Tag: pork

Slow Cooker Carnitas

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Hello all!

Following fellow Gal Lani’s amazing lead with her Honey pork sliders (Honey Vinegar Pork Sliders) I decided to go a Mexican route and whip up some slow cooker carnitas for some friends coming over tonight. This recipe is so versatile that once the meat is made you can turn it into tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, fajitas, nachos….there are just too many options here. And all of them are making me hungry. So let’s get cooking! 

The Goods

  • 6 lb pork shoulder (We prefer to buy ours at local butcher Siesel’s or their sister store Iowa Meat Farms (Siesel’s & Iowa Meat Farms) although in a pinch Costco has a great selection also) 
  • 1 large onion, sliced 
  • 2 limes
  • 1/4 cup light beer (We used the Rocky’s finest…Coors’ Light)
  • Dry rub: 2 Tbsp each garlic powder, cumin, and chili powder. 1 Tbsp each salt and pepper. 

Pork Time…

The night before you want to make the carnitas mix up the seasoning, slather the pork, wrap it back up and marinate it overnight. 

Dry rub: mix the seasoning listed above in a small bowl. 

  

Rub the dry rub all over the pork (save a tiny bit in a ziplock bag to put on the onions tomorrow). Wrap up in parchment or butcher paper and place into fridge overnight. We also put the wrapped up pork into a big bowl to catch any drippings.  

 

Once you’re ready to cook first set your slow cooker to “Low” and lay the sliced onions at the bottom of the cooker. Sprinkle the rest of your dry rub over the onions. 

   

Next, remove any butcher string from the pork and cut off any excess patches of fat. Cut up the pork into large pieces and place into slow cooker. 

  
Next, slice your limes and squeeze over the meat. 

 

Lastly, crack open a cold beer and pour about 1/4 cup over meat. Feel free to drink the rest. We are all friends here, it’s fine. 

   

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 10 hours. 

When done remove the pork and using two forks shred into amazing carnitas awesomeness. 

  
We served our pork pieces of heaven on fresh tortillas, with sour cream, salsa and lime. These make even better leftovers so make sure to buy a big pork shoulder. 

Happy cooking and Cheers! 

xoxo Shawna 

 

Hawaiian Pork Katsu

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Aloha friends!

The hubster and I just got back from a whirlwind 3 1/2 days on the East Coast attending and being in the wedding of his sister Carrie and her new husband Anthony. They had their ceremony at their family’s church and a dream-come-true reception at The Wadsworth Mansion in CT. They then followed it up with an aloha honeymoon in Hawaii. Needless to say it was a struggle to quickly recover from a red-eye into wedding shenanigans into long flight back home. Caffeine was a must. As I got some super RARE and much needed coffee I passed an L&L Hawaiian BBQ restaurant that not only made me think about the newlywed’s awesome honeymoon but also made me realize that it had been waaaaay too long since I’ve had Katsu. Well, I have a blog now so Katsu it is!

For today we’ll be making pork katsu, sauce and jasmine rice. We did pair it with macaroni salad but I have to tell you a secret: I didn’t make it. Agh! Gasp! I know, I know. I just didn’t have time today. But if you have a killer recipe go for it. If not, stop at a deli counter and scoop up some macaroni salad.

And now for my other secret. I haven’t the slightest clue how to make Katsu sauce. I mean I had some general ideas of the basics but had to search for a recipe. I’ve had several diff kinds of Katsu in my time with one of my favs being from a tiny restaurant on the island of Lana’i that offers up pork katsu drowned under a fried egg served Loco Moco style with straight up mushroom and carmelized onion gravy. Sorry if I’m drooling on this post.

For this one I adapted a recipe I found on William Sonoma’s website. The issue is that I didn’t have two of the ingredients (Mirin or Hot mustard) so I winged it. The result was a less sweet and more vinegary sauce that I totally fell in love with. So, there you have it. It may not be uber authentic but it’s delish. Let’s head to the kitchen…

Pork Katsu & Sauce Shopping List 

  • 8 thinly sliced pork chops (boneless)
  • Breadcrumbs (I had Italian style on hand)
  • Panko
  • Soy Sauce
  • 2 eggs
  • Flour (all purpose or any other flour would work)
  • Garlic Powder, S&P
  • Olive Oil
  • Jasmine Rice
  • Butter
  • 1 tablespoon Ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
  • 1 tablespoon Hot Mustard (I used 1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard and 1/2 tablespoon Tapatio or Cholula hot sauce)
  • 1 tablespoon Mirin (I used apple cider vinegar. I really need to restock my pantry soon.)

Let’s make us some Katsu.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F.

First prepare the dredging station for your pork chops. You’ll need 3 shallow dishes. In the first put 2 eggs, a dash of water and several dashes of soy sauce, several dashes of hot sauce and mix thoroughly (yolks should be totally broken and mixed in).

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In the second dish put several heapings of flour, sprinkle with garlic powder and S&P.

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In the third dish put 1 cup panko, 1 cup breadcrumbs and S&P. Start with this, you may need to add more later which is totally fine.

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Take each pork chop, pat with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture. Now dip it in the flour, then the egg, then the crumbs on both sides. Place onto a plate or cutting board for safe keeping.

When all the chops have been dressed heat up a nonstick skillet on Med-Hi heat and hit it with olive oil. Wait until it’s pretty hot and brown each side of the pork chop. Make sure the pan has plenty of oil as you do this or else you’ll get blackened bits and not awesome tasty brown bits.

Place the browned chops on a baking sheet and bake until cooked through to a safe internal temperature of 165. This took about 15 min. May take more or less depending on the thickness of the chop.

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While that’s cooking let’s whip up some rice and sauce.

In a sauce pan mix 2 cups water with 1 cup jasmine rice. Boil and stir until the rice is tender and water is mostly absorbed (took me about 17 min). HIt this with a tablespoon of butter, salt and mix well.

In a bowl combine the Ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire, mustard and vinegar and taste. Adjust seasonings accordingly.

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Plate up your pork, rice, and macaroni salad and drizzle with the sauce. And there you have it. Homemade Katsu.

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Aloha!

xoxo Shawna