Thursday, July 29, 2010

Sweet Ginger Pulled Pork

(This picture is actually from another pulled pork recipe I posted a while ago. I recently made pulled pork again - for a church dinner - cooking enough to serve 30+ people. I didn't really work from a recipe; I don't have many recipes for that quantity! But here's a good guess at amounts of spices and ingredients to serve a family. Taste it as you go adding more of what you like.) :)

2 lbs boneless pork (almost any cut will do...shoulder blade roast, pork butt, etc.)
salt & pepper
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 can crushed pineapple
1/2 C brown sugar
2 inches ginger root
2+ Tbls cinnamon
1 Tbls paprika
2 Tbls Worcestershire sauce

sandwich buns/rolls

Place the pork in a roasting pan (or a large casserole dish and cover it with foil) adding salt and pepper. Cook the pork, covered, at about 250° (or at a medium heat in a crock pot) for 6-8 hours or until the meat is very tender. Remove the pork, draining the juices, and use forks to pull it into shreds (sometimes its so tender it just falls to pieces without any work). Discard fat chunks and skim the fat and grease off the drained juices. Return pork to roasting pan or crock.

Add the onion, pineapple (with or without the juice, your choice - how "juicy" do you want the meat for your sandwich?) brown sugar, cinnamon, paprika and Worcestershire to the meat, stirring to combine.

Peel and slice the ginger. Place ginger slices in a saucepan, and pour in enough of the drained pork juices to generously cover the ginger. (You could also use the pineapple juice if you prefer.) Bring to a boil and boil for 4-5 minutes. Strain out the ginger slices, adding the juice to the pork. (I suppose you could skip all this and just add about a tablespoon powdered ginger...)

Increase heat to 350° and continue to cook everything for about another hour, stirring occasionally, to heat pork thoroughly and let the flavors combine. It doesn't hurt to cook in even longer...it could simmer in a crock pot all day! Just keep it covered so it won't dry out.

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