Tag: pork

Slow Roasted Pork, Carolina Style (paleo)

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*Drool* Ok, so this isn’t *technically* Carolina-style pig. I lack a pit and/or a smoker and am not bbq level confident about my grill skills, so this is a compromise. A damn tasty compromise. This pork is a great thing to have on hand when the midday munchies hit and gives you more than a week’s worth of lunch or dinner toss-in meat. Making a salad? Chuck in some pork. Need to use up some random veggies and half an avocado? Call it a stir-fry and add some pork. Craving pineapple, pork and vinegar? Well, there you go. You can make this wonder meat on a Sunday and eat it all week. Now that’s my kind of time vs. payoff investment.

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Slow Roasted Pork, Carolina Style (paleo)

Based on the Momofuku Pork recipe posted on Yummy Supper

3-5 pounds pork butt (shoulder), skin removed
3 tsp. salt per pound (I used sea salt)
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. sugar per pound (I used regular white)
Black pepper
Time
Heat

1 c. apple cider vinegar (Bragg’s is awesome here)
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. Texas Pete (or other hot sauce if you must. you can also omit for a less spicy version)
Big pinch red pepper flakes
Few grinds black pepper
1 big pinch salt

Mix your salt, sugar and pepper together in a small bowl and sprinkle very liberally over the pork on all sides. Place in the fridge to cure for 24 hours.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F. Slap your pork into a cast iron skillet or similar pot and slip into the oven for 3 hours. After the 3 hour mark, baste once an hour for an additional 3 hours.

While your pork is going through its first stage cooking, make the sauce by combining all ingredients in a small saucepan and bringing to a boil. Stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved, remove from the heat, and let chill in the fridge a couple hours until ready to serve.

Pull when falling apart to the touch and a beautiful mahogany with a maddening smell. Pull with 2 forks like a dog burying a bone.

Slather with sauce and serve with everything – pineapple salsa, broccolini & avocado, just a fork … seriously, pork goes with everything. It’s the LBD of dinner meats.

Serves a bunch.

Braised Celery & Sausage Ragu (Paleo)

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Craving a rich, decadent ragu, but cutting out unnecessary carbs? This is the recipe for you. This dish is luxurious and rich, comes together in about an hour, and feels like it took days to cook. It’s meaty, hearty, and paleo friendly. It even features one of my more favorite braised vegetables, that unsung hero of the kitchen, celery. Never had cooked celery? You’re missing out. Cooked celery goes all slumpy and soft, while keeping a slight fresh taste that just speaks of crisp spring days. Yum.

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Braised Celery & Sausage Ragu (Paleo)
Adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Braised Celery with Onion, Pancetta and Tomatoes on Food 52

1 lb. celery
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 onion
2 oz. pancetta
15 ounce can plum tomatoes
1 lb. hot Italian sausage (4 links)
1 egg per person
2 tsp. or so butter
crushed red pepper
salt & pepper

Cut your celery on a diagonal into 3 inch pieces. Slice the onion very thin. cut the pancetta into strips or dice into cubes.

In a large pan, heat the oil on medium. Add the onion and sautee until light gold. Add the pancetta and cook until the fat becomes translucent. Add 2 links sausage, slipped out of their casings, and sautee (breaking up the sausage into bits as you go) until browned.

Once everything is nice and browned, add the tomatoes and their juice, crushing as you add to the pan. Nestle the remaining 2 sausages in the pan. Add the celery, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and toss to coat well. Pop the lid on and knock the heat down to a steady simmer.

Simmer 15 minutes and check – I ended up cooking my dish for an hour in total to get the doneness I wanted; you may want to go less time if you want crisper celery. At an hour, the celery was nice and soft and the flavors were really well melded. Check every 15-20 minutes or so to make sure things aren’t getting too dry and to give a nice stir. If your mix does get dry, add some water or white wan to the pan. If the mix is too watery; take the lid off, raise the heat, and boil away the excess liquid.

While the ragu is simmering, fry your eggs in butter until the desired doneness – I went for runny yolks and the dish was luscious.

Serves 2 for dinner + 1 for lunch.

Pork & Bacon Quinoa with Peas and an Egg (Gluten-Free)

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Yeah, there’s a lot of meat going on in this dish. But it’s good. This was a meal that came together based on what I was craving – crispy bacon, luscious egg yolk and a carb – and what needed to be used up – a bag of fresh peas, the pork chops I had defrosted, and the celery nubbins hanging out in the crisper.

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Pork & Bacon Quinoa with Peas and an Egg

1/2 cup red quinoa (regular would work just fine)
1 cup turkey stock
1-2 stalks celery (I used the inner core + a few leaves)
1 shallot
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. coconut oil
10 ounces fresh English peas (you can certainly use frozen if that is what you have on hand)
2 ounces bacon (1 thick cut strip)
6 oz. pork chops (2 small boneless)
2 eggs
2 tbsp. parsley

Rinse your quinoa and add to a small saucepan with the turkey stock. Bring to a boil, pop a lid on, and drop the heat to a simmer. Simmer 15-20 minutes, or until the curlicues open and most of the liquid is absorbed.

Dice the celery and shallots; slice the garlic thin. Add to a large sautee pan with the coconut oil and sautee over medium heat until just beginning to brown. Add the peas and sautee, stirring frequently to avoid burning, until peas begin to soften. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Slice the bacon into batons and chop the pork chops into bite-sized pieces.

To the pan (still over medium), add the bacon and fry until the fat begins to render and the bacon is about half-done. Add the pork to the pan and continue cooking until the pork is browned and the bacon is crisped. Remove and set aside, keeping the fat for the eggs.

Return the pan back to the heat and add the eggs. Fry until desired yolk runnyness is reached.

Chop the parsley and use as a garnish.

Serves 2 for dinner.

Pork and Celery Stir-Fry

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This makes a nice, satisfying weeknight meal. The punch from cutting celery gives great flavor, but if you can’t find it, regular celery will be just fine. I usually add fish sauce to this mixture, but it skipped my mind this time, and it was fine without. If you happen to have some and happen to think about, a good squirt or three would be great here. Carrot greens are not mandatory. I happened to have a ton of them slowly dying in the fridge and decided to give it a go. They were nice, but not in the least necessary.

Pork and Celery Stir Fry

1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 lb. ground pork
1/2 red onion
1 carrot
4 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. grated ginger
4 Tbsp. soy sauce (swap coconut aminos if you’re going strict paleo)
1 Tbsp. ketjap manis (sweet soy sauce – swap for a bit of honey or maple syrup if going strict paleo)
3 tsp. lemon juice
1 bunch cutting celery
2 tsp. rice vinegar
Handful carrot greens

Bring sesame oil up to temperature in a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Add the pork and break apart. Keep working and breaking the pork up until it starts to brown.

While you’re working periodically on the pork, thinly slice the red onion. Add to the pan, stir.

While the onion is working, chop 1 carrot and mince 4 cloves garlic. Add to pan. Stir periodically to avoid burning, 3 mins.

While that is working, chop the cutting celery.

Add grated ginger, soy sauce, ketjap manis, lemon juice and rice vinegar. Add the cutting celery, stir fry a few minutes until starting to wilt.

Meanwhile, chop the carrot greens.

Taste and add a bit more lemon or vinegar if needed. Top with carrot greens and serve over brown rice.

Serves 2 for dinner + 1 for lunch.