Breakfast, Cooking In, Dinner, LunchKerry Alaric Cheeseborobanana, bananas, black pepper, chili powder, cider vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cracklin, cracklins, cumin, eggs, garlic powder, ground, ground cloves, juice, low, mustard, nutmeg, olive oil, orange, paste, pork, roasted, rub, saffron, salt, scallion, scallions, shoulder, slow, smoked, smoked paprika, soy sauce, spices, spicy, sriracha sauce, white pepper, worcestershire sauceComment

Angel On My Shoulder

Breakfast, Cooking In, Dinner, LunchKerry Alaric Cheeseborobanana, bananas, black pepper, chili powder, cider vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cracklin, cracklins, cumin, eggs, garlic powder, ground, ground cloves, juice, low, mustard, nutmeg, olive oil, orange, paste, pork, roasted, rub, saffron, salt, scallion, scallions, shoulder, slow, smoked, smoked paprika, soy sauce, spices, spicy, sriracha sauce, white pepper, worcestershire sauceComment
| Slow-Roasted Pork with Savory Saffron Banana Mash| Sunny Side Up Eggs with BBQ Pork Cracklins and Fried Scallions | Pulled Pork Sandwich on Country Rye

I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER wind up at Food Emporium during the 4 hours a week that they are actually stocked with pork shoulders. But, thanks to some random divine intervention, there I was, yesterday morning, face-to-face with a grand selection of them. I grabbed one and ran straight home with it—after paying for it, of course—having no idea what I would do with it besides roasted low and slow in my oven for a very long time.

Once home, I immediately preheated my oven to 200° F. In a mixing bowl, I combined a curious array of dry spices. Salt, black pepper, white pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, ground cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper got moistened by olive oil, cider vinegar, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, sriracha sauce, mustard, and orange juice. I then scored the skin of the pork shoulder and applied the spice rub paste over its entire surface.

I placed it in the shallow pan lightly greased with chili oil and placed it in the preheated oven at around 10 a.m.

...At about 6 p.m., I pulled the pork shoulder out of the oven, smelling wonderful, covered in crispy, salty, pork skin, and so tender that I pulled the bones out of the center of it with just one hand and absolutely no effort.

The pork rubs spicy flavors had nicely concentrated into the pork's skin, so I imagined a sweet side of mashed plaintains. Nowhere nearby had plaintains, so I used bananas instead, doing a savory preparation of boiling them in water with some scallions, saffron, and coriander powder, Straining the liquid, then mashing with some salt, pepper, and butter.

I was so excited to eat all of this once I had it plated that me and my old eyes didn't even notice that, after my initial overhead photo, I had fogged up my camera's lens. So I apologize for the following pictures not doing all my culinary efforts fair justice....

That only represented less than 20% of all the meat, and after feeding some grateful neighbors of mine, was able to wrap the rest up to save for the next day, which boded well by breakfast, when I sliced off some if the pork, deep-fried it (hey, if you're going to die, die happy!), and served them with some sunny side up eggs and fried scallions (toast not shown).

And, at lunch, some oven-reheated (you can't microwave pork this tender), was tossed with a teaspoon of of mixture of the spice rub paste, thinned out with some extra cider vinegar, and placed between to lightly toasted slices of seedless country rye bread.

The pork shoulder cost less than 7 bucks and lasted through three completely different, delicious meals, which made these heavenly meals an even bigger blessing...!

Bun Apple Tea!

.kac.

| Slow-Roasted Pork with Savory Saffron Banana Mash | Sunny Side Up Eggs with BBQ Pork Cracklins and Fried Scallions | Pulled Pork Sandwich on Country Rye