One of my favorite slow-cooked dishes has to be slow-cooked pork. Pork is definitely a cheaper cut of meat, especially the bone-in shoulder (to give you a point of reference, more expensive markets like Whole Foods charge $4.50 per pound of this cut, which is close to the price of ground beef), and can take on a whole variety of flavors. You can flavor pork with whatever you want, and for this pork, I'm going to use a lot of ingredients that are easier for college students to acquire and utilize.
Basic vegetables such as carrots, celery, and onions are necessary, as well as water to braise the pork with. I'm also going to include some kitchen essentials: garlic, sage, olive oil, salt and pepper, and some spices. When cooking, you should use about an hour to an hour and a half per pound when braising to get the most flavor out of your pork. The sauce makes a great gravy or soup for the pork as well!
This recipe uses a 5 pound, bone-in pork shoulder, and is good enough for at least 10-15 meals.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 7 hours
Ingredients:
1 5 pound bone-in pork shoulder
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to season (about 1 tablespoon of salt per pound of meat and the same for pepper will do)
2 tablespoons dried sage
5 cloves garlic
3 onions, roughly sliced
3 carrots, roughly chopped
4 stalks of celery, roughly chopped
5 cups of water (if you have it, replace this with dry white wine to get a deep rich flavor)
1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon coriander
Cooking:
1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Combine your olive oil, salt and pepper, sage, cayenne pepper, paprika, and coriander together. Pierce your pork shoulder a few times, and insert the garlic cloves into these holes. Get them as evenly spaced as possible. Then, rub your spices and olive oil evenly across the entire pork shoulder.
3. In a hot roasting tray or large pot with some olive oil on medium high to high heat, sear your pork shoulder for about 3 minutes on each side to get a nice crust. Take out the pork shoulder.
4. There should be some pork fat left in the pot. Use it to help flavor your onions, carrots, and celery as you add them into the pot/roasting tray. Add your pork back in, then fill up your tray/pot with the water or wine. It should not fully cover the pork.
5. Lightly cover the tray or pot with tinfoil, then place into the oven for 7 hours. The pork will be fork-shred tender when it comes out.
This is what you want the pork to look like at the end. Delicious!
The pork doesn't take too much work since the oven is going to do most of it for you, but this pork will be great for just about anything! You can put into sandwiches or burritos to take it on the go to work extremely well, or eat it over rice, in pasta, or leave in the braising liquid and add some potatoes to make a great stew. Whatever you do, this pork will be a star figure in your dish!
I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Let me know what you think and what you would change. If you make it at home or in your apartment/dorm, let me know how it turns out! Go on and get cooking! =)
