Here's how it works: A theme ingredient is picked and everyone who comes to the contest must either bring a dish featuring the ingredient to enter into the competition or else bring alcohol enough to share. Think Iron Chef but without the ingredient being a secret, and with a lot more boozing. After everyone has tasted each dish, they are given the opportunity to chose their three favorites and points are awarded accordingly. The first time, the theme ingredient was potatoes and I luckily managed to etch out a victory with a baked potato soup featuring three types of taters, cheese, sour cream, green onion, and a topping consisting of broasted potatoes with crumbled bacon and chives. This was before I started blogging, so I have no entry about this dish. If and when I make it again I'll be sure to photograph it and make a post about it.
My reward for winning was a spoiled tin of spotted dick, which I humbly accepted and promptly discarded upon returning home. Going into last week's competition, I knew I would have to step my game up a notch in order to secure a win. I was quite glad, then, when I was told about the theme ingredients. Not only were there two of them, but they were pork and mushrooms! I love to cook with both of these things.
In preparation, I made some pulled pork (scroll down to the previous post to see how I made it last time) in order to practice and hone my dish for the contest. It turned out well, but with a wider audience judging my creation, I knew I would have to tone down the spiciness in order to win more votes from palates less accustomed to very hot flavors. In addition, I decided to include mushrooms into my latest rendition. What I ended up with was a pulled pork with two options of sauce and buttered mushrooms served with white rice. I just called it "pulled pork" for simplicity during the contest.
Here's what you'll need:
Pork Shoulder
Salt (coarse sea salt preferred)
Black Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Red Pepper Flakes
Paprika
Cumin
Dried Parsley
Chili Paste
Apple Cider Vinegar
Honey
Dijon Mustard
BBQ Sauce
Portobello Mushrooms
Shitake Mushrooms
Oyster Mushrooms
Butter
Soy Sauce
Brown Sugar
Lemon
Worcestershire Sauce
Chicken Stock
Sesame Seed Oil
Rice
So first things first, let's start off with the pulled pork itself. Take a look at this wonderful pork shoulder. You really get a lot of bang for you buck with cuts of meat like this. It's large and marbled with glorious fat. Once again, there was an excess of fat on the outside of mine, so I cut a little bit of it off with a sharp knife. This is not needed but I chose to do so since the meat is already rich and fatty enough without that thick layer.
The rub is the same as last time. The sole difference is that I had picked up some coarse sea salt that was lacking before. I really like coarse sea salt for rubs, so use it if you have it.
Let's talk about black pepper for a second. If you're anything like me, you're very handsome. Also if you're like me, you love black pepper. It is definitely worth it to use peppercorns and grind them with a pepper mill. The flavor is much better. I had been using regular pepper out of a shaker for years before someone from the Internet schooled me on it. Now I'm never going back. Pretty simple thing, but it makes a big difference.
Besides the salt and pepper you'll also combine dried parsley, (no need to use fresh for this) cumin, cayenne pepper, paprika, and crushed red pepper flakes. I might also have added some white pepper if I had any. Again, adjust the seasonings to your preference. I always like a lot of cumin for smokey flavor, and cayenne for heat.
Combine the mix into a bowl.
Rub your meat liberally. Make sure to get spice into all the nooks and crannies. Wrap it up and place into the fridge overnight. Here's what she'll look like in the morning.
Now it's time to sear it, just like before. Remember that you're not trying to actually cook the pork at this point. All you need to do is get a nice color on the outside of the meat; a good sear will really lock in the flavor. This time, because my pork shoulder was quite a bit larger than before, I had to sear it in a big pan and then squeeze it into the pot for cooking in the oven.
Remember to get all sides of the pork.
It was a tight fit, but I managed to insert my meat in there. Hah!
Into the preheated oven at 300 degrees. Because the meat was larger this time, it took longer. A bit less than three hours instead of two. If you have a meat thermometer, now is a good time to use it, just to be sure. Here is a guide you can use to gauge what temp you want your meat to be before you take it out. Pork shoulder is pretty forgiving though, so I don't know how important it is. I'm sure mine was well above 160 internal temperature when I took it out of the oven and it turned out just fine. One day I will get a meat thermometer and hone my craft.
Once it's done, transfer the pork into a big bowl and get to work. First let it rest for at least 5 minutes, of course. I'd let it rest longer, to be safe.
If you had gloves, you could probably do this with your hands for more efficiency. I just used forks. Either way, if you cooked it properly, the meat will be tender enough to fall apart with little effort.
For the drippings, pour out an amount your comfortable with. This time I left about one third of it for the sauce. Then it's time to add the other ingredients. BBQ sauce, apple cider vinegar, and chile paste. I opted to not include the hot sauce this time, to make it more palatable for people who may not like extreme spice. It will have enough kick from the chile paste and dry rub anyway. Also, I once again chose to only add a tiny bit of BBQ sauce. Other people might really enjoy a heavy BBQ flavor on their pulled pork, so feel free to give that a try. You could also add liquid smoke at this point if you were going for that flavor. Reduce.
