no tv and no beer make Ali something something...

Guuuuuuhhhhh somebody please do the kind-hearted thing and put me out of my misery with a vacation-gun. Between school, work, and saving for things like 8 weeks of fall unemployment I am currently in a severe time/finance/sanity crunch this summer. Lately I've been feeling like these seemingly manageable things are eating up my life with the voracity of a dog sicced upon a tub of spreadable cheese. Consequently, I realize that I need to cut down on the time I spend in the kitchen lest I crack and resort to slowly burning my belongings in the middle of the street.

I've taken to cooking large quantities of things that I don't mind living on for a few days in order to simplify my daily grind. One of those things is the following recipe for oven-roasted pulled pork. The end product is great for a number of reasons, the first being that you end up with a ridiculous quantity of delicious, tender meat. I've used it for widely ranged applications such as omelettes, hash, wraps, sandwiches, and salad topping. Basically, a one-pan solution for all of your lazy summer food needs. And while I'd love to try it on the bbq sometime, we've already got a clandestine setup on account of our property manager's strict anti-bbq policy. Though tempting, 8 hours of fragrant smoke billowing from our patio miiiight just tip them off to this (among other) slight transgressions of their tenant policy.

Citrus and garlic pulled pork

-2 kg pork shoulder, bone in
-1 lemon
-2 oranges
-2 yellow onions

wet rub:
-2 tbsp corriander seed
-1 1/2 tbsp caraway seed
-1/2 tsp white pepper
-2 tsp salt
-2 tbsp brown sugar
-10 cloves of garlic
-1-2 tbsp olive oil

sauce:
-4 tbsp grainy mustard
-1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice (about 4 big oranges)
-juice of 1 lemon

Place a dry pan over high heat and toast the caraway and corriander seeds together. You'll know they're done when they get really fragrant. Break them apart to your liking, but do leave a considerable amount of texture if possible - it makes for a really nice crust on the pork once it's done cooking. Finely mince the garlic cloves and combine them with all of the other ingredients listed for the wet rub.

Score the skin of the pork so that the fat is exposed and proceed to rub it down with the tasty-paste. I liken this process to that of malevolently shoving sand into the swimsuit of your enemy: you want those little particulates to get into every goddamn nook and cranny you can manage. The higher the rate of spice intrusion, the better.
Slice your onions (peeled) and citrus fruit (unpeeled) about 1/4 inch thick and place them at the bottom of your roasting pan or dutch oven for the meat to rest on. Cover it up with a tight fitting lid and let the whole thing sit in the fridge overnight. The next day, heat up your oven to 250˚ and stick your pork into the hotbox. We are cooking this thang lowww and slowww.

Ideally you should roast it skin side up in order to crisp up the crackling and keep the meat moist. However, this particular shoulder roast was kind of lopsided so I settled for roasting it on its side and covering it with some of the orange and lemon slices. If you are fortunate enough to not have this problem you can just keep the citrus under the roast and not bother with the extra layer atop the pork.

Keep the whole thing covered for the first 5 hours of roasting; just let it sit and sweat in the oven. After this time you can uncover the roasting pan/pot/whatever and check up on your meat. If it's more or less done it should...for lack of a less gross term..."quiver" when you poke at it.

Sweep the citrus slices from the top of the meat (if you had to put them there like I did) and ladle out as much of the pan drippings as you can. Set this liquid gold aside for a little later. Turn your oven up to about 300˚ and stick the roast back in there uncovered to brown - it should take about another 45 minutes (do check on it periodically). You should end up with a lump of awesome which vaguely resembles the picture below.

Really, we could stop right here and be pretty goddamned content, however the following sauce is definitely worth the extra 10 minutes of your time. Spoon off most of the fat from your previously collected pan drippings. Pour the drippings into a small pot (or right back into the pan). Place it upon your stove top over medium-high heat and add in the remaining sauce ingredients. Stir, reduce for 10 minutes, and it's ready for eatin' time. The taste of this stuff really depends on the quantity of drippings yielded by the pork. If the sauce happens to be too acidic, add a little more brown sugar. If the sauce isn't acidic enough, add some more citrus juice. If you simply want more of it, dump in some extra juice and stock (chicken stock works ok). Salt, spices, whatever - you get the idea.

Once your pork has cooled a little, shred it up with a couple of forks or fingers. Dole out a liberal amount of sauce, and hastily pack into an eagerly gaping maw.

(this picture looks sooo much better if you click+enlarge it....)