Sunday Dinner: Pulled pork… My way…

Pulled pork is one of those dishes that I only discovered when I moved to America. Actually, Boston, to be precise.

The first time I had it was from the sub shop that was on the corner of my block when I was going to college. Someone suggested it, saying they thought I would enjoy it… And I did…!

Since college days, I have experimented a few times in making pulled pork and I think I’ve finally narrowed it down to my favorite combination of things.

I don’t declare my pulled pork to rival any master BBQ places, as I don’t smoke anything nor do I really have the acute knowledge of real southern BBQ or really any denomination of BBQ…

I try to make it somewhat healthy as my motto usually goes…. “I love unhealthy food… so I try to make my versions a little healthier” hah!

So I call this pulled pork… My way. =)

I’m gonna list down what I throw into my recipes… However, I never measure anything and I also feel that a lot of recipes follow the tastes of the chef. If I like potatoes, I will add more potatoes, if I like cilantro, load up the cilantro… etc. So I hope this isn’t too confusing for anyone reading this.

First things first…. Pork shoulder… and my magical crock pot (one of my all time favorite investments… and not an extremely extravagant one either!).

I made a rub with brown sugar, paprika, cumin, cayenne, oregano, garlic powder, white pepper, salt and black pepper. I rubbed down the shoulder with the rub and set it aside for a few mins. I also made a spice mix of cloves, bay leaves, whole peppercorns and placed it in a bag to simmer with the pork)

I cut up some celery, carrots, onions and garlic and mixed them all together and seasoned it lightly with salt and pepper. I lined the bottom of the pot with a layer of veggies, then put the pork on top and then stuffed a few stray veggies around the top of it… =)

Then some white wine, and set it to go for the next 6 hours on low.

 

 

 

So fast forward to 6 hours later… (don’t you love it when they do that on tv?)

I’ve pulled out the pork (hah… punny……… okay enough) and let it rest for a while… and then I start breaking it up. I personally like to keep a little bit of chunkiness to the texture of the pork, as opposed to completely shredding it. But again, you do what you prefer, as I do. =) 

And now… On to the sauce…. Tada!

So all those veggies and garlicky goodness that was stuck in the pot don’t go to waste, at least for me. I take it all and put it in a pot and take enough of the juices from the pork to cover the veggies.

I start to simmer the liquid and veggies and then I use an immersion blender and blend up all the veggies so it forms a nice thick sauce. Then I add flavors to the sauce to make it a “BBQ” sauce. =)

Honey, cider vinegar, worcestershire, sriracha (for a kick and i LOVE sriracha), and tomato paste. In this case, I was missing tomato paste, so I went for a squirt of ketchup… but ordinarily, tomato paste is bettah =) mix it all up, and simmer for a few mins… And we’re done!

And now… The final product!

For bread, I used some awesome ciabatta rolls I picked up (oooh fancyyyy).

Toasted them and placed some pork that had already been tossed in sauce. Then I dropped more sauce on top (never have too much!).

For a side, I chose a simple broccoli and carrot slaw. I threw in raisins and currants too, for some sweetness.  I made a simple vinaigrette out of dijon mustard, sugar, red wine vinegar and EVOO. Just something simple and tangy to cut the richness of the pork… mmmm =)

Oh and corn haha

So tada! Hope you liked my post =)

PS can someone tell me why some of my text is blue and some of it is black? I’m still trying to get used to this blogging thing =P Ah well… I will learn! [Update: I learned… ;)]