of this homey, slow-cooked pork-and-tomato braise, wrapped in a warm tortilla, is about as comforting as it comes. Without the spark of spicy little dried chiles and woodsy Yucatecan oregano (coleus amboinicus) or epazote (apazote as it’s called by Yucatecans), the flavor might be mistaken for Italian food, the kind of braise to toss with pasta. Those two additions, however, land it squarely in the Yucatan.
It’s said that Doña Hermelinda made the first pot of lomitos a couple of generations ago in Valladolid, Yucatan, and offered it in her simple eatery, folded into tacos or piled on tostadas. It’s said, in fact, that she made it without chile or herbs, in a style she said was reminiscent of Cuban food. Now, though, everybody in the region claims lomitos as their own and they make it with dried chiles (as I do here) or fresh habaneros. Lomitos refers to the fact that it was originally made with pork loin, but, because our pork is much leaner than what you find in Yucatan, I suggest using pork shoulder to avoid dryness.
Lomitos are often served with a smear of mashed, fried beans (the lima bean-like ibes are popular) and a little roughly chopped hardboiled egg. Though hardboiled eggs garnish a lot of Yucatecan food, I also like lomitos served with Yucatan’s omnipresent Pickled Red Onions.
NOTE: This is an updated version of the recipe we featured in Mexico: One Plate at a Time.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 pounds pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Salt
- 3 tablespoons fresh pork lard or vegetable oil
- 1 medium white onion, sliced 1/2 inch thick
- 5 garlic cloves, peeled & finely chopped
- 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted), drained
- Dried chiles de arbol or Yucatecan chile seco to taste (usually 3 to 5), stemmed, torn in half, seeds shaken out
- 1 large epazote sprig
- 4 eggs (optional)
- 2 cups frijoles refritos (recipe linked above)
- About 1 cup Pickled Red Onions (optional)
- 16 to 18 warm corn tortillas,
INSTRUCTIONS
Brown the pork and vegetables. Pat the pork dry with a paper towel and sprinkle generously with salt. In a very large (12-inch) skillet or the removable stovetop-safe insert of your slow cooker, heat the lard or oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches, brown both sides of the pork pieces in an uncrowded layer, 8 to 10 minutes. As each batch is done, transfer it to a plate, leaving behind as much fat as possible. In the same pan, cook the onion, stirring frequently, until richly golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and stir until it releases its fragrance, then return pork to the pan. Stir everything together.
Braise the pork. In a blender, blend the tomatoes to a coarse puree, then pour over the meat. As the mixture comes to a simmer, scrape all of the browned bits up from the bottom of the pan. Stir in 1 teaspoon of salt and nestle the chiles and epazote into the sauce. Either set your removable slow-cooker insert into its base or scrape everything from the skillet into a slow-cooker. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. (The braise can hold on the keep-warm setting for several hours.) Remove the epazote, then taste and season with salt, if necessary.
The (optional) eggs. Cook the eggs by simmering in water or steaming, 11 minutes for simmered, 13 for steamed. Transfer to a bowl and run cold water over them for 2 minutes. Crack the shells and peel, then roughly chop the eggs and sprinkle them with salt.
Serve. Spread some beans on each tortilla, then scoop on a portion of the pork. Garnish each one with a few pieces of hardboiled egg and pickled onions, if using.
No Slow-Cooker? Instead of a skillet, use a large (6 quart; 12-inch diameter) heavy pot, preferably a Dutch oven, to brown the pork and the onions as described. Cover with the tomato sauce, set the lid in place and braise in a 325 degree oven for 2 ½ to 3 hours, until the pork is completely tender.
