Kalua Pork with Cabbage

What a week!  It is good to be back into the kitchen, but better now that I am settled (sort of) in my new place.  Along with moving I was working on a commercial for NBA 2K15 - yes, the video game - on top of working my normal job.  With all of that going on this was placed on the back burner (no pun intended) and forgotten about.  But it is a new day and I have a new recipe to share.

If you are anything like me, you enjoy food...I would hope so if you are reading this blog.  If for some chance you got here by mistake and have read this far - good for you!  Maybe cooking isn't your thing.  That's totally fine, but try these recipes out.  If it doesn't turn out...well, just post about it on HERE and let me know so I can enjoy your mishaps while I photoshop the crap out of mine.

Back to the recipe, living in Las Vegas there is a large Hawaiian population.  With that comes amazing Hawaiian food and restaurants.  One of my favorites here is L&L Hawaiian BBQ where they have everything from Spam Musubi to Kalua Pork.  Personally, these are my two favorites but I'm not about to go out to eat all the time so I started making it myself.

Normally this recipe would have you cooking the pig in a hole in the ground.  For those of you that live in Vegas you probably know how impossible it is to dig into the earth here.  Though, it's delicious I am not about to try and dig through this ground, so we make due with what we have.  A SLOW COOKER!  Below is the recipe as I have found it online.  With that being said...let's just get to cooking.


Kalua Pork and Cabbage

Kalua Pork and Cabbage

Ingredients

• 2 TBS Kosher Salt
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 (5 lb) bone-in pork shoulder roast
• 1 TBS soy sauce
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp liquid smoke flavoring
• 1/2 large head cabbage, shredded

Instructions

1. Mix kosher salt, black pepper, and ground ginger in a bowl; rub evenly into surface of pork roast; place seasoned roast in a slow cooker.
2. Stir soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and liquid smoke together in a bowl; pour over the pork roast.
3. Cook on Low 10 hours.  Add cabbage to the pork and sauce in the slow cooker; cook another 30 minutes.  Shred pork to serve.

There you have it.  Simple and easy.  I did change the recipe a bit.  Before I do the rub I like to pierce the pork roast with a knife a fair number of times - a la Jodi Arias - so the liquid can get into it a bit.  With the pork in a slow cooker I will rub the liquid mixture into the pork as best as I can.  Doing this helps keep the dry mixture of salt, black pepper and ground ginger on the pork.  Whether this helps or not I don't know.  It's just what I do, and there is nothing wrong with deviating from recipes.  It's hard to mess this recipe up.  Also, as I don't need 5 pounds of pork so I only use two to three pounds and adjust the recipe accordingly.  Now, if you aren't into doing the conversions yourself HERE is the link to the original recipe where you can adjust the number of servings and it will calculate all of the measures for you.  This original recipe makes for 10 servings.  Changing it it to six servings as I did will call for just over 3 lbs of pork.

I love this recipe, but some of the people in my house didn't care for the lingering smell that comes with slow cookers.  Vegetarians...I hope catch a flesh eating virus.  How ironic would that be?!?  (Disclaimer:  Only kidding about that.  My roommates are neither vegetarians nor have a virus.)  On the bright side, if nobody else eats it at least the dog will like it.

That's all that I have for today.  Enjoy, share, reply and until next time....

Happy Snacking!

Luke