The Contraption: Pulled Pork Sandwiches - Redux

Last month's slow cooker cooking adventure was less than spectacular. It was also too good to be true.

A minimal amount of prep time, combined with soft drinks and a bit of this and that amounted to a sickly sweet and totally underwhelming mound of sandwiches.

My call for alternative recipes were heard. Between emails, conversations and comments, I had a number of options from which to seek vindication. Can the slow cooker redeem itself or will paperweight-dustcatcher take an early lead in search of optimal uses?

After some study I opted for Deb's recommendation of Epicurious' Barbecue Pork Shoulder. In as much as I'd have liked to try a fellow foodblogger's recipe, pantry staples, time and my inability to get organised won out the day.

I tweaked the recipe in minor ways (prepared mustard for dijon, totally left out the Tabasco, increased the cider vinegar) as well as strained out the sauce and reduced it down, adding a couple of good glugs of barbecue sauce. The result was so much more palatable than before.

Why?

Simple: Much more complex flavours brough about by actual (gasp!) cooking.

Even though I prepared this in a slow cooker, I don't see why this couldn't have been set in a slow oven for a few hours, encased by a Dutch Oven. Perhaps I'll try it that way next time and see what the difference is...


Slow Cooked Pulled Pork Sandwiches
adapted from Epicurious' Barbecued Pork Shoulder
Slow Cooked Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Yield approx 10 sandwiches.

20g (2 Tbsp) brown sugar
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp prepared mustard
3 Tbsp cider vinegar
2dspn (4tsp) powdered chilli pepper
1 tsp salt
olive oil for frying
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, chopped (with seeds)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1.5kg (approx 3lbs) pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes
90g (approx 3oz) streaky bacon (3 rashers), chopped
4 plum tomatoes, chopped (approx 500ml/2c)
1 bay leaf
60ml (0.25c) barbecue sauce

Whisk together sugar, tomato paste, mustard, vinegar, chilli pepper and salt. Pour over cubed pork and set aside.

Sautée onions, chopped bell pepper, garlic and jalepeno until veggies are tender.

Tip onion mixture, pork, marinade, tomatoes and bay leaf into slow cooker.

Set cooker to low and cook for seven hours.

When done, remove pork cubes and shred with two forks. Strain out the veggies and bacon from the liquid and reduce to about 1/3 volume. Stir in barbecue sauce. Reserve about 0.25c.

Return the meat and the balance of the sauce to the slow cooker, and cook on low for about an hour.

Serve with reserved sauce.

cheers!

jasmine







I'm a quill for hire!

International Bacon Day: Maple-Dijon pork tournedos

It's a known fact wrapping something in bacon automatically makes that something better.

Just to prove my deep, unwavering belief in this basic truth, I'll wait as you check with your bacon-eating pals.

Really. Scoot. Go run off and see what they say. I'll make myself at home and draw up your psych assessment based on a) the books on your shelves, b) the CDs on your racks, c) the DVDs in the corner and d) the mere fact you had to go ask someone about the bacon thing.

Lalalalala. Oh, that's interesting...I wonder if your Nana knows about that one over there...

Oh good. You've returned. And what did they say? See? What did I tell you?

There's no one thing bacon does that makes things just plain better. It could be the deep smoky-saltiness it adds to sauces, the crunchiness in salads or even the sheer heartily blissfulness pretty much anything fried in bacon fat has. Notice how nicely it plays well with others and makes the opinionatedly boring and inedible deliciously addictive?

As one potential online paramour (dispatched, like the rest of them) once told me, "Well of course your Brussels sprouts are good. You use bacon--bacon makes everything taste better." And no, he wasn't dispatched because he assumed my Brussels sprouts were tasty because of bacon (as opposed to the mere fact I know how to cook Brussels sprouts so they don't become a foul-smelling slimy layer of ooze at the bottom of a pot).

It's pretty darned good on it's own--a back bacon sandwich with plenty of bacon fat-fried onions and extra drippings on a soft white bun deserves its own altar in the Holy Shrine of Baconosophy...but that's just me...

When our dear author of A Dork and His Pork emailed me the other day mentioning his International Bacon Day yummyness, I knew my return from holidays post would be to celebrate this illustrious day.

My contribution to the fête is bacon-wrapped maple-Dijon pork tournedos (try saying that five times fast). Yes, pork-wrapped pork.

Inspired by this Epicurious recipe, because quite frankly I didn't have the time nor the inclination to brine the loin for a minimum of eight hours, this recipe is one of my happy little kitchen experiments.
The only point I feel I need to mention as the porky-marinadey juices cook out of the meat, the sugars from the maple syrup can char on the baking tray, so definitely keep an eye them when in your oven's maw.

As anyone who's swished their rashers in maple syrup knows (please, get your minds out of the gutter), bacon and maple syrup pair nicely together. Dijon mustard and maple syrup are lovely. And garlic...well garlic is just plain good. Bacon good. The result is a nice mix of savoury, sweet and hot. And really, they look impressive--as only something wrapped in bacon can.

Bacon-Wrapped Maple-Dijon Tournedos

1 pork tenderloin, cut into 2cm discs
rashers of bacon, one per disc

Marinade:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 dspn sage
a couple of pinches of salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 bulging Tbsp Dijon mustard
60ml Maple syrup

Whisk together the marinade ingredients, reserving about threeish tablespoons for later.

Marinate the pork discs with the rest of the mixture for 4-6 hours.

