I like my pork pulled and spicy

Sometimes you just have a hankering for something and you go to the grocery store and end up buying all sorts of meat...which is exactly what I did last night. I bought steaks as big as my face, hot italian sausage, chorizo, a roaster chicken and a pork shoulder. I didn't even get a cart, I looked like, well I don't know - but it was probably pretty rough. I had some veggies and various spicy peppers, but it was mostly meat.

I love pulled pork. It's pretty great and it can really just turn your entire world around, which is what I am in the mood for.

I found snow on my car this morning for the second day in a row, but it has already melted. I think this will be one of my last winters ever! Part of me is sad, the other part is relieved. 

On to the pork. 

Pork by Morgan 

Ingredients:

Picnic Pork Shoulder 

1 beer

3-4 cups of chicken stock OR demi-glace

2 tablespoons of Honey 

2 tablespoons of Molasses 

2 tablespoons of brown sugar 

1 onion (red or white) 

1 Habenero pepper

2 jalapaneo peppers

2 teaspoons of cayenne 

1 cup of rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon of ground ginger 

1 teaspoon of nutmeg 

6 cloves of garlic

red hot pepper flakes 

salt

pepper

chili oil 

olive oil 

Directions: 

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

In a bowl, combine the stock or demiglace, honey, molasses, brown sugar, onion, peppers, cayenne and vinegar and stir. Please be VERY CAREFUL when handling the peppers. They are extremely hot and will burn you if you touch your eyes. If you have latex gloves - wear them. Make sure to wash your hands very well after you handle them. 

I trimmed the pork shoulder, which was quite a feat without a sharp knife, then put it in my new dutch oven. I poked holes with a fork all over the shoulder. Then I rubbed with salt, pepper, nutmeg, red hot pepper flakes, chili oil and olive oil. Then I dumped everything in the bowl over the meat. (See below) 

Place in the oven at 350 degrees and cover for 3 hours, basting occasionally to make sure the top part of the pork gets some love. I went to bed but turned it down to 200 and my roommate turned it off and left it in the oven after about 1 hr. The next morning, I turned it back up to 200, with the lid on and kept cooking it for another 2 hours. Then we took it out and let it sit for about an hour in the liquid. Then my roommate took out the meat, and pulled it apart with two forks. 

We left it out of the liquid, because I had a plan to reduce it the liquid to make the sauce. It was a great plan.  Basically, add a little bit more vinegar (no more than cup) and turn the liquid up to about medium high and leave UNCOVERED. Stir every 15 minutes or so. Let it reduce for approximately 30 to 40 minutes. It should become quite thick from reducing. 

Then, scoop out some of this sauce and put it in a food processor or blender and let it do its magic for about 30-45 seconds. Dump this blended sauce all over the pork in the other pot. 

Ta-DA! 

Oh my GOODNESS

I chose cibatta bread for this meal because it would soak up all the sauce just right and it's reliable and delicious. We piled our pork on there and then added the sauce reduction. We also had our friend Lucy whip up some green bean casserole as a nice side dish. 

Delicious. Katie, Lucy and I  have been eating it at various meals. It is now gone. 

ENJOY.