Cuban Pork Tenderloin and Yucca with Garlic Sauce

This is my attempt at making Cuban food.  There is a Cuban restaurant that we like to go to on occasion and they have the best pork and what they call cassava (yucca).  I get the same thing every time we go, so I thought it was finally time on trying my hand at making it myself.

I searched the Internet looking for what I wanted.  I found two different sites and thought that their recipes sounded really good.  The one recipe comes from Our Full Plate and the other comes from Three Guys from Miami.  I made the recipes exactly to the specifications that they had, of course you know me, I plan on tweaking it when I make this again.

I hope you enjoy!

Cuban Pork Tenderloin
1 pork tenderloin (about 2 to 2.5 pounds)  This tenderloin came from IdleWild Farm
1 yellow onion, sliced
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2 limes, juiced
1 large orange, juiced and zested
2 cups homemade vegetable broth
1-1/2 tablespoons oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Place some of the sliced onion in the bottom of the crock pot, place pork on top.  Add dry ingredients and massage those into the pork.  Add lime and orange juices.  Add garlic and onion.  Pour vegetable broth over all.  Place lid on crock pot and cook for 8-10 hours on low.  (I actually cooked mine on high for about 8 hours, it made the pork so tender and it just pulled apart).  Serve with juice and cooked onions from crock pot.


Yucca with Garlic Sauce
1-1/2 pounds yucca, peeled and cut into chunks **see below on how to peel a yucca
Juice from 1 lime
6 cloves of garlic mashed into 1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
Place yucca in a saucepan; add water until yucca is just covered.  Add a little bit of salt to the water and the lime juice, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender about 30 minutes.  Drain.  Remove the woody or fibrous core from the center of the yucca.  Mash garlic cloves into salt using a mortar and pestle (if you don't have one, use a knife and mash it on a cutting board).  Add garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and onions to a separate saucepan, heat until bubbling.  (I cooked this at the same time the yucca were cooking).  Add yucca to the pan of onion mixture, toss to incorporate and saute it over medium heat.  Serve

Here is how to peel a yucca (don't you just love the Internet?).  Check out this YouTube video. 

Peeling the yucca

This is what the fibrous/woody part of the inside of a yucca looks like.  It will be easier to remove once cooked.