If you like to cook but don't own Mr. Bittman's book How to Cook Everything I highly recommend purchasing a copy. Bittman's writing style is clear, not overly overwhelmingly pretentious, and the directions are a simple to follow as you'll find in any cook book. In the introduction, Mark Bittman states that at any given time less than half of the adult population in the US know how to cook. At one time the extent of my culinary knowledge included how to make blue box mac'n'cheese and Schwan's frozen chicken patties. At some point I decided that I needed to expand my horizons, and started trying to cook things that I enjoyed eating out. I was mostly a blind man walking in the forest until I stole a copy of the better homes and gardens cook book from my ma and pa, and from there learned that once I knew how basic ingredients worked together I could adapt and change recipes on the fly. Over the course of the next year I'm setting out to make a big Sunday dinner from How to Cook Everything, and yesterday I made Puerto Rican Adobo Pork Roast, roasted potatoes, and green beans. Recipe after the jump.

There are few things better in this world than a simple and delicious home cooked meal. I found this to have an excellent herbal and vinegar bite softened by the tenderness of pork, you'll need:

4 cloves of garlic, peeled
I medium onion, quartered
2 tablespoons fresh oregano ( or 1 tablespoon dried)
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons vinegar (wine or cider)

1 4-7 lbs pork shoulder / boston butt

Method:

Add the first five ingredients to a food processor, fitted with the steel blade, and chop them together. While the machine is running drizzle oil into the feeder tube of the food processor scraping down the sided when necessary. Once all the oil has been blended in add the vinegar and blend together. Rub this paste onto the roast making sure to get it into all the nooks and crannies. Let this sit at least an hour, but it's better if the roast is allowed to marinade overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350. Roast the pork for about 3 hours, turning every 30 minutes basting with the pan juices. The meat is done when the skin is browned and the internal temp is between 150 and 160. The meat should be so tender that you can't really slice it, rather it'll have to be broken up into chunks.

I tossed some dutch yellow potatoes in olive oil and some fresh oregano, salt, garlic, and black pepper, and quick pan fried some green beans with a little of the pan drippings from the pork (an excellent flavor decision if you ask me). One word of caution, even if you're using a boston butt (which is essentially a self basting cut of meat) you can dry this roast out. Mind the temperature and remove from the oven before you go over 160˚, trust me.