Posts tagged ‘pork’

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May 3, 2011

Pig of the Month BBQ Review

I received a fairly surprising email in late March from Lea with Pigofthemonth.com.  I’ll give you the text, just for complete openness….

I’m with Pig of the Month BBQ, www.pigofthemonth.com, and we ship BBQ meats, sauces, & southern favorite side dishes all around the country.  I was thinking since a big chunk of your readership are obviously single guys this might be a great product review for you to do.  We ship everything frozen, with reheating instructions so its an easy dinner to put on the table without sacrificing quality. And what guy doesn’t love BBQ??

Intrigued, not just by the offer (this was a new one), but by the name (as was the Fedex lady when I picked up my order, I decided I wanted to give this a shot.  Pig of the Month sent me a package of ribs, a plastic container of pulled pork, some baked beans, corn pudding and a couple rolls.

The product arrived in good shape, and everything was quickly transferred to the refrigerator and freezer (meat in the freezer and sides in the refrigerator).  I wasn’t sure exactly when I planned on taking this down, but I was pleased to note inside the package that “meat was flash frozen to ensure freshness.  As long as meat is cool to the touch when you get it, they are good to eat, freeze, or refrigerate”.  I was please to see this note because FedEx made me pick up the package at their facility since my hectic schedule did not allow me to be at home and I was a little worried that the dry ice wasn’t still in the package.  It made it home safely though!

I cooked the BBQ in the microwave, per the instructions and because I was feeling lazy.  I don’t know if the Pig of the Month people know that I consider myself a BBQ fanatic when they sent this to me, but I’ll say that this BBQ fanatic was pleasantly surprised,  The meat was tasty and well-cooked (i prefer chopped and this was pulled, but it was good pulled pork), the sauce was delicious and the beans and corn pudding were excellent.  The beans, in particular, were delicious.   The roll was kinda crappy, but I’m not sure how you pull off a roll in this context without it being kind of crappy.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take a photo (this is more of a problem with this blog than you’d think).

The ribs terrified my girlfriend, who chose to eat something else rather than join me in the eating.  I cooked these in the microwave (side note: my microwave keeps shorting out the breaker, which is all kinds of annoying) per the instructions and dug in.  I was really impressed!  I asked the Pig of the Month people to send me something they were proud of, and I think they should be proud of these ribs.  I ate them with the Sweet Potato Fries and a beer and I couldn’t have been happier.  The serving is really for two people so I ate them for lunch the next day.

You can check out the Pig of the Month folks on their website.   Tell them SingleGuyCooking.com sent you and they may even throw you a discount.

A happy rib eater:

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July 15, 2010

Enchiladas

Ingredients

  • Pork Loin
  • Red Hot Pepper
  • Jalapeno Pepper
  • Spinach
  • Mexican Cheese
  • Small taco size tortillas

I took a Pork Loin and put it in the crock pot for about 8 hours, then chopped it up until it was pretty fine.  I chopped both of the pepper types up and mixed them together.  Took the pork, pepper mix, and spinach and added some cheese and rolled up inside the tortillas.  I filled one layer of a Pyrex and then put a layer of cheese over the first layer.  I did the same procedure and added the cheese on top of the 2nd layer.  Baked for about 10 mins at 350.

Here’s what it looked like:

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March 12, 2010

Crockpot Southern Chopped Pork BBQ

I got this recipe from my grandmother Lail, a legendary cook in my personal opinion.  I have this dream that one day I’ll own a smoker and have my own kick-ass BBQ recipe but until then I wanted to attempt to make the food that I miss the most from the South.

Here’s grandmother Lail’s email I got when I asked her:

“Jeff,  I use Boston Butts They are pork.  I also use a crockpot . I usually buy 6 to 8 pound ones.  Put Butt into crockpot with fat side on top. Cook on High for 6 to 7 hours or until you can take a fork and strip meat from bone. Strip all meat from bone into a bowl to resemble strips of BBQ. Pour some of the drippings over meat so it will not be dry to taste. Salt according to your taste add your favorite sauce and ENJOY. “

So I ventured out to the store and of course they didn’t have boston butt.  After looking around a bit, I decided to go with the pork shoulder that I had seen in other places on the web.  I got a 10 pound pork shoulder ($9) and took it home along with what I thought was the best facsimile of NC BBQ sauce.

So I took the pork shoulder, defrosted and unwrapped it and the damn thing wouldn’t fit in my crockpot!  I stared at the pork shoulder, stared at the crockpot, back to the pork, back to the crockpot.  After repeating this ritual a few times, I came up with a backup plan.  I put the oven at 300 degrees and tossed the pork shoulder in a pan.  Then I left it in there for about 15 mins.  After that, I pulled it out of the oven, deboned it, then threw the meat into the crockpot and discarded the bone in the shoulder and some of the fat.

I then let it cook in the crockpot on high for about 6 hours.  I took it out piece by piece after 6 hours and chopped it into small chunks and served with onion rings and cole slaw.

