I will say that I was very nervous though. When I think of pulled pork--being from Memphis, TN--I think barbeque. I think of long hours over super low heat. I think of smoke and of that delicious crust the pork gets because of all of the sugar that is added to to dry rub. And there I came up against my first obstacle. How in the hell was I going to make pulled pork without sugar? How? HOW?
As people of my generation are wont to do when presented a query they know not how to answer, I turned to the internet. I was pretty surprised at how many recipes for paleo pulled pork there were floating around out there in the ether. And, again, as people of my generation are wont to do, I clicked the first link that appeared and flew with it.
I found Everyday Paleo's Beyond Easy Pulled Pork and scanned the recipe and method, then decided that it was super easy and super adaptable. See, I say adaptable because with things like spice blends or spice rubs or anything that involves a mixture of spices, be it gingerbread recipe or a dry rub, I never follow the recipes I find. They're like the Pirate Code. Guidelines.
So, I had my "guideline", I had my 3.7lbs pork butt, and I had my crock pot. I was ready to roll!
I'm not even going to be able to tell you what I put on my pork, because I can't remember. I do remember it involved some cinnamon, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, cumin, and cayenne. Other than that, it's kind of a "throw in whatever else you want" sort of thing. But, make sure, you don't add any sugar. If you can't imagine going without sweetness though, you can easily add some sugar free jam--Whole Food's 360 brand offers quite a few that are sweetener free and very versatile--or some coconut palm or date sugar. Though, it really isn't needed.
I rubbed down my butt (har, har, har) and plopped it in the crock pot, cranked it up to high, and let it do its thing for five hours. After five hours, I cranked it down to low and let it go another three hours. (It really depends on the size and weight of your pork butt. Mine was just under 4lbs and it took about 8 hours to become fall-apart-tender.)
During the last hour of the pork's cooking time, I got to work on making home homemade flour tortillas for Husband and Wee One to enjoy their pork with. I mixed 2 cups of flour with a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 TBS pork lard (I love lard...), and 3/4 a cup of hot water. I then needed the dough on a lightly floured surface and began pulling of about half-fist sized balls of dough. I rolled them out as flat as I could and then gently laid them flat in a medium-low skillet that had been lightly greased with some more lard. I cooked them for about three minutes on each side, or until they had nice brown spots. (Not gonna lie, they smelled heavenly, but I resisted the temptation.)
After I made the tortillas for the boys, I moved on to the vessels on which I would pile my pulled pork. I have to say, during the past two weeks, I've tried numerous paleo pancake recipes for breakfast, and they just...they ain't gettin' it. They're not pancakes, they can't be pancakes, and I just stopped trying. That is, until I realized that a savory application might just do the pancakes some good. I found Nom Nom Paleo's Savory Coconut Pancake recipe and made it up...then I realized it was really, really, really thick. I didn't want the pancakes to be too heavy, so I added about 1/3 a cup of water to the batter, thinning it out to my liking.
In a medium heated skillet, I melted some more delicious, nutritious pork lard and poured in some of my pancake batter. I cooked on each side until browned to my liking, then piled them high on a plate. They were really simple, but I was worried whether or not they would stand up to the pulled pork.
Using my tongs, I got the now falling-apart pork out of the crock pot and got a few more things ready. I got out some guacamole, cut up some tomatoes, and melted some of Husband's cheese dip (which had no sugar in it, so I indulged in a little bit over my second taco.) After getting everything set out and ready, I made Wee One a plate up and then served myself.
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| Pulled pork goodness! |
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| Food porn at it's porniest. |
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| It's almost too pretty to eat. Almost. |
I really have no words to even being to describe how amazing this meal was. I think I was really missing Mexican food, especially things like chips and tortillas and flautas and the like, so the pancakes really helped to give that authentic mouth feel. They were a bit too flimsy to actually pick up and eat everything like a taco, so I resorted to cutting massive slices and shoving them un-glamorously into my mouth with noises that are not fit for the dinner table. I think I would have liked to have a bit of hot sauce to go over the top, but I have yet to find a paleo hot sauce. (If anyone knows of a paleo hot sauce, I demand you fill me in and then I will love you forever!) I've been filling up after one serving of the meals I've been making, but yesterday I skipped lunch so that I'd be really hungry at dinner. I still only managed like one and a half servings, but they were sooooo good. I'm about to have some for breakfast actually.
And everyone loved it. Husband had two servings. Wee One didn't want a tortilla, but he liked the meat and gobbled a plate of tomatoes as well. It's definitely been toddler and spouse approved, and it's so stupid easy that a caveman could do it (no pun intended. See...see...get it? Paleo? Caveman? Heh heh...) I'm a huge fan of anything that I can put in the crock pot and not touch for hours at a time. You really have no reason not to try this, because it's endlessly adaptable, you could add anything you wanted to it, you could serve it numerous ways, and we've established that it's almost sinfully delicious. As far as cost goes, it's pretty damn cheap as well. I had almost everything already in the pantry aside from the lard (which we still have a massive amount of for more kitchen goodness), the pork butt, and the tomatoes. So we maybe spent a total of $20 on those three things, to feed two adults and a toddler, and have plenty for leftovers? Like a boss, man.
I'm still trucking along on the Whole30, and with delicious recipes like this, there's no reason that you shouldn't try some of the great paleo recipes out there. Later this week I'll be making Crock Pot Moroccan Chicken Thighs, Chicken With 40 Cloves Of Garlic, and even a paleo play on Bangers and Mash. So stay tuned for those. As I said before, I'm supposed to be getting some samples from Raw Revolution of their awesome bars, and will hopefully be doing a giveaway with some of the bars! So let me know what kind of bars you'd like to try and I'll see what I can do! Also, there's still my Amazon Wishlist which has a lot of paleo snacks, paleo pantry staples, exercise accessories, and cookbooks if you're interested in helping me out or just checking it out for yourself!
Until next time Kitchen Comrades!
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