Post #2 Continued: Using Leftover Pulled Pork for Carnitas

Last night, we completed round 2 of trying to use up the leftover pulled pork from last weekend. Joel even said he was very impressed that we were still eating off of 4 day old pulled pork. 

I'm determined to use all this stuff up and not let it go to waste. 

The good news is, the multiple pounds of leftover pulled pork has now diminished greatly. I think we might manage to finish up the rest of it very, very soon. We are still working on the Banana Pudding...

So to start off, you will need a few things (besides the pulled pork)...

Some of these you might already have in your kitchen, so you really don't have to go out of the way for the ingredients and it's a very simple, low-stress meal to make. I normally have Sour Cream, tortillas, onions, minced garlic, cheese, tomatoes and Cholula Sauce on hand. Limes usually start making a regular appearance in the house around this time of year (Spring-Summer). As for Salsa Verde, this was the first time I have bought it myself, but I've always loved "that green stuff" that they serve at the Mexican restaurants. This delicious sauce is easy to find in the grocery store, on the ethnic foods isle next to the regular salsa. 

Feel free to use your own favorite fixins too, like guacamole, black olives, peppers or cilantro. My cilantro plant died so I was out. :(

Since I have Type 1 Diabetes, I'm always on the lookout for low-carb options that don't taste like cardboard. These new "carb-balance" whole wheat tortillas taste good, but I can guarantee you they are NOT, I repeat, NOT LOW CARB. After eating just one and giving myself the appropriate amount of insulin, my bloodsugar was through the roof for hours, worse than eating the regular old white tortillas. It just goes to show you, that just because it's "wheat," or "low cholesterol," or has "0 trans fats," that doesn't necessarily mean it's good for you. I've had success with other low-carb options, like Dreamfield Low-Carb Pasta (which is magical, considering I'm part Italian), but not these guys. 

Oh well...

After you have all your ingredients gathered, start off by heating up some olive oil on medium heat (just enough oil to cover the bottom of the skillet). Mince some garlic. Once the oil is hot, throw the garlic in the oil to cook. Be careful not to brown and burn the garlic. Burnt garlic is pretty awful... I tell you this from experience. 

While the garlic is cooking, dice up about 1/4 of an onion. You can use whatever kid of onion you prefer. I use the yellow sweet onions since I have a random food allergy to the purple ones (but not white or yellow ones... weird, I know). Once you have the onion chopped up, toss it in with the garlic and let it all cook together until the onions are translucent, like this:

Once the onions are cooked, add in the meat, plus about 1/2 cup of water, salt and Cholula sauce to taste:

I add in water so that the meat doesn't dry out, plus creates a little bit of it's own broth for the meat to marinate in. Cook until all the water has dried up and the meat begins to fry a little bit. 

While all this is going on, you (or your boyfriend, husband, children) can grate the cheese, and cut up the tomatoes. This is a great way to work together in the kitchen as a family, and everyone feels like they are contributing! Cutting up tomatoes, grating cheese and chopping lettuce for taco night are my earliest memories of helping cook with my mom as a kid. Don't be afraid to let your children use a knife, as long as you teach them how to use it properly! 

Joel's favorite part, cheese.

This tends to happen when the cheese comes out of the fridge...

Labrador vacuums at attention.

Next: assemble your creation: The Salsa Verde goes on the pork, add cheese, tomato, sour cream and lime juice all over!

No, I do not actually eat the lime slice! I just took a picture with the lime because it looked pretty. :)

 And Enjoy.

Ingredient Portions:

1/2-1lb of pulled pork

Soft Tortillas

Breakstone's Sour Cream, for topping

1 diced small-medium size tomato

1/2 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 cup diced onion (or about 1/4 of an onion)

2-3 tbsp olive oil, or enough to cover the bottom of your skillet

1 seven ounce can of Salsa Verde

Cholula Sauce to taste

1 lime (1 slice per serving)

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Thanks for stoppin' by, y'all!

Post #2 Continued: Using Leftover Pulled Pork to make Pork Hash Potatoes

Here is a step by step guide on making Pulled Pork Hash with that never-ending leftover pulled pork from this past weekend...

This is basically like homemade corned beef hash (not that canned junk), but with pulled pork. 

Here's the cast & crew:

Some of the pulled pork that you've been trying to get rid of, potatoes (I had a mixed bag of small ones, but you can use any kind), sweet onion, cheddar cheese, olive oil, salt & pepper, and....

This guy...

If you leave him out (which I have done by accident), this dish could turn out a little bland... edible, but not nearly as lip smackin' good. All the other ingredients are bland by nature, so you need him to give them a kick in the gluteus.

First things first: While the oil is heating up in the skillet on medium heat, chop the onion:

Heat the onion in the skillet until it's translucent, don't brown the onion. Turn the heat down a little bit if they look like they're going to start browning. 

