Pulled Pork - You'll have time to make this one and still keep up with your Novellas

I thought we should continue on the peach bender, I mean who doesn't love peaches.  I know I do, matter of fact I'm going to head over to my friends farm and grab another flat of peaches so I can put some away for the winter.  Some ladies try and impress people by flashing a designer (overpriced, I might add) handbag at parties.  I myself like to bring out a warm peach pie in the dead of winter, when fresh fruit is nowhere to be found.  Who looks like the rock star now?

I know it must seem like I never leave the kitchen, but the opposite is true.  I'm in a constant state of motion, sometimes I just want to put dinner on before I leave the house in the morning and come home and enjoy a meal that will only take a few minutes to complete and have on the table.

Pulled Pork in a Crockpot

4 lb. pork butt or shoulder

2 large yellow onions, sliced

32 ozs. low-sodium chicken stock

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp. smoked paprika

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. chipotle powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. vegetable oil

Night before:

Combine brown sugar, salt, black pepper, paprika, cayenne, chipotle powder and garlic powder in a small bowl.  Rub the spice mixture all over the pork and wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge.

In the morning:

Slice onions and place them in a large skillet with 2 tsp. of vegetable oil on medium-high heat.  Cook for a couple of minutes and stir.  Turn heat down to low and leave them to cook for about 15 minutes, they will start to caramelize on their own.   

Add about a cup of the stock to the skillet to deglaze the pan. 

Place the pork inside a large crockpot and cover with the remaining stock; add the whole skillet of onions and stock.  Set the crockpot to low and get out the bon-bons and catch up on your novellas; the day job can wait.  It usually takes 6-8 hours on low to get nice and tender.  

On a completely unrelated side note:

My Crockpot died last time I used it, so if there any PR folks that would like me to review one, hint, hint. 

That evening:

Remove the pork from the broth, break it up with a fork and remove any excess fat.  Place the shredded pork in a large bowl.  Skim any visible fat from the top of the broth.  Pour the broth through a fine sieve and pour the remaining broth over the shredded pork to keep it moist. 

Serve it with the Peach and Jalapeno BBQ Sauce you made the other day.  What is that, you didn't make the sauce I told you to make, because you were too busy watching Juan and Carlita's wedding.  Don't fret ladies, all is not lost.  I'm not usually in the biz of giving out marital advice, but the easiest save here is tell hubs to plant it on the couch (like that is a stretch for him) turn on Telemundo for him and after 20 minutes of him watching the half dressed hostesses, you can slip him a nuked hot dog and he will be none the wiser.

Don't forget to join us for the pretzel challenge, you can read all about it in the sauce link above.

This should easily make 8 sandwiches, you could use a little smaller piece of pork if you have a smaller household, but the leftovers are great the next day.

Enjoy,

Gina

Peach and Jalapeno BBQ Sauce - My birthday is coming up, would you make me a pretzel?

Nothing says summer to me like Peaches do.  I'm lucky my friends own a peach orchard, so I can literally eat them till I'm sick.  This year they made it into my favorite Peach Jalapeno BBQ Sauce, jam is already in the pantry and a crazy good pizza recipe was created, that I just may not share.   Fine I'll share if you do me a favor.

My birthday is coming up right around the corner, and I was hoping in lieu of gifts you wouldn't mind making me a pretzel.   Miss Foodiva threatened (okay, maybe asked politely) that we have a pretzel challenge.  She even went as far as to imply that she was going to kick my pretzel cooking ***.  Do you really believe anything I say at this point?

The rules, well there are none.  So if you love me, make me a pretzel and post it on Sunday August 14, 2011.  Send me a link and I will link us all up in another post.  If you love me even more, I'll give you my address and I'll be waiting for the postman to arrive with that bottle of Patron Silver and some gourmet chocolates.  If you need a basic pretzel recipe you can refer to this recipe.  You can fill them or not, use your imagination.

Peach and Jalapeno BBQ Sauce

8 large yellow peaches

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1/2 cup red onion, chopped finely

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped finely

3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

4 tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 cup catsup or tomato puree

1/4 tsp. chipotle powder (or you can sub paprika)

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

To get the skins of the peaches for slicing, you will need to put a pot of water on to boil.  Cut an X in the bottom of each peach and place in the boiling water for a couple of minutes.  Remove from the boiling water and place into a large bowl filled with ice water.  Once cooled, peel and cut the peaches.

In a large skillet melt butter on med-low heat.  Add onions, cook 5 minutes or until softened.  Add jalapeno, cook 2 more minutes.  Add peaches, cook 5 more minutes.  Add vinegar, brown sugar, catsup, paprika or chipotle powder, cayenne, salt and pepper, stir and reduce heat to simmer for 20-25 minutes until nicely thickened.

I run an immersion blender in mine to make it a little smoother.  But it is also good chunky.  This sauce is pretty spicy, so you could only put in 1/2 of the jalapeno if you wanted to tame it a bit.

I used this for the pulled pork I made the other night, I will have that one up really soon.

Enjoy,

Gina