Cooking With Glenn
We threw a 30th birthday Luau last month and had 40 people over to Chez Glenn. It was a great party and the highlight of the food was Kalua Pork Sliders. This was by far the easiest and one of the best slow cooked pork dishes I have ever had. And given the rave reviews I would say people agreed.
So dig out your crock pots, pick up a pork shoulder or rump, turn up the island music and get ready to limbo.
Ingredients:
• 6-8 pound Pork butt/shoulder
• Hawaiian Red Sea Salt 1/2 Tbs per 2 pounds of pork (don’t substitute on this)
• 2 Tbs Liquid Smoke (I used Hickory)
• 1 Banana
Method:
Rinse pork and pierce all over with a large carving fork. Don’t be gentle, you want to create deep holes. After well pierced rub with the Hawaiian Red Sea Salt. Use a half a tablespoon for every two pounds of pork. Don’t substitute any other salt for this, the Red Hawaiian Sea Salt is high in clay and other minerals that produce the right flavor without being overly salty.
Put the Pork in the crock pot and add the liquid smoke. Roll the pork in the crock pot till it is coated with the liquid smoke. Position pork with the fattiest side up. Slice a Banana in half lengthwise and fit into crockpot with the pork. That’s it for prep, now just turn the crock pot on low for 8-16 hours depending on how hot your low setting is.
You will want to check the pork after 6 hours to be sure it is not drying out. I did two 9 pound butts in two large cookers, one had a rubber gasket around the lid and it kept in much more moisture which I distributed some to the other pot. If yours starts to dry up some just add a bit of water till the pot is half full or so of juice.
When the pork is done it will be so tender it will fall apart, discard the banana. I poured off the juice, which will have quite a bit of fat, into a jar and froze the jar for 30 min. Meanwhile pull the pork using a couple of forks right in the crockpot.
Take the juice out of the freezer and remove the fat that will have separated out to the top and congealed. Add the juice back to the pork, re heat and serve. I added seaweed salad and a jalapeno yogurt to mine, but you could just as easily use barbeque and coleslaw.
Make reservations at the Farmer’s Fork for Mother’s Day Brunch. I will be the featured chef and will have the Luau Sliders and some of the previous Cooking with Glenn recipes as menu options.
Till Next Month,
Glenn
Follow Me on Twitter Glenn@CookwithGlenn to continue the culinary adventure
