OVEN BAKED KALUA PIG (KALUA PORK)

This Thanksgiving, instead of turkey, we had Kalua Pork. The inspiration came from a recent trip to Maui. My husband really isn't crazy about turkey, so I thought I'd just make something else this year. Last year I make turkey leg osso bucco, and that was really good, and a nice change-up also. 

My recipe for the Kalua Pig comes from a native Hawaiian. Not everyone has a big pit in their yard to throw a whole pig into, obviously, but you really don't have to have one to get a nice replica of the real deal. It's extremely simple, and each ingredient is very important. You must have the banana and ti leaves. Simply wrapping the pork in foil alone will not do. The leaves lend a particular aroma that is key to get the right flavor. And since you won't be cooking this with real coals, you need to use the liquid smoke. And the cut. You need pork butt. It is the fattiest. The pork ends up basically being almost poached in it's own fat. How bad could that be?!

I start by laying out 2 very large pieces of heavy duty foil, one vertical, one horizontal, with enough overlap to wrap over the pork later. Then, few pieces of string in the pan, 2 pieces each way also -- then lay down a bed of overlapping ti leaves (wash them before use). 

Lay your pork butt inside, and cut slits into the meat.

Season with liberally with salt, and pour the liquid smoke over the pork, then rub in the salt and smoke flavoring well into the pork and into the grooves and slices on top. Finally, lay the whole bananas on top of the meat (I didn't get a picture of that). 

Cover the pork with more ti leaves, and then gently fold them to cover pork. The strings you laid out in the beginning - tie them snugly over the top of the ti leaves. Lastly, wrap the pretty package in the foil, adding additional foil to the top if necessary. Try to avoid holes in the foil. You want the juices to stay inside.  

Into the oven, 325-350, 45 minutes per pound.  When done, remove from the leaves, discard bananas, and shred pork. 

Ingredients:

4-5 pound pork butt
2-3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons liquid smoke
4-6 ti leaves (easy to find at most Asian groceries)
2 whole, unpeeled bananas (as green as you can find).

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEFTOVERS, MAKE CROQUETTES

Ever make croquettes? I had these at least once a year when I was a kid, it's one of the things my mom used to do with the leftover Thanksgiving turkey. 

Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. They're very good. And you can make them out of just about any type of meat, as well as seafood like shrimp, scallops and crab. But who ever has leftover crab? If you want a vegetarian version, you could do them with broccoli and cheddar, or sweet potato is also nice -- whatever your favorite vegetable is, as long as it's firm textured because mushy won't hold up. 

It was 10:30 a.m. and I was in the kitchen, as usual, looking in the fridge trying to figure out what to make my picky 18 month old toddler for lunch. I see the pork and red cabbage leftovers. No way would she eat that. Not even sure I wanted to eat it, the pork was very lean and dry. But then it occurred to me to just chop it up and make croquettes! 

In this post I'm not going to list recipe ingredients, just because there are so many variables. 

The first step would be to chop your cooked meat of choice. I had about 10-12 ounces of cooked pork. While chopping the meat, you can also add a little bit of onion/shallot or garlic (the garlic will not get a chance to cook very long, so just go easy on it).

Next, make your roux. I like to mix olive oil and butter to cut down a little on the butter, but be my guest and just use all butter if you like. For this batch, I used 2 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil, then added 3 tbsp of flour. 

Add milk to your roux. You want this to be very thick, like paste, so it'll hold that chopped meat together. So start by whisking in the milk about 1/2 cup at a time. I think here I used between 1-1.5 cups of milk. And go slow, because it gets thicker as it cooks. When it's good and thick (like frosting) you can add some cheese if you like. I added a half handful of shredded cheddar and a half handful of grated parmesan. 

Mix the roux and the meat. The best way to do it is to add the roux a spoonful at a time, so you don't get too much. What you see here is maybe a tad too much roux to meat ratio - but the benefit is that it will taste better. It'll just be more difficult to work with. After mixed, let mixture set up for about 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Spoon the mixture into Panko breadcrumbs and coat well. 

Fry on med-high in a nonstick skillet, coated well with canola oil. Add more oil as you do these in batches because too little oil and the Panko will not get all golden and yummy, it will just burn.

These make a great appetizer, but also could be a decadent main dish. 

I like to have mine on a bed of greens, dressed simply with oilve oil, fresh lemon juice and flakey sea salt and pepper. The greens and fresh lemon cut nicely through the richness of the croquettes. 

GRILL ROASTED SUPER LEAN PORK & TOASTED RICE

I'm not even going to pretend that I'm a grill master, because I'm SO not. I put stuff on the grill, when it's no longer raw, we eat it. Aside from the usual "grilled" flavor (which isn't much because I have a gas grill) the food isn't all that much better than if I'd cooked it in the house. 

With the exception of pork.

Why is it - for those of you who are into the whole grilling thing - that pork comes out a thousand times better when done on the grill? Is it that the oven is a dry heat and the grill is just plain 'ol fire, so it locks in the juices? I'm sure all meat comes out better, but with lean pork the difference is just amazing. This piece of pork roast was about 98% lean. As dry as dry gets. I fired up the grill, seared both sides (total time on the grill was about 50 min) then I pulled it off and just let it sit on the counter covered with foil to finish cooking. As you can see, it was super juicy and just DELISH!  I've roasted like this in the oven, and it is just not the same. Pork comes out like a piece of wood.   

Side dish~ Toasted Basmati rice. Toast the rice in a dry pan for a minute before cooking and it gives it a really nice depth of flavor. Don't let it get any darker than this though. If you let it go to far it will damage the grain and then the rice will have a different texture - almost like instant rice. Ew.