Father's Day Special: Slowcooker BBQ Pulled Pork

Today is a day to go out and have fun with your dad. Whether you're playing golf, running races or taking a boat ride, you can make a wonderful meal for your dad with little to no effort.

Pull together these 4 ingredients, throw three of them into the slow cooker and head on out to your fun day with dad. When you get home from all your fun, a nice BBQ pulled pork awaits you. Served on bread, rolls or even over pasta, this pulled pork is the base for many satisfying meals.

So go ahead, celebrate dad and make his day with a BBQ pulled pork meal!

Happy father's day to all you dads out there!

Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Pork

Originally published on the Kraft website.

Ingredients:

  • 1 boneless pork shoulder (3 lbs.)
  • 3 onions, sliced, separated into rings
  • 18 ounces Barbecue Sauce (I used Stubb's Sweet sauce)
  • 8 Udi's Gluten Free Rolls

Method:

  1. Place meat in slow cooker; top with onions and barbecue sauce.
  2. Cover with lid. Cook on LOW 8 to 10 hours (or on HIGH 4 to 5 hours).
  3. Remove meat from slow cooker
  4. Cut off excess fat  and fry it in a pan over high heat to serve as a crispy topping for the pork.
  5. Chop meat into small pieces or shred with fork. Return to slow cooker and stir to coat with sauce.
  6. Fill rolls with meat mixture and serve.

Greek Sandwich Salad Style

Recently, I went to dinner with my uncle (known as Uncle), who is Gran Fran's brother. For the most part, I'm a lettuce with olive oil and salt kind of salad girl. Uncle ordered just this as his salad, which floored me. I hadn't realized there maybe a family connection to my style of salad. He told me that he has always eaten his salad this way, and that he thought it did come from his parents. Who knew?!

Warm weather has arrived in San Francisco. You never know how long this nice patch of weather will be in town, so it's fun to pretend like we have seasons and cook like it's going to stay warm for a few months.

This weather puts me in the mood for a good salad. I made a nice roast pork with Greek flavor a few weeks ago, reminiscent of a the Greek sandwich I had in Paris.  Since I have salad on my mind, I decided to take all the Greek sandwich fixings and make a huge salad.

Seeing as I don't usually make fancy salads (except for my salad nicoise) , I really had to think about how to layer everything in. Some special dressing, which includes Za'atar, a Middle Eastern spice, added a nice extra kick. It's earthy, sour, salty and just interesting. You can just use oregano here, but I love the unexpected flavor.

You don't have to follow my ingredients exactly, but do put the roast pork, red onions and fried potatoes in the salad as these are the keys to the Greek sandwich-ness of the salad.

Greek Sandwich Salad Style

Ingredients

serves 2

  • 1 heart of romaine lettuce, cut into pieces
  • 2 potatoes, oven fried (recipe here)
  • 8 slices of Greek roast pork (recipe here)
  • 1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
  • 1 red bell pepper, sliced into chunks
  • 8 to 10 small tomatoes cut in half
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon Za'atar spice blend or dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method

  • Lay the romaine on a platter, making a mound in the center.
  • Layer on top the red onions, potatoes, tomatoes and red bell peppers, with the pork on top.
  • Put the mayonnaise, olive oil, Za'atar (or oregano) and salt and pepper into a bowl and mix until combined.
  • Drizzle dressing over the salad and serve.

You can put some nice warm pitas out on the table to serve with this great salad.

 

I Love My Electric Knife

I made two roasts recently (roast pork and roast beef). In the midst of preparation, I came across an America's Test Kitchen review of electric knives. It had been a long time since mine had seen the light of day. I was glad for the timely reminder to get my out of the cabinet.

I'm so happy I did. Check out these slices of meat. They were thinner and more even than I could've managed with my carving knife alone.

Joe (my dad) used to be in charge of the electric knife. I've mentioned before that Gran Fran is anti-sharp anything, and that she doesn't like gizmos or gadgets in her kitchen. The only electronic appliance I ever see her use is her Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Even her coffee is made with a filter set on top of her mug. Needless to say, there was often a lot of drama around Joe using the electric knife. Gran Fran would clear the room of all children and hold her hand to her mouth, cringing all the while Joe was cutting up whatever nice roast they had made for dinner.

