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Sunday, December 26, 2010

Pulled Pork for Chritmas Dinner?


It was a request from our son-in-law, Nick, who loves anything pork--bacon, sausage.

So the menu went like this:

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Caramelized Onions and Peppers
Cole Slaw
Pan drippings and Porter Gravy
Potatoes Au Gratin
Cranberry Fluff Salad
Pineapple Cheese Casserole
Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

The upper right corner of this entry shows the pork in the process of cooking.

4-5 pound pork shoulder
2 bottles of dark bear
salt and pepper
green onions

For BBQ Sauce:

1 cup tomato catsup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
3 T brown sugar
4 T yellow prepared mustard
1 T molasses
1 T red pepper flakes
1 t cayenne
1 t salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and stir until blended. Set aside for a few hours until ingredients have a chance to marry. Pour over shredded pork or over individual sandwiches as you choose.

Cut off any unwanted fat off the pork shoulder. Coat with salt and pepper. Brown off all sides in a skillet. Set up a crock pot. Turn on high. Place browned off pork into the crock pot and pour two bottles of good quality dark beer around it. Add a few stalks of green onion. Cover and braise for 4-5 hours or until the pork shreds easily.

When pork is down, drain all but a bit of the beer out of the crock pot. A baster will do this well. Using a fork, begin to break up the pork until it is either in chunks of shedded. Pour BBQ sauce over the pork and blend it into the pork. Serve pork over your favorite roll or bun. Spoon a few of the caramelized onions on top or some cole slaw. Pour some of the gravy over the pork if you like for an open face sandwich.