Johnny Depp searches for the perfect Puerco Pibil in Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

Rico Torres

Slow-cooked Achiote Pork is a killer for Johnny Depp in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. A short on the DVD shows viewers how to prepare it.

Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless / Christopher Hirsheimer

Sometimes culinary inspiration comes from the strangest place: like a DVD, for example.

While watching Once Upon a Time in Mexico, an action movie starring Johnny Depp, my son called me to join him, insisting I see something special.

Now I already watched that movie and totally hated what the bad guys did to Depp, surgically removing his eyes, so I didn’t need to see it again, ever. But it was a special featurette my son didn’t want me to miss. It was called Ten Minute Cooking School.

In this short DVD extra, writer/director Robert Rodriguez, a young, hip guy wearing a ski cap and three days of beard growth, shows viewers how to make Puerco Pibil, a slow roasted pork dish from the Yucatan region of Mexico.

“I have a lot of friends who don’t know how to cook,” he says into the camera with a disgusted shake of his head. “I don’t understand this.”

Not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to make love, he continues. I’m paraphrasing his words for a family newspaper.

“You’ve gotta eat the rest of your life, you might as well eat well,” he concludes.

Rodriguez’s creative side clearly goes beyond movie making as he explains that everyone should pick a few favorite dishes and learn to cook them with some expertise. Practice, practice, practice, then you can put them on your own menu.

He said when a friend visits his house, they can see a small printed menu on his table, and know that he can make anything on that list for them at any time.

I embrace his hospitality and creativity.

The Puerco Pibil dish has a starring role in Rodriguez’s movie, so it was a natural recipe to share. It’s also complicated enough to impress your friends, he said. And it has a cool ingredient — banana leaves — which is totally optional because they aren’t so easy to find in every neighborhood.

“It’s a dish so good you might get whacked just for making it,” he said.

Who can resist such an endorsement?

That’s where the movie comes in. Agent Sands, Johnny Depp’s character, kills over it.

In the film, Depp shares a meal and a plan with Antonio Banderas. Depp explains his love for the slow roasted pork. It isn’t anything fancy, just his favorite dish. He orders it in every dive he goes to in Mexico with a tequila and lime.

When he encounters the best version, he says, “It’s too good.”

He tells Banderas that he has to walk into the kitchen to kill the cook to restore the balance.

Yes, it’s twisted logic. But Rodriguez keeps that side of him in his movie plot, not in his kitchen thankfully. His cooking school featurette is very sensible.

There is preparation required for making this dish. You’ll need a gadget — a spice or coffee grinder to make the spice paste. Rodriguez suggests that putting hot spices in your usual coffee grinder is a very bad idea. He offers options: add heat by leaving in the seeds from the habanero peppers. And he makes one very appealing dish. He also explains you can buy prepared achiote paste which is what you are making but that’s not as fine as making it from scratch.

What’s so great is Rodriguez makes cooking seem fun and approachable and even creative. I’m willing to bet his fans, like my son, might be motivated to venture to the kitchen to experiment. And isn’t that a good thing?

5 tablespoons annato seeds

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon whole cloves

8 allspice berries

2 habanero peppers

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup white vinegar

8 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons salt

Juice of 5 lemons

Generous splash of tequila

5 pounds pork butt, cut into 2 inch cubes

Banana leaves (optional)

Grind the annato seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, cloves and allspice in a spice grinder till the annatto seeds are pulverized. You can use a coffee grinder as long as it&rsquos devoted to preparing spices only.

Take the seeds and veins out of the habanero peppers and chop. Put in a blender with the orange juice, vinegar, garlic and salt and puree. Pour the dry spices into the blender, the juice of the lemons and a good splash of tequila and blend until it&rsquos a smooth liquid.

Cut the pork butt into two inch cubes and place in a large zip lock bag. Add the marinade to the bag and turn over several times to coat meat. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil, or banana leaves if you can find them. Pour in pork along with the marinade. Cover with more banana leaves and then seal tight with aluminum foil or just foil. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 4 hours.

Serve with white or Spanish rice.