The downside:

  • If you don’t smoke it, you really miss out on the delicious crust and smoky flavor
  • I did feel like this came out a little greasy.  Maybe I should have taken out more fat.
  • The sauce I bought was not the NC sauce I was used to.  My parents brought some Hickory Smokehouse sauce up from NC last week, and it was so much better.

Not a bad way to make this dish, but don’t expect it to be the same, especially if you’re used to the good carolina stuff.

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February 8, 2010

Pork Chops

I had some leftover pork from the green pork chili adventure, so I decided to make it into pork chops.  Granted, this wasn’t exactly normal pork chops – the pork that I had came from a pork roast that I had used for the pork chili, so these were not “bone in” chops.  Technically, they were pork roast fillets.

I roasted the remainder of the pork in the oven for about an hour at approximately 400 degrees.

After it was done roasting, I think sliced it thin and pan-sauteed it to brown the sides a little bit and make sure it was cooked thoroughly (for the love of God, do not eat raw pork – sick).

I served it with some spinach (heated up from frozen) and some wild rice.  Turned out delicious.

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January 15, 2010

Green Pork Chili

My favorite food guy/traveler is The Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain.  Unfortunately, Comcast and the Travel Channel do not get along, but I can still view Anthony’s show on the internet (you suck comcast, make this happen).  Anthony likes to talk about the journey of finding a meal and that there’s a part where you just need to trust yourself and trust that you’re moving towards something great even if it may not look that way sometimes.

I was reminded of Anthony’s thoughts while I was trying to adapt Bobby Flay’s recipe for Green Pork Chili into something that I could handle in my own kitchen.  If you want to see his take, visit the Food Network site, but I’ll be showing you what I did below….

Ingredients

  • 2 red onions, chopped
  • 1 pound tomatillos, husked (peeled), rinsed, and halved
  • 3 jalapenos, stemmed, seeded and halved
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 4 tablespoons canola oil
  • 2 pounds pork roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 5 cups store brand chicken stock
  • 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, toss the onions, tomatillos, jalapenos, and garlic with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and spread on a baking sheet. Leave in the oven until soft and starting to brown, about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring twice during roasting.  I only left for about 20 minutes and I wish I had left for 30 so the vegetables were browned a little more.  Also, while chopping the onions, I started to tear up; I’ve never teared up when chopping onions.  I turned the microwave vent on, but still had a rough go of it….not that there’s anything wrong with crying.  If you don’t know this already, it’s very important that you don’t touch your eyes before you’ve washed your hands after messing with jalapenos and onions unless you’d like to enter a world of pain.

Meanwhile, in a large pot over medium-high heat, add the oil and heat. Brown the pork, in batches, until well-browned. When browned, add all of the pork back to the pan and cover with chicken stock. Add the roasted vegetables, cover the pan and turn the stove heat to medium. Cook until the pork is very tender, about 1.5 hours.  I wish I had let the pork get a little more brown as well, but honestly, I got impatient.  If you’re trying it or I’m doing it again, I recommend letting the pork get brown.

Toss cilantro into pork mixture and stir.  Let cook for about 5 more minutes.

Honestly, this was one of the best tasting dishes I’ve made myself.

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October 10, 2009

Carnitas

Thanks to my friend TJ, guru of New Mexico cooking, for passing along this great recipe.  It’s all the things I love about cooking – cheap, delicious, really easy to make, really hard to screw up, and easily customizable to particular tastes.

It’s adapted from a book called “Hungry Monkey”.  I made some minor adaptations to the initial recipe.  First, because I’m an idiot and did some stuff wrong.  Second, because I like to make things simple and easy.  Third, because I like to put things in the way I want them.  I added the chile, the cilantro and serving in the tortillas.  Obviously you could add cheese, tomatoes or some other food you like.

This is really one of my favorite cooking principles – cook with food that you like.  Don’t add peppers if you don’t like peppers – switch it to something else.  You don’t enjoy it, you won’t eat it, then you’ll be back picking up chinese and eating cereal for dinner.

Carnitas

3 lbs boneless pork shoulder or country style ribs, trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 large onion diced (chopped into small chunks)
1 cup chicken broth (i used a small can)
1/4 cup tequila
2 tbs lime juice from a lime (squeezed)
salt and pepper (add to boiling water – be generous)
small tortillas
1 bundle of cilantro (chopped)
2 cans of old el paso green chile
1. combine all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered 2-3 hrs until the meat is tender (i did 2 hours), and the broth is evaporated (if necessary, turn up the heat near the end of cooking to evaporate the rest of the broth.) at this point you may optionally refrigerate the carnitas before continuing. they will keep several days in the fridge.
2. ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE EATING NOW – heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. add the carnitas and cook, stirring occasionally until they are heated through and well browned. even burt or crispy in places.
3. Heat tortillas in microwave for 30 seconds.  Put carnitas, chile (generous spoonful) and cilantro (generous spoonful) into tortilla.  Enjoy
I love that you can cook, this for yourself and all it takes is a simple pan cooking (5 mins max) to prepare this for the next eating.  Leftovers are awesome.
Here’s how mine came out:

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