Perfect Pulled Pork - tweaked

I meant to post this earlier and had it all prepared, but lack of internet and power had stopped me.

First of all, kudos to Kevin & Amanda and their blog for putting me on to the base for the pulled pork recipe in the first place. Earlier this year I had a craving for some pulled pork and looked for a recipe (having never even attempted to make it before). I found their recipe and thought it sounded good. I made some changes to the recipe and bumped up the quantities (since there was very little available in the BVI other than massive 9lbs pork shoulders which came frozen in two-packs).

The following is my adaptation of the recipe which I've made 3 times now. Twice in the BVI using the bone-in pork shoulders I refer to, and once in Canada using what I believe to be a boneless rib-loin (two pieces) obtained from the Block & Cleaver butchers in Kingston, Ontario. The pork I got from there was exceptionally good quality and was cut from the rib bones before my eyes.

Both times in Tortola in the BVI I've been using a gas oven which keeps turning itself off if you set it too low, so it's been a bit of a palaver to prepare. In Canada I had the luxury of using an electric oven so I knew that the temperature was right and constant.

Cooking and preparation times:

If your pork is frozen you'll want to allow time for it to defrost. If it's not, you can brine the pork for anything from 12 hours to 24-30 hours. I've done both and it's tasted great. Cooking time can be 8 hours plus, but you can speed it up a bit without sacrificing the end product. 

Serves:  A lot! With the quantities referred to, we've catered gatherings of 30+ people and still had leftovers. Pork is, however, cheap.

Ingredients:

Estelle can attest to the fact that I tend to overbuy herbs and spices, but for this recipe it does tend to pay to buy the larger sizes since a lot is used...


Implements:


Obviously you'll need a decent sized oven. You will also need:

Ziploc storage bags (I believe they are they Large ones, not the XL or the XXL. You use these to brine the pork in overnight.

Meat thermometer - if you've got a remote one that's great, but make sure it's not one that switches itself off automatically. The one I used in Canada did because the meat temperature was climbing so slowly.

Pork! Get yourself a shoulder or a boneless rib-loin. The important thing is that one side has a layer of fat on it. This helps to protect the rest of the pork from drying out and also gives you a nice chewy crusty bit to add variety to the texture. I've worked with 2x 7lb boneless rib-loins as well as 2x 9lb bone-in shoulders. Both worked well, although I'd say that the shoulders tended to fall apart more easily. You will also need to buy disposable baking trays to cook the pork in. See below.

(Aye, there's) The Rub

3 tbsp ground cumin
3 tbsp garlic powder
3 tbsp onion powder
3 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp kosher salt
3 tbsp ground pepper
3 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp pepper flakes
1.5 cups brown sugar

The Brine (one batch)

1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup (nice stuf!)

2/3 cup kikkoman teriyaki sauce

1 splurge of mirin (if you can get hold of it)
2 qts cold water
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp dry rub mix

For the Rub, mix all of the ingredients together in a tupperware or the like (see the picture at the top of the blog or in this entry) to keep them as dry as possible and prevent clumping.

For the Brine, add the salt to the water and stir well so that it all dissolves. Then add all of the rest of the ingredients and stir it around to combine. The dry rub will never dissolve fully and will form an emulsion, but you can tell when you've stirred it in well. Similarly, the maple syrup won't dissolve fantastically and you may prefer to pour some extra into the bag to ensure coverage.

Carefully place a piece of the pork in the ziploc bag (I say carefully because if there is a bone it may tear the bag). Then pour in your batch of brine and try to squeeze as much air out of the top as you can. This ensures that the brine is in contact with the largest surface area possible of the pork. You can then put the brine-bag in the fridge in a drawer or door. Repeat with the second shoulder/loin if you have one.

You can now leave the pork to brine overnight or even for 24 hours if you want to. I've never noticed any ill-effects of doing so.

Once you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 225 F and remove your brine-bags from the fridge. Remove the pork, discard the brine and pat the pork dry with paper towels. Then comes the fun bit of rubbing the dry rub into every nook and cranny of the pork. You should save some of the rub to use later once it has cooked. This is pretty much what it should look like afterwards:

If it looks like that it's all ready to go in the oven. Stick the meat thermometer in (if you have the remote one) and wait for it to go DING when the core temperature of the thickest part (make sure you're not putting it in next to a bone) reaches 200 F.

