1) Kicked-Up Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Homemade Barbecue Sauce & Mango-Apple Relish
Pork is quickly gaining on beef in the race to be known as my favorite land-based protein (wild arctic char rules my heart). Even my wife, a self-proclaimed pork-hater, loved eating this tasty sandwich. I was inspired by my mother's similarly prepared pork dish, though she kept the spare ribs intact. When pressed about her cooking methods, she told me that she boiled the ribs for an hour before putting them in the slow cooker, though she didn't know exactly what that accomplished. This intrigued me, so I decided to experiment. Of the ten ribs that went into the slow cooker, five had been boiled for an hour and five were raw. In the end, the boiled slow ribs were denser, darker in color, and seemed to absorb more flavor from the braising liquid than the raw ribs, which themselves had the virtue of being much more tender. This isn't to say that I preferred one method over the other, and in my opinion the combination of the two cooking approaches offered a final product with pleasing textural variation. If you'd rather not boil half the ribs, that's fine. In any case, the great thing about this recipe is that you either do the preparations in the evening and let the pork cook all night, or do the prep in the morning and let it cook all day.
I used champagne mangoes because I don't like/trust the standard variety found in grocery stores, which are an abomination of the memory I have of eating freshly-picked mangoes in Jamaica. If you've ever eaten a soft and juicy mango in the shade of the tree you just plundered, you'll understand my wariness toward those rock-hard lumps of "fruit" you are likely to find at Cub or Rainbow. But really, any mango will do, I guess.
With regards to the chili peppers, it should be noted that I like spicy food, and part of the reason that the sandwich is so tasty is because the heat of the chiles is tempered by the sweetness of the mango-apple relish. If you're averse to spiciness, you can use 1/2 teaspoon of benign chili powder instead of the dried whole chiles.
Oh yeah, and if you're a teetotaler, feel free to skip the beer and wine.
Ingredients:
-10 boneless pork spare ribs (approximately five pounds)
For the braising liquid/ barbecue sauce:
-1 bottle of drinkable beer (Read: non-macrobrew. If it is available in a can, you shouldn't drink it, let alone defile this recipe with it, unless it's a Surly. In that case, I'd recommend drinking the Surly over using it here.)
-1 cup of dry white wine (borderline-drinkable Charles "Three-Buck Chuck" Shaw Pinot Grigio is perfect)
-1 can of Coca-Cola Classic (do not substitute Diet Coke, as you want the fabled "nail-eating" properties of CCC to work for you by tenderizing the pork)
-3/4 cup of ketchup
-3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
-3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
-1/2 teaspoon of salt
-1 teaspoon of fresh oregano, chopped (or 1/3 teaspoon of dried oregano)
-dried whole chiles (I used 2 ancho chiles, 3 chipotle chiles, and 10 Thai chiles, which equated to an overall spiciness level of medium-hot)
-6 strips of bacon, chopped (preferably center-cut)
-2 medium onions, diced (I recommend using one red onion and one sweet Vidalia onion)
-2 apples, diced
-1 dash (or 5) of cayenne pepper for extra kick (optional)
For the relish:*
*It's really a chutney, but relish sounded more appropriate.
-3 champagne mangoes, diced
-2 apples, diced
-1/2 cup of water
-1/4 cup of brown sugar
-2 tablespoons of butter
-1 teaspoon of freshly-grated ginger
-1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
-1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves
Cooking Instructions:
1) Boil half of the spare ribs in a large pot of water for one hour.
2) Add all the ingredients for the braising liquid to the slow cooker, along with both the boiled and raw spare ribs.
3) Cook on the low setting for 10 hours. You know the pork is ready when it easily falls apart when pierced with a fork.
4) Use a slotted spoon to remove the pork from the braising liquid and set aside in a large bowl. As you're doing this, remove any chiles you encounter and place them in a small bowl. Don't worry about getting every single piece of pork out of the liquid; get most of it and move onto step five.
5) Pour all of the braising liquid into a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low heat for about an hour. At first the sauce will be quite thin, and the aim is to reduce it until it thickens. I added about 1/4 cup of ground flaxseed meal to aid this process.
