***Disclaimer--This is not an authentic Kalua Pork recipe. This is a badly misinterpreted version of the recipe that I came up with. I appreciate the Hawaiian culture very much which is why I simply cannot try and pass this off as one of their recipes. I can say with 100% certainty that this is good food--out of a crock pot no less! I call it Haole-Style because "haole" is the slang term used for Caucasians on the Hawaiian Islands (it's not really a term of endearment, but it works, I guess). This is just a backwoods way to make something similar (and it is eerily similar in flavor).***
The Hawaiian dish really isn't difficult to make, but requires time and a lot of things that most of us don't have access to. Such as a fire pit, banana leaves, a whole pig, Hawaiian wood, lava stones, etc. But the pig really is just smoked pig, seasoned and wrapped in banana leaves and shredded. So what I've done is horribly misinterpreted the whole recipe for kicks. I've substituted things that are related, but are a far cry from the original ingredients, but they all serve a purpose to contribute to the mimicking of real Kalua Pork.
The Hawaiian dish really isn't difficult to make, but requires time and a lot of things that most of us don't have access to. Such as a fire pit, banana leaves, a whole pig, Hawaiian wood, lava stones, etc. But the pig really is just smoked pig, seasoned and wrapped in banana leaves and shredded. So what I've done is horribly misinterpreted the whole recipe for kicks. I've substituted things that are related, but are a far cry from the original ingredients, but they all serve a purpose to contribute to the mimicking of real Kalua Pork.
- Whole Pig is now a Pork Roast
- Apple in the pig's mouth is now cider vinegar and apple chunks
- Kalua is now Kahlua (or go cheap and get spiced rum and instant coffee)
- Smoke from the banana leaves is now banana slices and roasted flavor of the coffee
- Natural saltiness from island-grown pig is now sea salt
- Hawaiian Fire Pit is now a Crock Pot
Ingredients:
- 2.5lb Pork Roast
- 1c Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1.5c Spiced Rum (Capt. Morgan is fine, Black Heart or Sailor Jerry's is a bit more 'edgy' tasting)
- 2T Instant Coffee
- 1t Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
- 1T Sea Salt
- 1T Granulated Garlic
- 1T Fresh Ground Black Pepper
- 1 Granny Smith or Fuji Apple, cubed
- 2 Ripe Bananas, sliced 1.5" thick
- 1lb Dark Brown Sugar
- Unfiltered Apple Juice (amount needed depends on size of crock pot)
Method:
- Place roast on cutting board and cut many 1/2'' slices diagonally across the top of the meat (scoring). Cut them the other way as well so it appears you have many diamonds across your roast. Flip the roast and repeat to the bottom. Set aside.
- Place all prepared ingredients into crock pot and stir. Make sure all instant coffee grounds are dissolved. Place roast into mixture and use Unfiltered Apple Juice to bring liquid to the top of the roast.
- Set Crock Pot on medium and let cook for 5 hours (this may vary depending on crock pot and size and weight of your roast). Low and slow is what we're going for here.
- Check your roast by securing it with a carving fork then firmly dragging a dinner fork over the top of it. If the meat pulls away with little effort, you are done. Remove roast from crock pot and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Either pull it apart with two forks, your hands or, as I do, with a hand mixer. All the chunks of banana and apple will be soft enough to simply mix in with the meat. if it seems a little dry to you, mix in some of the juices from the crock pot until it's the consistency you like.
- Either serve by itself or on a kaiser roll. Top with pickled jalapenos or banana peppers for a tasty kick!
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