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

Wrap each piece of meat with one rasher, pinning it with a toothpick to keep the bacon from unfurling.

Brush both sides of the discs with reserved marinade. Placed on greased baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes or until done or until cooked to whatever specifications your local food police tell you is safe.

1 dspn = 2tsp

cheers!
jasmine

Oh. You want your psych assessment? Well...some things are best not known...

What I'm reading: The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle by Monique Proulx

I'm a quill for hire!

A face only a cook would love or why my Provencale pork chops taste a whole lot better than they look

I've never claimed to be a wonderful photographer. Truth be told, my strengths lie in landscapes and cityscapes. Give me a good tree or sculpture (or a bad tree or sculpture) and I can usually get a good, if not interesting, image. Not gallery quality, mind you, but something I'm generally not embarrassed to have my name on. Here's an example...and another...and another (the gazpacho or the eggs benny).

Not so much so when it comes to my attempts at food photography. Yes, I do have moments when the stars align and I've captured colour, lighting and mood in such a way that I'm rather pleased. Every once in while whatever appears in my viewscreen is close to the composition I have in my head. I accept this and hope, that with practise, I'll have more good photos than bad.

Yet there is one foodish subject which I can never, ever photograph well: Pork.


I'm not talking about bacon or sausages. I'm referring to pork chops and pork loin.

I think the problem is it just doesn't enthuse me. When cooked, all I see is grey, pallid flesh...reminiscent of something I'd see on Six Feet Under, Pushing Daisies (WHY is that cancelled??) or Waking the Dead (on a boring episode). Yup. What I see is a roundish cadaver slab...unless, of course, I coat it in something crunchy or saucy.

But if I'm just grilling it or slicing through a roast...it's none too exciting.

It's not the piggy's fault he's visually unappealing.

He's very tasty and I'd be more than happy to share his juicy flesh with others. I'm just embarassed about the pictures. I mean look at that top image: doesn't it remind you somewhat of a dead person's hand, crawling out of a bog or something? It's not even a healthy person's hand. It's the hand of someone who's never really done anything except spent far too much time on a keyboard illuminated by a monitor's flickering blue light.

I guess you can say that it's got a great personality, but has a face only a cook could love (gee...I sympathise greatly).

So when it came to today's offering I tried to make it look less dead man like and more dead yummy. I must admit that I don't think I did a good job of it...my imagination was on strike, and all creativity was sidetracked by hunger. The only thing I could think of was to smoosh the chop in the Provençale sauce and photograph it. It does look better (I think).

It's very easy, but does take a good hour to put together. The tomato-mushroom sauce is quite easy to put together--but do keep your eye on it while you're simmering the chops. I didn't and the sauce became a little more caramelised than I'd like. It wasn't burnt, but another few minutes and it may have been.



Provençale pork chops
Four pork chops
1 Tbsp olive oil
400g sliced mushrooms
60ml red wine
1 onion, sliced into lunettes
1 small tin of tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced
350ml chicken stock
salt and pepper

Brown pork chops and set aside.

Brown mushrooms in oliveoil and add onions. After onions have softened, add wine, garlic and stock, salt and pepper. Give it a good stir. Let simmer for about 5-10 minutes.

Nestle the chops into the pan, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes or untl the chops are fully cooked.


cheers!
jasmine

What I'm reading: The Children's Book by A.S Byatt

I'm a quill for hire!

Feast: The exbf's birthday supper

I suppose it's not a bad thing to start off with dessert, but I suppose it's only fair to share what the exbf wanted for his birthday supper.

Normally we head out to the restaurant of his choice, but this year he wanted barbecue. Unfortunately, neither one of us could think of a barbecue place that's in town. The closest thing we could come up with were some really, really mediocre roadhouses.

After some though, he realised what he really wanted were ribs...and my mum's corn fritters (sorry, can't share that recipe).

Before January, I'd never made ribs before in my life. Cravings for such meaty morsels were rare and satisfied with by ribfests or some mid-ish priced restaurants, usually on road trips.

What got me making ribs (the first time, at least) was a sale--a great culinary motivator, I think. I took home a slab or rack or a ribcage or whatever they call them and did some research and experimented with making a spice rub, based on a couple of recipes I found online.

Well...if I do say so myself, those were mighty fine ribs. All juicy and spicy and saucy (saucy thanks to Canadian Club barbecue sauce). Apparently the exbf like them too, because he asked for those ribs again.

This time, instead of going to the bigscarymegamart for the meat, I went to my favourite butcher. What a difference. There was meat on them there bones. I let the dry rub sit on the meat for about six hours before boiling them for an hour. After patting them dry, I put more of the rub on and then poured the barbecue sauce on and baked them, basting with more sauce every 10 minutes or so.

The ribs were even better than before--which I attribute to the meat. My bf, TFE, was at the little get-together and he thought they were amazing--very juicy, nicely spiced, almost mahogany in colour and very addictive.

In fact, TFE liked them so much, he's requested them for Easter supper...as has the exbf...isn't it funny how their two votes don't add up to (let alone surpass) my one vote in such matters?

Anyway, here's what I put together for the rub. I'm sure it could be used on chicken as well:

8 Tbsp smoked paprika
4 Tbsp granulated sugar
4 Tbsp brown sugar
4 Tbsp ground cumin
4 Tbsp black pepper
2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp chilli pepper
2 Tbsp oregano
1 packet chili seasoning mix

cheers!
jasmine

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