BBQ Pulled Pork

One of my favorite meals is BBQ pulled pork sandwiches. I used to get them all the time when we would go to a restaurant.  Then I learned to make them at home using a dead simple recipe I found on AllRecipes.com. In 2009 I served this for Christmas and my brother Tony raved about it and kept going back for extra helpings. We have enjoyed this meal time and again since then, and today I am going to walk you through how we make it, step by easy step.

First I gather up my ingredients.  You need:

• pork
• BBQ sauce
• beef broth

The original recipe calls for boneless pork ribs.  I always just use a roast. Use a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce, and about 2 cups of beef broth.

Next, plug in your slow cooker.  You think I am joking. I can not tell you the number of times I have come back to the kitchen to find that the rice in the steamer or the food in the crockpot is not cooking because I forgot this step.

Put the pork in the slowcooker.

If you are mixing up beef broth from bullion or Better Than Bullion, do that now.  2 teaspoons of Better Than Bullion, whisked into boiling hot water.

Pour the beef broth into the slowcooker with the pork. If you are using beef broth in a can or carton, there is no need to mix it, and you would just pour it in.

Put on the lid and set the temp.  Either cook this on high for at least four hours, or on low for eight if you have time.  The slower and longer it cooks, the easier it will fall apart in the next step.  When it is done cooking, heat up your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Use two forks and pull the pork apart into chunks and shreds.

Keep doing this until the whole roast has been pulled apart.

Pour the BBQ sauce all over the meat. Don't skimp!  You are going to use the whole bottle.

Continue covering the meat with the sauce.

Stir all the pork around to cover it with the sauce somewhat evenly.  Then spread it back out on the baking tray, and top it with any remaining BBQ sauce in the bottle.

Place the sauced meat into the oven and cook it for about half an hour.

Remove from the oven and serve hot.

If you want to bake up homemade Hawaiian rolls to put the pork on, check out this recipe for that.

Enjoy!

Hawaiian Rolls

Yesterday for dinner we had BBQ pulled pork on homemade Hawaiian Rolls.  I found the recipe for the rolls at I HEART eating.  Head over there for a printable version of the recipe, and instructions.

Here are the ingredients I used:

• 1 cup pineapple juice (plus 1/2 cup water - use 1 1/2 cup pineapple juice if you have it)
• 4 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (original recipe calls for active dry)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar divided
• 1/2 cup margarine use butter if you don't have a dairy allergy at room temperature, plus extra for brushing rolls
• 2 large eggs
• 5 to 6 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt 

The first step said to grease two 9" by 13" pans and set them aside.  This seemed fine, but then because of the rise times, they were sitting there taking up space in my kitchen for quite a while.  I think next time I would wait until closer to when I transfer the rolls to the pans to grease them up.

To start making the rolls, I needed pineapple juice.  This isn't something we typically stock in our pantry, and there is a winter storm outside making it inconvenient to get to the store just now, so I drained a can of pineapple tidbits that we had on hand for pizzas. I added a bit of water to make the full 1 1/2 cups, but I definitely got more juice than I expected that way.

I microwaved the pineapple juice to get it up to a warm temp. I overshot 105 slightly, but it cooled down quickly while I was getting the other ingredients in the bowl.

2 Tablespoons of the sugar. (I realized later that since I was using instant yeast, all the sugar could have gone in at once, since I didn't need to proof the yeast).

4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast.

At this point I added the rest of the sugar, the eggs, and the vanilla extract. I forgot about the margarine, but you will want to add yours at this point.

I stirred it up.

Then added 3 cups of the flour.

And the teaspoon of salt.

I mixed it

And then began to slowly add flour to get the dough to clear the sides of the bowl.

I kneaded it in the mixer for one minute on low as instructed.  I covered it with plastic wrap and was going to let it rise.  In the meantime, I began to clean the kitchen up and noticed the margarine sitting on the counter.

Oh dear.  As when I dropped an entire egg into the bowl while making Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies... "this step is optional."

I plopped the margarine in on top of the dough, and began to mix it.

I have no idea how much flour I ended up using, because before I was done I was just grabbing handfuls of the stuff and throwing it in the mixing bowl.

Eventually it was once again what appeared to be the desired consistency, so I covered the bowl and left it to rise.  When I came back, I used my new bench scraper to divide the dough into roughly even pieces, by forming the dough into circles, and cutting it like a pizza.

I rolled the dough into balls and placed 12 in each prepared pan.

I covered them up with one of my new flour sack towels, and let them rise again.

When the rise time was done, they went into the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Here is a sneak peak at what the rest of dinner was.

When they came out, I neglected to brush them with butter, so they don't have the typical Hawaiian roll sheen.

Nonetheless, they were tasty.  They were not as light as I had hoped, but I was the only one that seemed the least bit bothered by this.  Also, it may have been owing to the extra kneading when I inadvertently omitted the fat from the dough and had to re-work it.  I was pleased they turned out at all, considering.

I would certainly use this recipe again.  Let me know if you give it a try!

Still Playing With My Food

Goodness, it's been a while. A few days ago I looked up my food blog and read through it again looking for a roll recipe I remembered enjoying. As I did, I felt both inspired to try some recipes again I haven't made in a long time, and also pleased at the progress I've made on my kitchen skills over the years. I am, it would seem, still "playing with my food."

With no promises that I will be steadily or consistently posting, I thought I would hop back on here and post some updates and a few recipes that I have been making and enjoying lately. 

 I have circled back around to sourdough. It brings me such joy to bake with sourdough. In fact, this Christmas I baked up lots of little sourdough loaves and wrapped them up to give to friends and family members as gifts. They were well-received, and though the wrapping of them took longer than I had anticipated, they were a joy to give.  

 Bryan and I have also been making a lot of pizza of late. We got an Ooni pizza oven, and have enjoyed it so much. We have hosted pizza parties, taken it camping with us, and just generally enjoyed making yummy pizzas at home more or less from scratch. 

 I have also found a cinnamon roll recipe I really like and adapted it to be diary-free. Having sent some in with Bryan to work at one point, I now from time to time will make up dozens of cinnamon rolls for the hardworking staff at the school. 

 My lunches for the last few years have been mostly soups, salads, and those super convenient chicken and rice packets from Costco. Looking back over all the bento lunches of the past amuses me. We shall see if I decide to "cute" my lunch at all in the future.  I put my Panda Express left overs into a container but was underwhelmed by the results. I am out of practice to say the least.

Enjoy!