Show Us Your Meat, and We'll Show You Ours

[Apoc]

I finally made the Kalua pork. I followed the recipe pretty closely, but it needs work. More details inline with pics.

I picked up a shoulder roast at the farmers market. I wanted a butt, but the cuts were pretty small for this purpose so I opted for this cut. The cabbage was also from the market; different vendor though.



Rendered three half slices of bacon on the saute setting of the Instant Pot (IP).



The recipe calls for hawaiian sea salt, but I ran out a few weeks ago. I'm kinda addicted to this smoked salt produced about 30 minutes north of here, so I used it instead. I've seen recipes that call for liquid smoke to be added, so I figured this was a good compromise. I used a half tablespoon, but in hindsight that was way too little.



I tossed some young garlic from our CSA in the pot and brown the roast on all sides, after cutting it in half. The saute function on the IP does a really good at this, so it's a true one pot meal.



I was supposed to use a cup of water for pressure cooking, but I opted for beer instead. Eight ounces in the pot, four ounces for the cook.



90 minutes later, I can cut the pork with a wooden spatula. It fell apart as I was trying to get the pieces out with tongs and the bone came out with a lift and twist by hand.







I was able to shred the meat with the same wooden spatula, but I was disappointed how little meat there was given it's a 3+ lb roast. In hindsight, I think 5 lbs is the bare minimum and 6-8 lbs is probably better if it'll fit in the pot. I also think this cut was too lean for optimal results... which is ironic because the butt still had the skin and sub-skin fat attached. I thought having the joint would be enough, but it wasn't.



Rough cut on cabbage and pressure cooked for three minutes. I was doing chores around the house so I didn't immediately vent the pressure, which was a mistake. It sat for eight minutes with the heat off, but the remaining pressure overcooked all the thickest pieces of cabbage. I don't mind soggy cabbage, but a bit of a bite would have been better.





Pulled all the cabbage and cooked a bunch of jasmine rice in the remaining liquid. The IP book said 1:1 ratio for jasmine, but that turned out to be bullshit. I should have known there wasn't enough liquid looking at the before, but I chose to trust it. The end result was rice that was a bit crunchy - I'm hoping a reheat in the microwave will fix it. I prefer not to have any rice at all, but there wasn't enough meat to make proper lunches and leave some at home for the wife.







Here's the finished product, portioned. I topped it with toasted black sesame seeds and more smoked salt.