Holiday Recipes: Lauren's Noche Buena

"Every year, my family does Noche Buena on Christmas Eve. We usually have a pork roast, yucca, rice, pico de gallo, shrimp cocktail, and platanos.

Noche Buena Pork Roast

Pork Roast

grapefruit

bacon

orange

Spices (salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, garlic, onion)

I usually poke holes all over the roast and then sprinkle on the spices, squeeze out the juice of a grapefruit and orange and then wrap it in bacon to cook. I usually cook it in the crockpot for about 6 hours. (Mom does it in the oven). We don’t measure, but you can smell and judge what are good amounts of things.

On Christmas Day, we use the leftover pork to make Cuban Sandwiches. We also then fry the yucca and make yucca fries with a lemony garlic sauce.

Christmas Day Cuban Sandwiches

French Bread

Leftover Pork, pulled apart

Yellow Mustard

Swiss Cheese

Ham

Dill Pickles

Butter

We cut the French bread lengthwise and then spread mustard onto both sides of the bread. Then, we put on the pork, ham, cheese and pickles. Then we close up the French bread to make one big long sandwich and butter the outside of the bread. Then take a cookie sheet and a heavy iron pan and put it over the bread and press down onto a griddle at about 300*. Flip the sandwich when the bread starts to get brown the cheese is melting. Cut it up into smaller sandwiches and eat with yucca fries (pictured below) or potato chips."