Remember item 14 on my 30-before-30 list? “To Cook Something That Takes More Than One Day”? Well folks, I’ve scratched it off the list (a couple of times, if you include my home-made bread from last-last week).
Months and months ago I came across Matt Bites’ post about Sriracha Pulled Pork from the Sriracha cookbook. I knew the very moment I saw it that I was going to have to make it. The only problem? It requires way-advance planning because it takes more than one day. Yup. Pretty much the perfect answer to item 14.
I decided to make this pulled pork on the last night we spent at Sam and Graham’s because these guys love their Sriracha (so much so that they went as Soy Sauce and Sriracha for halloween last year). They also had two pork butts in their freezer. Perfect.
I couldn’t figure out what to serve with my pulled pork, but it came to me in a flash: Bahn Mi (or for those of you who aren’t fluent in Vietnamese: vietnamese subs). These delicious french/south-east asian sandwiches were sriracha pulled pork’s perfect twist to a southern favourite.
meal for my 30-before-30 list.
The night before you want to eat your pulled pork, you need to brine it. Some of you might say “oh… only a brine… that’s not a real two day meal”. To you I say “my list… my rules”. Woohoo! And brine-ing’s not super fast, either.
The next morning you wake up, prepare your pork with a sriracha mustard rub, and pop it into the slowcooker on low, where it will stay for the next 12 hours. You read that right. 12 hours. Then you want your pork to cool for 45 minutes before you pull it. And next time I would heat it in the sriracha sauce for 30 minutes. So you basically need to be cooking about 14 hours before you are going to eat supper.
Before dinner, prepare your accoutrements (for bahn mi traditionally julienned carrots, julienned cucumber, and cilantro. I made some pickled red onions to up the “pulled porkyness” of the meal.
Butter your baguettes with soy-sauce butter and broil them till they are crispy.
Then, it is simply a matter of making your banh mi and enjoying. YUM!
Sriracha Pulled Pork
From The Sriracha Cookbook, via Matt Bites.
Ingredients
Spice Rub
- 6 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Brine
- ¼ cup kosher salt
- 4 cups cold water
- ¼ cup freshly packed light brown sugar
- 1 medium red onion, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 bay leaves
Other
- 6- to 8-pound bone-in pork shoulder (Boston butt) roast
- 3 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 1/3 cup Sriracha
- ½ cup cold water
Directions
- To make the spice rub, in a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika. Reserve.
- To make the brine, in a small bowl, dissolve the salt in the cold water. Add 2 tablespoons of the spice rub, the brown sugar, onion, garlic, and bay leaves, stirring to combine. Put the meat in a large bowl or ziplock bag and pour the brine over, making sure that the meat is completely submerged in liquid. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- The following morning, drain the brine, reserving the pork and onion. Pat the roast dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, mix together the mustard and Sriracha. Using your hands, rub an even coating of the mustard mixture all over the pork. Sprinkle the remaining spice rub evenly over the entire roast, pressing it into the meat, making sure it adheres.
- Put the reserved onion in a crock pot. Pour in the cold water. Place the pork on top of the bed of onions, with the fattier side of the roast facing up. Cover and cook on low for 12 hours. At this point, the meat should simply flake away with the slightest touch. Remove the roast from the crock pot, and let rest for 45 to 60 minutes. This will allow the meat to cool slightly, which will in turn make it easier to shred. Pull the meat apart using two forks, discarding extra fat and other less-than-palatable bites.
- Here I would divert from the recipe and reheat the pork in a sriracha & water mixture so the pork is a little spicier and a little more saucy.
Pulled Pork Bahn Mi (Vietnamese Subs)
Ingredients
- Sriracha Pulled Pork
- Baguettes, sliced lengthwise
- 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 tbsp Softened Butter
- Carrots (julienned)
- Cucumber (julienned)
- Onions (sliced, pickled in boiling vinegar and water if you prefer)
- Cilantro
- Sriracha
Directions
- Combine softened butter and soy sauce and spread on baguettes. Broil until toasted.
- Prepare subs by adding pork, carrots, cucumber, onions, cilantro and sriracha to taste.
fyi, it looks like your post is repeating several times
Thanks! And thanks to all for pointing it out! Sorry about that everyone :)