While the onions are cooking, chop the potatoes into little pieces. You can cut yours up even smaller than mine, or grate them really fine, just do them up however you normally like hash browns.

Mix the potatoes in with the onions once the onions are soft. You may need to turn the heat up to cook the potatoes, but don't go higher than med-high heat or you'll have a burnt mess. 

Important: Make sure not to move the potatoes around a lot while they are cooking, otherwise they will just get mushy and turned into pan-fried mashed potatoes, and that's definitely not what we're going for here. You want them to stick to the pan a little and get crispy, so you only need to turn them over with your spatula about 1 time at this point. That being said, you probably don't want to try to cook this in a non-stick skillet. I cook just about everything in my coated cast iron skillet anyway.

While all that is cooking, chop the pulled pork up like this...

                         

After a few minutes the potatoes will start to get good an tender, add the pork and the Tabasco sauce to taste. At this point I start taste testing to check the status of the potato tenderness and to see how much more salt, pepper, or Tabasco is needed. 

If you don't cook potatoes a lot, you will need to know that potatoes take a while to cook, and require a lot of seasoning, so don't feel bad if they take a while and you have to keep adding more salt to get them just right. Be patient, grasshopper...

 After adding the pork, let everything cook together for a minute or two. You will only need to turn the mixture over completely with a spatula about once more during the process so it gets crispy all over. Once the potatoes very tender, the last thing I add is the cheese, since it's the most likely to succeed, err, I mean, stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. You could even turn the heat off at this point when you mix in the cheese. You just want it to melt, not cook.

At this time, (before turning off the heat) I normally mix in some eggs scrambled with a little cream, or milk, but I was completely out of eggs at this particular time. Gasp! Time to reload. If you try adding eggs, be weary about cooking scrambled eggs in a cast iron skillet. If you try to do that in a normal cast-iron skillet, they will stick and turn your pan into a hot mess (Le Creuset, you're my hero!). 

After the cheese has gotten all gooey, like this:

It's time to serve! 

Nom nom nom. (In my best Cookie Monster voice).

There will definitely be none of this left over!

For those that don't want to wing it and need to know actual ingredient portions:

For this demo, I made 1 Bubba-sized serving (or 2 skinny people servings) and used: 

• 4 small potatoes, chopped
• enough Olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet
• 1/4 Medium-Large Sweet Yellow Onion, chopped
• Salt & Pepper to Taste
• Tabasco Sauce to Taste
• 1/4 cup grated cheddar 
• 1 cup chopped up pulled pork

Thanks for Reading!

 Y'all Enjoy It!

           

Post #2 What the heck do I do with all that pork?

Over the weekend, I helped host & plan an event. The event was a big hit, but I may have gotten carried away and I ordered way more catered food than necessary, and as a result, we had a lot left over. 

The Hostess in me says it's always better to have too much food for your guests than not enough. Right?

Anyway...at the end of the event, after giving away as much of the leftover food as possible, Joel (boyfriend) and I were left with the duty of hauling away multiple pounds of pulled pork, a full pan of baked beans, 2 gallons of tea, 2 full containers of BBQ sauce, 1 container of pickle slices, 16 buns, and more banana pudding than any Southerner needs to have in 1 refrigerator....keep in mind I say needs, not wants to have. You can never have too much good nanner puddin'!

So after a couple of days of our 2 human household feeding off of the leftover feast we brought home, here is what we are still left with...

If I just threw all this stuff away, I would have nightmares about little children in Africa who are dying of starvation, but it's taking up way too much room in our small fridge, plus and we are getting downright sick of eating it. 

Needless to say, neither Joel or I will be wanting BBQ again anytime soon. Bleh.

It's times like these that I really wish we lived on a hog farm, not because I want to turn my hogs into cannibals, but because pigs are like living garbage disposals, so the food you throw out isn't going to waste. 

But because we aren't becoming hog farmers anytime soon, I've come up with some creative ways of recycling the pork. As for the baked beans, I'm considering freezing them (because there's not much else you can do with them), and the rest of the stuff will disappear with time. The Banana Pudding will probably be gone by tomorrow, if it lasts that long.

Here are the ideas we've come up with so far (actual recipes & photos to follow): 

1) BBQ Pizza

2) Pork Tacos (Carnitas) < click for the recipe demo!

3) Pork Hash Potatoes < click for the recipe demo!

4) Loaded Pork Potatoes

5) Pork Salad (with Blue cheese or Ranch Dressing)

6) Pork Meatballs

7) Pork Patties for Pork, Egg & Cheese Biscuits

The key is, you can't think of it as "Barbecue," otherwise your mind will reject it and you'll just continue to be sick of it! You have to just look at it as Pork and use it in recipes where you would normally use other kinds of pork.

Share your other delicious alternatives to use up pulled pork!

Y'all Enjoy It!