Sweet Barbacoa Pork

I love this dish.

The first time I explained it to my husband, he said he’d try it, but he tried to bargain with me for a pizza as needed if he did not like it. That’s fine, it’s the deal we have. We’ve only ever ordered a pizza once, and that was when I forgot to cook chicken before putting it into a dish that required it to be pre-cooked. Ooops.

Anyway, this dish is fabulous. You should make it, and it’s super convenient because you’re going to use your crockpot! It does have a 2-step cooking process, but it is worth it. I recommend making both the marinade and the sauce at the same time and putting the sauce in the fridge so it’s ready to go.

Feel free to do something more interesting with the rice and beans. I usually just do a packet of brown rice from Trader Joe’s and a can of black beans. I have been known to spice the black beans with salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, and a little bit of the sauce. It isn’t the prettiest dish, but what it lacks in appearance it makes up for in sheer awesome.

Sweet Barbacoa Pork
From Skinny Taste

Ingredients:

Marinade
2.5 lbs pork shoulder, most of the fat removed
6oz Coke Zero
1/4 cup brown sugar
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
1/4 cup water (set aside)

Sauce
8oz Coke Zero
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 can green chilis
8oz tomato sauce
1 chili in adobo sauce
1/8 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

The night before, marinade the pork shoulder in the marinade minus the water. You can marinade it in the crock pot dish, should you desire. In the morning, add the water. Turn it on low for 8 hours.

Remove the pork shoulder form the crock pot and put on a cutting board. Shred with 2 forks or your fingers, don’t burn yourself! Discard the cooking liquid and put the pork back in the crockpot.

Add the sauce to the pork and mix. Heat for 30 min at minimum, the original recipe suggests 90 minutes.

Serve over rice and black beans.

Fair warning, this makes enough for 3 dinners for my husband and I!

Ginger Peach Pork Stir-fry

I love pork because it is so versatile. I’ve seen it stuffed with sweet apples, savory cheeses. I’ve seen it rubbed with spices and grilled. I’ve seen it cut into pieces and put into casserole. And I’ve seen it in the most amazing Asian dishes. Asian pork often thinly sliced and marinated for hours.

In my organic food delivery today from Door to Door Organics, I received 3 gorgeous yellow peaches. It took every ounce of me to ignore them until dinnertime. I was in the mood for a sweet dish and I’ve been greatly inspired by Asian cuisine recently. Some internet research brought me to the idea of a ginger and peach stirfry. I never found a recipe I quite liked, so this recipe is a mashup of many.

Ginger Peach Pork Stir-fry

Ingredients:

3 peaches
3/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 lemon
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 medium onion, sliced
3 center cut pork chops
Other veggies (broccoli, green pepper, carrots, etc) as you’d like
Peanut oil
Flour
Rice or Noodles

Directions:

Slice the pork against the grain, place into a shallow dish. Add the juice of the lemon, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic powder. Allow to marinate for 1 to 24 hours.

Pictured with the onions immediately prior to cooking (do not marinate onions)

Cook your rice or noodles.

Take your peaches and slice them off the pit. Carefully remove the skins using a sharp knife. In a saucepan or shallow frying pan, heat a small amount of oil and add the peaches, sugar, and a portion of the water. Over medium-low heat, cook the peaches slowly, adding water as it evaporates. Cook until the peaches are a uniform darker yellow color and are slightly softened (see pictures).

Slice onion and other vegetables. *NOTE* If cooking carrots, add the carrots to the heated oil first, before the meat.

Heat the peanut oil in your wok until spitting. Add the meat and marinade along with onions. Cook 1-2 minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables. After another 2-3 minutes, add the peaches and flour, allow to thicken.

Serve over rice or noodles.

BBQ Pork Puff Pastry

I don’t know about you, but whenever I make bbq pulled pork, I always have way way too much. There’s only 2 of us, and even 1/2 a shoulder makes too much food. I send it with my husband for lunch for a few days, but I always waste some. I dislike having 2 of the same dinners in the same week, so the leftovers go bad. This time, I decided to get creative. This dish was inspired by Dim Sum style food, though it is not strictly Asian. The traditional BBQ flavors are there, but we’re going to accent the dish with some Asian influence.

