chili_verde_spinach.md

Chili Verde Spinach

Ingredients

• Spinach
  • I am lazy and use frozen chopped spinach. 2 pounds frozen worked well for these ratios. Not sure what that would be fresh.
• Tomatillos
  • 5, diced
• Peppers
  • I used all poblanos. You could mix it up with Anaheims and bells as well.
  • 4, roasted and diced
• Leeks
  • 4, diced
  • Make sure to clean them!
• Garlic
  • 5 cloves, diced
• Cumin
  • Fresh, please.
  • Do this to taste. Kinda hard to go wrong
• Fat of your choice.
  • I used a combo of ghee and avocado oil. It was lovely.

Method

1. Sautée leeks and garlic in fat. They should cook down a fair bit and smell amazing.
2. Add tomatilos and cook down for about 5-10 minutes.
3. Add peppers. Wait for them to meld before moving on to next step. It should take about 5 minutes.
4. Add spinach and let it cook down until it looks kinda like saag.
5. Add cumin to taste.
6. Adjust fats and liquids (some broth you love works great here) until it has your preferred mouthfeel and consistency.
   • Powdered gelatin can work really well here, but make sure you combine it in a liquid first before adding to the vegetable mixture. Sometimes those lumps can be hard to trace down when next to solids.

kalua_pig.md

Kalua Pig

Ingredients

• Pork Shoulder
  • I normally try and get it bone-in, but I doubt that actually has much of an impact.
  • Shoot for around 5 pounds to start. Can go up in size once you know your cooker and get the technique down.
• Salt
  • 3/4 tsp per pound of pork is a good guideline to start with
  • A medium-coarse grain is ideal. I use alaea salt when I can find it.
• Garlic
  • A whole head, with cloves peeled
• Liquid Smoke
  • This is really up to your personal tast preferences. About a tablespoon works well for a roast of this size.

Method

1. Using a small knife, pierce pork all over.
2. Insert garlic cloves into the puncture holes.
3. Rub the pork all over with salt.
4. Apply liquid smoke.

• If slow cooking:
  • Splash it on the pork
• If pressure cooking
  • Add straight to the water. It should smell nice. If it smells too smoky, or not smoky enough, adjust your ratio of water to smoke while keeping volume the same.

1. Begin your cooking process

• Slow cooker: About 18-24 hours on low
  • When slow cooking, I like to wrap the pork in foil before adding the pot. Helps to keep things together.
• Pressure cooker: About 90-120 minutes

1. As it cooks, your house will smell strongly of pork. You're welcome.
2. When cooking is finished, meat should be very tender. The bone should pull right out without effort.
3. Remove roast from cooking vessel and prepare for the pulling.

• You'll want the following:
  • Bowl to hold yet-to-be-pulled pork
  • Flat, clean surface to pull on
    • big cutting board is ideal here
  • Bowl to hold pulled pork
  • 2 forks to do the actual pulled

1. Prepare the expelled cooking juice for later. Using a gravy separator, separate the juice and fat and save for later
2. Pull the pork

• Take a hunk of meat and place on pulling surface
• Stab one part of it with a fork. This will be your anchor side
• Use the other fork to pull away from the anchor. The meat should pull into smaller strands and chunks

1. Once all the pork is pulled and in a bowl, it is time to mix

• While mixing the pork, add back the fat and cooking juice until the fat content and moisture is to your liking.

1. You're done! Enjoy this delicious treat. It will keep well in a the refrigerator in a sealed container. I also imagine it freezes well, but I've never been able to stop eating it long enough to try.