Every Friday at work we have a treat day: a different person each week brings in food for the group. This is voluntary and we do have some people that do not participate. For those of us that do, we get something tasty each Friday morning. Sometimes this treat is doughnuts from the grocery store and sometimes it’s homemade cookies or brownies or some other dish. A few weeks ago Jeff Lim brought in a Hawaiian dish that was really good. I asked him for the recipe and thought I would try making Kalua Pig myself.
I am not one that tries new foods all that often. I know what I like and pretty much stick to that. Hell, I never even tried Chinese food until my wife and I got together. Chinese food is a favorite of hers so I agreed to take her to a Chinese restaurant. I don’t mind Chinese food, but I still prefer a cheeseburger.
I have tried different styles of BBQ pulled pork before and have never really been all that impressed, so as I looked at the pot of pulled pork I was not sure I’d really like it. When I tried it I realized that it was not at all like the pulled pork I had tried before.
Kalua Pig
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Ingredients:
Usually Kalua pig is cooked in the ground over hot lava rocks. I don’t have a large supply of lava rocks or a way to heat them so I used the oven instead.
Trim any excess fat from the roast. Make several shallow long cuts along the roast or pierce liberally with a fork. (This allows the salt and liquid smoke to penetrate the meat.) Rub with salt and liquid smoke. Wrap the roast with banana leaf or place whole bananas on top of meat.
Cut the ribs from the ti leaves and wrap over the banana leaf. Substitute aluminum foil, if ti leaves are not available. (Ti leaves can often be obtained from a local florist). Tie securely with twine.
Roast in a 325-350 degree oven for about 45 minutes per pound. When meat is done, remove ti leaves, banana leaf (or bananas) and shred pork.
I did replace the Hawaiian salt with the kosher salt, the banana leaf with 5 whole bananas, and the Ti leaves with tin foil.
After the roast was cooked and shredded I put a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a frying pan, added the shredded roast and cabbage and fried the mixture until the cabbage was tender. Serve it over the rice cooked in the chicken broth.
My version was very good, but a bit lighter in flavor than what I had tried at work. I suspect that because I used the substitute ingredients the flavor was less. The next time I make this I will increase the liquid smoke and kosher salt rub.
Overall it was a very good recipe and we had 3 good meals out of it. I’ll be making this again soon.
Clacked by Jeff Love
on Nov 07, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
