Pulled Pork and Mango Salsa
I'm getting together with some girlfriends tonight. We are having potluck. One woman is bringing paella, another is making a flan, a third is making caramel ice cream and I'm bringing pulled pork and mango salsa.
Mango salsa is really easy to make. Chop mango, tomato, cilantro, red onion and put it in a bowl. Add a dash of lime juice, salt and marie sharp's hot sauce and done! I usually like to add habanero powder but I refrained in deference to other tastes.
The pulled pork is becoming a bit of an experiment. I checked out a whole bunch of recipes on the internet and most require two things I don't have: a barbque or a crock-pot. I finally found this recipe for North Carolina Pulled Pork but it just didn't look that tasty. But at least it gave me a guide to cook it in my oven.
The next challenge was to find a roaster that would fit in my tiny oven. My oven is basically a step up from a toaster oven. It is about 30-45 cm wide. I can't even roast a chicken in it without the bird touching the top or the sides. I finally found a pyrex bowl with a lid that I inherited from my mother in law. The thing doesn't fit with the lid on, so I was quite happy this recipe said to cover in foil.
Challenge three was getting the meat. It's pretty difficult to buy a block of meat. Usually, it's sold in really nice this slices. I hit my neighborhood butcher shop and they said they didn't have any shoulder roast. That is, once we sorted out the term "roast." "Roast" here is a cut of meat that tends to be a little juicier compared to "hire" (pronounced he-ray) which is leaner. And these cuts are sold as thin slices. What we would call a roast back home is called a "block". I got a kilogram of meat which really surprised the butcher and for a third of the price of the grocery store.
Challenge four is to find a way to make it tasty.
After looking at various recipes I made my own rub of brown sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, habanero pepper powder after I smeared the meat with a slice of garlic. I let it sit for 30 minutes because I have to have this thing done by 5 pm. It seemed to have helped meat when I did the browning before sticking it in the oven.
I decided I wanted to make a different sauce than included in the recipe so I scouted around for something that uses beer.
This is the sauce I made:
sautee onion and garlic
1 c ketchup
3/4 c beer
1/2 c cider vinegar
dash of tobasco
dash of habanero pepper
1 teaspoon of basalmic mustard (mistake.... I had to add more stuff to cover this taste)
pepper
Mix the stuff together and boil off the alcohol. I put half the sauce over the pork before roasting and saved the rest as sauce. If this ends up being really tough then I really want some sauce to help out during dinner.
One recipe said to add brown sugar to the ketchup which I think is crazy. That stuff is loaded with sugar to start with. Maybe it would have been great to add liquid smoke but I have never seen that for sale here.
It's in the oven now and only 1 hour to go until it's done. I'll try to take pictures at dinner when it all looks nice on a plate.
Mango salsa is really easy to make. Chop mango, tomato, cilantro, red onion and put it in a bowl. Add a dash of lime juice, salt and marie sharp's hot sauce and done! I usually like to add habanero powder but I refrained in deference to other tastes.
The pulled pork is becoming a bit of an experiment. I checked out a whole bunch of recipes on the internet and most require two things I don't have: a barbque or a crock-pot. I finally found this recipe for North Carolina Pulled Pork but it just didn't look that tasty. But at least it gave me a guide to cook it in my oven.
The next challenge was to find a roaster that would fit in my tiny oven. My oven is basically a step up from a toaster oven. It is about 30-45 cm wide. I can't even roast a chicken in it without the bird touching the top or the sides. I finally found a pyrex bowl with a lid that I inherited from my mother in law. The thing doesn't fit with the lid on, so I was quite happy this recipe said to cover in foil.
Challenge three was getting the meat. It's pretty difficult to buy a block of meat. Usually, it's sold in really nice this slices. I hit my neighborhood butcher shop and they said they didn't have any shoulder roast. That is, once we sorted out the term "roast." "Roast" here is a cut of meat that tends to be a little juicier compared to "hire" (pronounced he-ray) which is leaner. And these cuts are sold as thin slices. What we would call a roast back home is called a "block". I got a kilogram of meat which really surprised the butcher and for a third of the price of the grocery store.
Challenge four is to find a way to make it tasty.
After looking at various recipes I made my own rub of brown sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, habanero pepper powder after I smeared the meat with a slice of garlic. I let it sit for 30 minutes because I have to have this thing done by 5 pm. It seemed to have helped meat when I did the browning before sticking it in the oven.
I decided I wanted to make a different sauce than included in the recipe so I scouted around for something that uses beer.
This is the sauce I made:
sautee onion and garlic
1 c ketchup
3/4 c beer
1/2 c cider vinegar
dash of tobasco
dash of habanero pepper
1 teaspoon of basalmic mustard (mistake.... I had to add more stuff to cover this taste)
pepper
Mix the stuff together and boil off the alcohol. I put half the sauce over the pork before roasting and saved the rest as sauce. If this ends up being really tough then I really want some sauce to help out during dinner.
One recipe said to add brown sugar to the ketchup which I think is crazy. That stuff is loaded with sugar to start with. Maybe it would have been great to add liquid smoke but I have never seen that for sale here.
It's in the oven now and only 1 hour to go until it's done. I'll try to take pictures at dinner when it all looks nice on a plate.