Cocoa-Salt Rubbed Basque Pork

We served this at a recent dinner party and it was a big hit - it was surprisingly moist which seems to be the chief complaint for pork. It comes from a fantastic cooking school on the Oregon Coast called EVOO.

While it takes a few hours for the pork to roast, it's pretty easy. It's great for dinner parties as it can mostly be made ahead and then finished off in the last few minutes.

Cocoa-Salt Rubbed Basque Pork

Serves four

1/2 C vegetable oil

2lbs pork butt (aka pork shoulder)

Cocoa powder

As needed - salt, pepper, and coriander

2 yellow onions diced

2 bulbs garlic, peeled

1 T cumin

2 t thyme leaves

1 t ground mustard

1 t smoked paprika

1 t cayenne pepper

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in a large saute pan and season pork with salt, pepper, coriander and cocoa powder. Place pork in pan as oil is beginning to smoke. Sear on all sides and remove pork.

Remove excess oil form pan and discard. Place onions, garlic and spices in semi dry pan and cook to coat with pork fond. Cook until translucent and aromatic. Place vegetables in large roasting pan with two cups of water. Place rack in pan and place seared pork on rack and place in oven.

After one hour, flip pork and cook for an additional hour. Remove pork from oven when meat thermometer reaches 150 (or 160 if you are conservative). The pork will continue cooking and the internal temperature will rise about another ten degrees while it is resting.

When ready to serve, slide pork into 2" pieces. Heat oil (grape seed is best due to high smoke point) in saute pan on high heat and brown pork to give it a crisp finish (less than one minute per side if your pan is really hot).

Top with sauce of your choice, but we had it with avocado tomatillo salsa.

You can make two dishes with one shoulder by cooking the pork a third hour for pulled pork.