6) Combine all the ingredients for the relish in a large pan and cook over medium heat. You can add one or more of the spent chiles you removed from the braising liquid for a little extra heat. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the fruit is tender and the liquid thickens noticeably.
7) Since the pork is so flavorful without the barbecue sauce, you may opt to enjoy some of it on its own, as I did. To assemble the sandwich, combine the barbecue sauce with the pulled pork. Spoon a portion onto a bun (I toasted a whole wheat bakery roll, which I then buttered), and top with some of the mango-apple relish.
8) Eat and enjoy.
Till next time.
I used champagne mangoes because I don't like/trust the standard variety found in grocery stores, which are an abomination of the memory I have of eating freshly-picked mangoes in Jamaica. If you've ever eaten a soft and juicy mango in the shade of the tree you just plundered, you'll understand my wariness toward those rock-hard lumps of "fruit" you are likely to find at Cub or Rainbow. But really, any mango will do, I guess.
With regards to the chili peppers, it should be noted that I like spicy food, and part of the reason that the sandwich is so tasty is because the heat of the chiles is tempered by the sweetness of the mango-apple relish. If you're averse to spiciness, you can use 1/2 teaspoon of benign chili powder instead of the dried whole chiles.
Oh yeah, and if you're a teetotaler, feel free to skip the beer and wine.
Ingredients:
-10 boneless pork spare ribs (approximately five pounds)
For the braising liquid/ barbecue sauce:
-1 bottle of drinkable beer (Read: non-macrobrew. If it is available in a can, you shouldn't drink it, let alone defile this recipe with it, unless it's a Surly. In that case, I'd recommend drinking the Surly over using it here.)
-1 cup of dry white wine (borderline-drinkable Charles "Three-Buck Chuck" Shaw Pinot Grigio is perfect)
-1 can of Coca-Cola Classic (do not substitute Diet Coke, as you want the fabled "nail-eating" properties of CCC to work for you by tenderizing the pork)
-3/4 cup of ketchup
-3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
-3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
-1/2 teaspoon of salt
-1 teaspoon of fresh oregano, chopped (or 1/3 teaspoon of dried oregano)
-dried whole chiles (I used 2 ancho chiles, 3 chipotle chiles, and 10 Thai chiles, which equated to an overall spiciness level of medium-hot)
-6 strips of bacon, chopped (preferably center-cut)
-2 medium onions, diced (I recommend using one red onion and one sweet Vidalia onion)
-2 apples, diced
-1 dash (or 5) of cayenne pepper for extra kick (optional)
For the relish:*
*It's really a chutney, but relish sounded more appropriate.
-3 champagne mangoes, diced
-2 apples, diced
-1/2 cup of water
-1/4 cup of brown sugar
-2 tablespoons of butter
-1 teaspoon of freshly-grated ginger
-1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
-1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves
Cooking Instructions:
1) Boil half of the spare ribs in a large pot of water for one hour.
2) Add all the ingredients for the braising liquid to the slow cooker, along with both the boiled and raw spare ribs.
3) Cook on the low setting for 10 hours. You know the pork is ready when it easily falls apart when pierced with a fork.
4) Use a slotted spoon to remove the pork from the braising liquid and set aside in a large bowl. As you're doing this, remove any chiles you encounter and place them in a small bowl. Don't worry about getting every single piece of pork out of the liquid; get most of it and move onto step five.
5) Pour all of the braising liquid into a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low heat for about an hour. At first the sauce will be quite thin, and the aim is to reduce it until it thickens. I added about 1/4 cup of ground flaxseed meal to aid this process.
6) Combine all the ingredients for the relish in a large pan and cook over medium heat. You can add one or more of the spent chiles you removed from the braising liquid for a little extra heat. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the fruit is tender and the liquid thickens noticeably.
7) Since the pork is so flavorful without the barbecue sauce, you may opt to enjoy some of it on its own, as I did. To assemble the sandwich, combine the barbecue sauce with the pulled pork. Spoon a portion onto a bun (I toasted a whole wheat bakery roll, which I then buttered), and top with some of the mango-apple relish.
8) Eat and enjoy.
Till next time.
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