Pulled Pork

I have a friend at work who I like to cook for because he’s easy. He likes it all. I particularly like to make those things that are borderline fast food, but made properly, without shortcuts (like BBQ sauce- not out of a bottle, but homemade).

Recently I discovered an interesting American/Puerto Rican food blog called “The Noshery” that had a twist on a favorite comfort food of mine, namely pulled pork.

Living in Germany you don’t find pulled pork very often, even working around other Americans. But we had a food concession at my job whose specialty was smoked foods, among those pulled pork with homemade Habanero sauce.

I was hooked. I tried out different things a couple of times, but the recipe I found at the Noshery intrigued me because of an ingredient listed that exists here in Germany as well. I don’t know whether the product is similar, but to use it made sense. I am talking about Malzbier or malted beer (not really beer, because it contains no alcohol), but rather a malty drink with some sweetness and some beery elements (like Guiness).

The other intriguing element was bitter orange concentrate, another product unavailable over here. Instead, I used a bottle of Crodino, an Italian non-alcoholic orange-like bitter used to flavor winey summer drinks.

4 lb pork shoulder

5 cloves of garlic, pressed

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp Mexican oregano

1 1/2 Tbs olive oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 can San Marzano tomatoes

3 oz pickled jalapeño peppers

1 12 oz bottle Malzbier (malted drink)

4 oz Crodino

1 2 oz can tomato paste

I combined the garlic, salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil and cut holes in the meat to  press the mixture into. I didn’t really have time to marinate it, so I put the other ingredients into a high cup and blitzed them, pouring the mix over the pork, adding the cover and baking the concoction at 325° C for 4 hours.

During this time almost all the fluid evaporated. I reconstituted the sauce with about a cup of water/wine and pulled the pork.

The following picture is a before shot. I haven’t served it yet, but I did try it- It’s different and good. Definitely citrus-y

with a dark side (the malt, no doubt)

Hopefully when I warm it up tomorrow I will be able to get some sauce out of the meat.

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