When you're happy with the taste, add the pulled pork back into the liquid. Remember that the pork is already cooked and safe to eat at this point (you already ate some by now, haven't you?) so only low heat is required. We're just trying to coat the meat with the liquid.
Now, I made the default flavor of this pulled pork quite a bit tamer than my usual standards. Usually, I like a ton of vinegar and hot sauce, but kept it simple this time. The reason for this is that I wanted the judges to be able to choose which sauce to put on their pork (out of two choices) and how much. I ended up making both a North Carolina BBQ sauce and a Mushroom Infused Soy Glaze.
First, the NC Sauce: add apple cider vinegar, chicken stock, crushed red pepper flakes, and cayenne pepper into your sauce pan together and get it simmering. Whisk in some dijon mustard, and then cut it with honey. You can adjust the sweetness with extra honey or some brown sugar based on your preference. It should have a very strong, spicy, vinegar flavor, but also a nice sweetness. This is a great standard sauce to use on pulled pork. Vinegar and pulled pork is a winning combination.
Because mushrooms were a theme ingredient I wanted my other sauce to feature them. I initially planned to include porcini mushrooms in my buttered mushroom combination (see below) but found the flavor to be too strong after reconstituting them. Therefore, I set them aside for use in another dish, but saved the liquid for this soy glaze. The liquid is simply the water that you simmered the mushrooms in to reconstitute them.
Here's what you do for this sauce:
Add equal parts mushroom water from reconstituting the porcini mushrooms and chicken stock into the sauce pan and bring to a light simmer. Add in a moderate amount of soy sauce, a small amount of rice vinegar (this will have a less powerful vinegar flavor than the NC sauce) and a moderate amount of brown sugar. Squeeze in just a touch of lemon juice and a drizzle of sesame oil. Whisk together thoroughly. Since this is an Asian kind of sauce, a tiny bit of minced ginger would go well in it. I didn't think of it at the time, but you could try adding it in to give it a bit more flavor.
Both of these sauces will go well with the pulled pork. Heck, you could even get crazy and use both of them! I used to combine several sauces with my pulled pork at Slow's back in Detroit.
Now, finally, onto the mushroom part of the contest. Buttered mushrooms. This is extremely simple and easy to make, but the results are actually somewhat impressive, so give it a try! First, take some portobella mushrooms, slice them up, and marinate in soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, and white wine. Add some black pepper. Let them sit like this for 30 minutes to an hour. Halfway through, turn them over and reposition them so they all get equal treatment.
The other mushrooms I used are shitake and oyster. Feel free to use any mushrooms you wish. Like I mentioned, I had planned to use porcini mushrooms as well, but I found them to be overpowering. Experiment with different shrooms for different flavors. Slice them up.
Sadly, at this point in cooking I got so focused on winning the contest that I forgot to continue taking pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination for the next steps. Luckily, they are really simple.
Heat up just a small amount of peanut oil in your saute pan. Add the bigger mushrooms, (the portobellas) first, along with the liquid you soaked them in. After 3 or 4 minutes flip them over and add in the other mushrooms. Remember to use low heat for this so you don't overcook the shrooms. When they are almost ready, add in a generous amount of butter. This is essential. Mix everything around to make sure all the mushrooms get coated with the butter and sauce.
Since I forgot to take picutres, I made a simple MS paint of what the final dish looked like when presented it. All I did was use small individual bowls and put in one third of each white rice, buttered mushrooms, and pulled pork. Then I topped the pulled pork part with some finely chopped chives. I presented the judges their dishes with the two sauces for them to add at their leisure. I apologize for the crudeness of my picture, but drawing pulled pork and mushrooms is really hard.
The competition was stiff. I went up against an amazing Asian style pork porridge, portobella fries, (with chipotle aioli) Korean style pork, and some ma la pork noodles. Somehow, I manged to win first place. Having won first place in both contests is something I'm proud of, but I know that I will have to perform at maximum peak if I'm going to want to make it a hat-rick. My other brother, Treffly, is planning on entering the third contest, and he is as good or better than me when it comes to cooking. Also, the other competitors, who are already threatening as it is, will no doubt be bringing their A-games.
As it stands for now, though, I can revel in the joys of victory. My prize this time was actually pretty cool; it was a glass bottle deformed into a little dish. Apparently, Ray's friend from work is a glass blower and makes these cool plates and dishes. He decided to experiment with an empty bottle and this was the result:
It would be possible to serve a small appetizer in it, but for now, I think I'll use it to hold my dirty spoons off the counter while I continue to work on improving my cooking.
All in all, it was a great time. I'm looking forward to the third competition, and you can rest assured that I will post about it here. So watch this space! A big shout out to Brent and Ray for hosting another excellent party and intense contest! I'm not sure what the theme ingredient(s) will be for the third go-round, but I'm already itching to find out! In the mean time I will continue to work hard and have fun in the kitchen, posting about it on the Internet as I go!
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