Lechona-Style Pork Shoulder with Rice & Peas & Yellow Split Peas

Ingredients

• 3½ lb Pork Shoulder, skin on if possible
• 1½ cups Yellow Split Peas, soaked 4 hours
• 1½ cups long-grain rice
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 scallions, minced
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground achiote or turmeric
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp coarse salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

Method

1. Score the Pork Shoulder skin in a tight crosshatch, rub coarse salt into every cut, and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight. Dry skin is the only path to real crackling.
2. Rub the meat, not the skin, with garlic, cumin, oregano, achiote, lime juice, and pepper.
3. Simmer the soaked Yellow Split Peas in the stock with the onion and scallions for 25 minutes until just tender, then stir in the rice and cook 15 more until the liquid is absorbed. Season well.
4. Roast the Pork Shoulder skin-side up at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours, spooning the pan drippings over the pea-rice mixture in a separate dish for the final 30 minutes.
5. Crank the oven to 475°F (245°C) for 15–20 minutes until the skin puffs and blisters into crackling. Watch it — it goes from perfect to carbon quickly. Meat should be fork-tender at 195°F (91°C).
6. Rest 20 minutes, then chop the crackling with a heavy knife and serve shards of it over the rice with pulled pork and a lime wedge.