If you're rushed for time at the end, you can put the temperature up as required, but you may end up with the pork not pulling apart as easily as if you had slow cooked it. Just ensure that the pork is at least cooked to 170 F so that it is done. The slower you cook it, the better the results.

Once it has cooked, if you've got time to let it cool down, do so - let it cool to about 170 F before you start pulling it apart. If you don't, it's not a big deal - just make sure you don't burn yourself or your tongue when you inevitably start taking scraps from the dish.

Transfer the pork to a pyrex dish or a large carving dish and start to pull it apart with forks. This should be easy. Discard the overly fatty bits and any skin left over (although you may wish to keep the crackling bits) and we always layer in some more dry rub and some of the juice from the roasting tray. See demonstration photos:

The juice:

You can serve it straight away once you've got all the pork off, and it's pretty good served with soft rolls, hamburger buns, or even baguette. With or without barbecue sauce...


Leftovers can be separated up into ziploc bags or tupperware and reheated either in the microwave or in a pan or in the oven.


Enjoy!


Ken

General Tso's Chicken - redux

Well we liked the recipe so much, I made it again tonight. Less spice, more chicken and we took photos.

See below:

General Tso's Chicken

We decided about a month ago that we should try to make something at least based on recipes that we have in numerous previously-unused cookbooks, but we've only now got around to cooking something from them. We opted for General Tso's Chicken from one of our cookbooks - it was between that and an Indian Butter Chicken. We had most of the ingredients, so it was an easy option. One quick shop later and we had everything we needed.

Although I've spent quite a bit of time in North America I've never actually had it before at a Chinese restaurant. There doesn't seem to have been a migration over to Europe (and certainly not over here to the British Virgin Islands). It sounded good, so we thought we'd give it a go.

Be warned, whilst the actual preparation and cooking time isn't that much, you will need to marinate the chicken for an hour or so...

The recipe that I ended up cooking (since I usually go by instinct and deviate from recipes) is as follows:

Serves two:

Two normal sized boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 2cm cubes

2 tablespoons of mirin (or other rice wine)

1 tablespoon of cornflour or cornstarch

4 tablespoons of Kikkoman soy sauce (full salt!)

3 tablespoons sesame oil

1/2 a small tub of dried (candied) citrus peel (enough to provide 2 tablespoons of finely chopped peel)

1/2 cup peanut oil

1 1/2 teaspoons of chilli flakes (halve it if you're not a fan of spicy food!)

2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger (fresh)

1 cup finely chopped spring onions

2 teaspoons organic cane sugar (or other if that's too much of a pain)

steamed rice to serve with

Directions:

Put the mirin, cornflour, 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce and 2 tablespoons of the sesame oil into a glass or plastic bowl. Put in the diced chicken and mix around thoroughly so that it is all covered in the marinade sauce. Once you've done that, put some cling film over the bowl and place it in the fridge for an hour.

Soak the citrus peel in just boiled water for 20 minutes and then drain and chop it up fairly finely so that you've got about 2 tablespoons of peel.

In a little ramekin or other easily pourable container, put the sugar, the remaining soy sauce and the sesame oil and mix it all together. If it saves space, you can put the spring onions and the peel together as well.

Heat the peanut oil in a non-stick (if you have one) wok to a high heat and then using a slotted spoon to drain the chicken, stir fry it in small batches and then remove from the wok and drain it in a wire basket, sieve or colander. Once you've finished cooking all the chicken (so that it is lightly browned and cooked through), drain all but a tablespoon of oil (or remove it all if there are burnt bits in it and replace).

Heat the oil back up until it's hot, then add the ginger and chilli and stir fry it for 10-15 seconds. Then put the chicken back in and add the onion, peel, and the sugar/soy sauce/sesame oil mix and stir fry for another 3 minutes or so until it's warm through and well combined.

Serve with the steamed rice and put more spring onion on for a garnish if you wish.

It's very easy to make and very tasty, although with the amount of chilli I put in (which I suggest you adjust down) it was very spicy. Nevertheless, Estelle had seconds despite the heat, which I take to be the sign of a good meal. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a photograph, but next time I make it I'll do so.