Fast forward to present day SF. I called Gran Fran in NY to get her advice on the cooking temperature for the roast beef and mentioned I'd be using my electric knife to slice the roast. After an audible gasp, Gran Fran told me to call her after I had finished slicing the roast so she knew I'd made it out with all of my fingers and limbs intact.

Guess what...I made it out alive, all limbs and digits still adhered to my body, with a perfectly sliced roast on my table.

Roast Pork: Greek Style

It's no secret that I love a good pork roast. The fat. The meat. The flavor.

Recently, I reposted a post from my trip to Paris in 2010. It covered my feeling towards my first (and only) Parisian-style Greek sandwich. It was great. Check out the picture of it (and me) here.

I decided to make a roast that would mimic the flavors of the meat in the Greek sandwich, while still being not too much work. The recipes I found all involved cutting the raw meat into thin slices, marinating them and then quickly panfrying or grilling them. I didn't want to take the time, nor did I have any interest in cutting up raw meat.

My method uses all the same spices, but with way less effort. I simply marinated the whole pork roast in a mix of herbs, spices and vinegar. The end result tasted very close to the real thing, though I know if I'd taken the time to actually slice up the meat and marinate thin slices, they would absorb even more of the great flavor.

I ended up making a Greek Sandwich Salad (read: no bread, but all the other great stuff that was in the original sandwich) with the cooked roast. Using my handy electric knife, I was able to slice the pieces nice and thin, which let the with plenty of delicious pork roast for the week to come.

Greek Spiced Roast Pork

Ingredients:

  • 2 pound pork loin roast
  • 2 tablespoons crushed oregano
  • 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
  • 1/4 cup cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 teaspoons black pepper

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. In a bowl large enough to hold the roast, mix together all the spices and cider vinegar.
  3. Put the roast in the bowl with the spice mixture, turning to coat all sides.
  4. Leave in the marinade for at least thirty minutes and up to overnight. If you are doing a longer marinade time, cover and refrigerate the bowl.
  5. Once the roast is marinated, remove it from the bowl and place on a rack on top of a roasting pan.
  6. Roast for 20 minutes then lower the temperature to 375 degrees and roast for an additional 30 minutes.
  7. Remove from the oven and let sit for ten minutes before slicing.
  8. Slice thinly (I love to use an electric knife here) and serve!

Oven Baked Pork Ribs

 Hello there, ribs. How are you? I will miss you for the next month or so.

You see, it's that time of year, when I abandon pork products and start a-new.

And so, this past Monday night, I made a big rack of pork ribs as my fond farewell to the porky-goodness for the time being.

My friend made up the dry rub recipe, and I have to say it's brilliant. I don't usually use allspice for anything but ginger-y baking recipes and marjoram has never made it's way into my kitchen. The combination of curry with these two spices was amazing. There's just enough sweetness there, and a little bit of the earthly complexity of the curry powder gives you layers of flavor in each bite.

I didn't make any side dishes, just ate lots and lots of ribs to store up the yummy for the next month or so.

See you soon, ribs, and until then, I hope my friends and neighbors will enjoy you.

Oven Baked Ribs

Ingredients:

  • 1 large rack of pork ribs
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 tsp allspice
  • 1 tsp curry
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp marjoram
  • ½ tsp pepper flakes
  • ¼ tsp red pepper

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
  3. Wash and dry the ribs in the sink.
  4. Cut the rack into pieces if it won't fit into your roasting pan.
  5. Coat the ribs on all sides with the dry rub.
  6. Place the ribs in your roasting pan(s).
  7. Let sit for at least 30 minutes (up to overnight, if you have the time).
  8. Place the pan(s) in the preheated oven.
  9. Bake for 30 minutes.
  10. Turn the ribs over carefully.
  11. Bake for an additional 30 minutes.
  12. Turn off the oven and leave the ribs in the hot oven for another 10 minutes.
  13. Remove from oven, cut the ribs apart and enjoy!