Now, I don’t think my pastries were supposed to puff up as much as they did, but I honestly couldn’t tell you why they did this. Either way, they were DELICIOUS! Enjoy.

BBQ Pork Puff Pastry

Ingredients:

Appx. 300g leftover pulled pork
1 small onion, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tsp sesame seed oil
Black Pepper, Salt to taste
Peanut Oil
1/4 cup water
2 tsp corn starch
Sesame seeds

1 pack puff pastry sheets (2 sheets)
1 egg + 1 tbsp water

Directions:

Heat the peanut oil in your pan, then sauté the onion until translucent. Add the pork, soy sauce, sesame seed oil, and salt/pepper. Heat for 3-4 minutes, then add the water and corn starch. Heat until thickened, then place the mixture in a new container in the fridge for 30 minutes.

During this time, remove the puff pastry sheets from the freezer and allow to thaw (about 30 minutes). Now preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Lightly beat the egg and 1 tbsp water for an egg wash. Then, lightly flour your work surface and spread out the doughs. Cut each dough into approximately 6 pieces, or 4″x5″ sections.

Once the pork mixture is cool, place approximately 2 tbsp of the pork on the center of the dough.

Using a brush, cover the edges of the dough around the meat with the egg was, then fold the dough over the meat. Use a fork and press down on the edges of the dough to seal the pastry.

Brush the pastry with egg wash, then sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake for 5 minutes at 425 degrees, then lower the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Grilled Pork Chops

This isn’t exactly a new recipe to anyone. It barely qualifies as interesting. But it was still good, and I firmly believe that pork is an under-rated meat. My wonderful husband, who dislikes most pork dishes, absolutely loved this. He even described it as juicy. I considered it a win. This pork is a center-cut boneless chop which is served on my Entirely Local Mashed Potatoes (local potatoes, local dairy which provided milk, butter, and sour cream – but only a bit of each, got to keep this stuff healthy!).

Grilled Pork Chops

Ingredients:
1 tbsp Lowry’s Seasoning Salt
2 tsp crushed black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
Olive Oil

Directions: Sprinkle the seasonings onto the meat, stab each piece with a fork a few times. Allow to sit and come up to room temp. Spritz with olive oil just before going on the grill. Serve.

Food and Wine Magazine Edition: Pork Tonkatsu

My awesome brother got me a subscription to Food and Wine Magazine!  Isn’t he awesome!

Anyway, as a  commitment to myself, I will cook AT LEAST 1 recipe from each edition of the magazine, and present it each month to my faithful readers. This month’s issue provided easy recipes from different ethnic backgrounds including Mexican, Thai, and Japanese.  This blog post will be my monthly Food and Wine Magazine Edition!

I’ve ‘mastered’ a lot of Mexican, and a lot of Thai food requires fish oil (gag me!). Therefore, I chose Pork Tonkasu, a recipe from Japan. This is a breaded and fried pork dish served over rice with a from-scratch sauce that is absolutely delicious.

Thus, I present to you, Pork Tonkatsu!

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 cup ketchup
2. 1/4 cup apple butter or applesauce
3. 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4. 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
5. 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
6. 1 teaspoon unseasoned rice vinegar
7. 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
8. 2 egg whites, beaten
9. 1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
10. Two 8-ounce pork tenderloins, cut into 2-inch pieces and pounded 1/2 inch thick
11. Salt
12. 1/4 cup canola oil
13. Steamed rice

Directions:

In a saucepan, bring the ketchup, apple butter, Worcestershire, soy, mustard and vinegar to a simmer; transfer to 4 bowls. Cool.

Put the flour, egg whites and panko in 3 separate shallow bowls. Season the pork cutlets with salt, then dredge in the flour, tapping off the excess. Dip the cutlets in the egg white, followed by the panko, pressing the crumbs to help them adhere.

In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the cutlets and cook over moderate heat until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Brush the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil on the cutlets. Flip and cook until golden and cooked through, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer the tonkatsu to a work surface and cut into strips. Transfer to plates and serve with rice and the dipping sauce.

Disclaimer: This recipe is directly from Food and Wine Magazine. No copy write infringement is intended.