My mom, Cheryl, loves recipe development. I'm the type of cook that once I've made something once or twice, I tend to move on pretty quickly. I guess I just get bored fast. But she will tinker with a recipe over and over and over again until she feels it's perfect. And then she will incessantly and lovingly text me about how much of said recipe she's making and putting in the freezer for whenever her next visit to Billings will be. It's, like, SO annoying.
Just kidding. It's the greatest thing in the world. During my parent's last visit, my mom made her Asian Fusion Pulled Pork with a beautiful pork roast I picked up from the Yellowstone Valley Food Hub. I'm pretty sure we ate it with sesame rice and a gingery coleslaw but I honestly can't really remember because the pulled pork stole the show.
Mom has also worked hard to develop a pineapple sauce which goes beautifully with the pork. Whether you serve it with rice and slaw, as tacos or on sliders, the pineapple sauce adds the perfect picant tartness.
Slow braises like this can be made either in the oven, a slow cooker, or in a pressure cooker with a few modifications. If you go the oven route, you'll want a heavy duty, oven proof pot with a lid like the Le Creuset Round Dutch Oven or the Cuisinart Round Dutch Oven. The Zavor LUX LCD Multicooker will cut the cooking time in half at least and you won't have to heat up your kitchen by turning on the oven.
If you're a connoisseur of Asian cuisines, you'll notice that this recipe includes ingredients from several different cultures. That's why we humbly call it a "fusion" and make no claims at authenticity. It's still damned delicious, though!
Ingredients
For the Pork:
3 to 3.5 lb Pork Shoulder, cut into large chunks and trimmed of visible fat)
Salt and pepper
1/3 C Red Boat Fish Sauce
1/3 C Bragg Liquid aminos
2/3 C Water
1/4 C Gluten Free Reduced Sodium Tamari
1/4 C Mirin Rice Wine
1/4 C lite Seasoned Rice Vinegar
1 medium Yellow Onion, cut into quarters
6 Whole Cloves Peeled Garlic
2” by 1/2” Peeled Ginger, sliced lengthwise into 3 pieces
2 tsps Five Spice Powder
For the Asian Pineapple Sauce:
2 whole pineapples pealed, cut into 2” chunks with core
1/2 cups reserved cooking liquid from pulled pork
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes to taste
1/2 tsp salt
Directions
If cooking in an oven, preheat to 200°.
Season pork on all sides with salt and pepper. In a heavy bottomed fry pan or dutch oven (cast iron or fully clad stainless steel work great here), brown the pork on all sides. Depending on the size of your pan you may have to work in batches. If you will be cooking this in a slow cooker or pressure cooker, remove pork chunks and place in your desired type of cooker. If you're going to be cooking the pork in the oven in the same pan in which it was seared, you can skip the next step.
Deglaze the pan using the fish sauce, liquid aminos, water, tamari, mirin and rice vinegar. Scrape up all the brown bits using a wooden spatula while cooking over medium high heat for 3-4 minutes. You don't want to reduce the liquid down very much. You're just trying to get all the yummy brown bits into your sauce so they can contribute flavor to your final dish.
Once your pan is deglazed, pour the sauce over the pork chunks. Add the yellow onion, garlic, ginger and five spice powder to the pot. Toss to distribute.
In a slow cooker or oven, the pork will take approximately 4 hours to cook on a low setting. Test for doneness by removing the lid and attempting to shred a chunk of pork using a fork. It should fall apart easily. If you're using an electric or stovetop pressure cooker, follow the directions that came with your appliance.
Once the pork is fall-apart-tender, remove the pork chunks and set aside. Discard the onion, garlic and ginger. Strain the cooking liquid through a fat separator. If making the Asian Pineapple Sauce, reserve a 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. It's easiest to shred the pork when it's still a little warm, but not pipping hot. You can use two forks to shred the meat, but meat shredding claws will make incredibly quick work of this task.
Once shredded, recombine the pork and cooking liquid (minus the 1/2 cup reserved). If the sauce seems too loose, you can cook it down gently on the stovetop to reduce it. Serve with sesame rice and gingery coleslaw or as tacos. This pork can be made up to several days in advance, and only gets better with time. It also freezes very well.
For the Asian Pineapple Sauce:
Place all sauce ingredients in a 4 quart saucepan and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for at least twenty minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce is reduced to the consistency of a thick, chunky applesauce. Depending on the ripeness of your pineapples, you may find the final product to be too sweet. If this is the case, add a tablespoon or two of lemon juice to balance the flavors.
