Pulled BBQ Pork

This weekend was another Cheverly Community Market weekend. I didn't prep any featured recipe to share, but was there to talk about wine! Caroline Hermann joined me to discuss food/wine pairings and we provided an info sheet on hosting your own wine/food tasting with three types of wine and three different, simple foods. I'd love to share the document, but I have no idea how to load a PDF to Blogger. Any ideas? The market was low-key this weekend, but we had fun anyway!

Last night's dinner was all about the market! Three of our main components came from the market. One boneless pork loin roast. One container of Mesquite Spice Rub from Vann's Spices. And one dozen Parker House rolls. All three were amazing.

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Pulled BBQ Pork 2 (Pulled BBQ Pork 1, HERE)

I started with a 2 1/2 pound roast and two-three tablespoons of the spice rub. Liberally coat the roast with the spices and rub in. I put the roast in the fridge and let it sit over night.

The next day I pre-heated the oven to 300 and got the dutch oven going on the stove over medium high heat. With a few tablespoons of olive oil over high heat, sear the roast on all sides. When you have a nice crust, remove the roast to a plate and drain off the excess oil/fat.

Add one large onion, diced and a small handful of crush garlic cloves. Allow to sweat for a few minutes until they start to carmelize. Season with salt and pepper. Deglaze the pot with 1/2 cup of hard cider. Add one can of whole, peeled tomatoes. Add one dash of liquid smoke (if you like) and a dash of Worcheshire sauce and two tablespoons of brown sugar. Bring to a simmer. Return roast to the pot and place in the oven. For FIVE hours!!!

Everything in the pot will be beautiful, rich and so tender!

Remove the roast to a baking sheet to cool. Now we'll make our BBQ sauce. And here's where it gets tough. I didn't write anything down! Add one 8oz can of tomato sauce. 1 tsp cider vinegar. 1 tsp each of cayenne pepper, chimayo chile powder, ancho chile powder and chipotle chile powder. 1 tsp ground oregano. Salt & pepper. A little more brown sugar. Allow to simmer and bubble. Taste for seasoning and adjust. Oh, I added a very tiny pinch of cinnamon and ground clove.

While the sauce is bubbling. Pull the pork. Discard any pieces of fat or connective tissue. I cut the large pieces with a spoon. Yes, a spoon. The pork was so tender I barely had to apply any pressure with a spoon to cut it! AWESOME!

Take a roll of your choice. If you have access to the Parker House rolls the market. Get them! Add a heaping pile of the pulled pork and dress with as much sauce as you like.

Devour!

The pork was wonderful! The spice rub brought a lot of great flavor to the party. Without the sauce, the braised pork was still full of great flavor. It took several little tastes to get the sauce exactly the way I wanted it. A tiny bit of twang, nicely sweet; not cloyingly so. And enough heat to say hello, but not to smack you in the face!

For dessert we had more rolls with Martha's Jam; Strawberry Kiwi that we also got at the market. Wonderful!