JJ's Asian-Inspired Slaw

My mom rarely cleans her plate at the dinner table, but last night when I cooked for the family, she had a second sandwich - and ate all of it. That's how I knew this was a recipe I will have to make again & again, so I'd better write it down.

Most of the time when I'm cooking I don't measure out the ingredients - I just fly around the kitchen, tossing ingredients together by intuition. I'm not sure of the measurements for this dish, but since I had a lot of requests for the recipe, I figured I will share the basics & let you all try it per your own intuition!

I initially was making this slaw to accompany BBQ pulled pork tenderloin sandwiches and was going to make my homemade BBQ sauce, but lost track of time. Last minute, I decided to top the pulled pork tenderloin sandwiches with this slaw, some vegenaise, Sriracha pepper sauce, and a little hoisin sauce. YUM. Directions are below for the pulled pork as well. :) -JJ

Ingredients:

• Half a head of green cabbage, shredded
• 2 large radishes, peeled & julienned
• Bragg's Apple Cider vinegar (add gradually to taste)
• Mirin (add gradually to taste)
• Fresh lime juice (maybe 1/4 lime?)
• Black sesame seeds (shake generously!)
• Tupelo honey (maybe a heaping teaspoon?)
• Toasted sesame oil (add gradually - it's a strong ingredient!)
• Fresh cilantro, chopped (to taste)
• Sea salt (to taste)
• Chopped roasted peanuts (to top)

Directions:

Toss cabbage, radish, vinegar, Mirin, lime juice, sesame seeds, honey, sesame oil, salt and cilantro in a large bowl. Taste it. Love it. Top with peanuts. Done.

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Asian Pulled Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches...

• Pulled pork tenderloin
• JJ's Asian-Inspired Slaw
• Toasted buns
• Vegenaise
• Sriracha pepper sauce
• Hoisin sauce

Pulled Pork Tenderloin

Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 pork tenderloins (~2.5 lbs.), halved lengthwise & cut into 2.5 inch pieces
• 1.5 beers
• 3/4 cup Bragg's apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 5 garlic cloves, bruised
• Black pepper
• Dried chili pepper
• Kosher salt (~2 tsp)

Directions:

Bring all of the ingredients to a boil, add the pork, cover, reduce heat to low, simmer for at least 1 hour or until pork is tender when stabbed with a fork. Remove pork from liquid, and pull apart using 2 forks.

Sloppy #9

I rarely use a slow cooker, but I do think that using a slow cooker is the easiest way to make barbecue-like dishes without using a smoker. My boyfriend LOVES pulled pork, so I decided to get my slow cooker out, dust it off, and experiment with some fun spices yesterday! I was inspired by a recipe for Kilkenny Corned Beef that my mom & I made years ago to put on homemade Rueben sandwiches. I was also inspired by my favorite beer as of lately, Magic Hat #9. If you don't have all of the individual dry spices listed below, I'm sure that using a pre-made blend of pickling spices would do nicely. This recipe has an awesome savory-sweetness, and along with the spiciness of the Sriracha, it touches many different places on the palate. Serve with potato chips to make it an All-American meal! I made homemade potato chips with it last night & it was perfect.

Ingredients:

• 3.5-4 lb. Boston pork butt
• 1 bottle of Magic Hat #9 beer
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 med. sweet onion, sliced
• 1 whole Cardamom pod, slightly cracked
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 whole cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken into 3 pieces
• 1/4 tsp. ground Allspice
• 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup creamy yellow mustard
• 2 tbsp. Sriracha pepper sauce
• Kosher dill pickle slices
• Good seeded hamburger buns

Directions:

Place half of the sliced onion in the bottom of your slow cooker, along with the garlic. Set pork on top of onions & garlic. Pour the entire Magic Hat #9 beer over the pork. Mix together dry spices (cardamom, ginger, cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, Allspice, salt, and pepper). Rub all over pork. Turn your slow cooker on high, cover, and cook for 4.5 hours. 

Remove pork from slow cooker, remove any hard pieces of spice (cardamom pod, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, cloves) and drain liquid. Replace the pork back into the slow cooker, and add brown sugar, mustard, and Sriracha sauce. Mix around in slow cooker. Cover and continue to cook on high for 1 hour.

Serve the meat on top of seeded hamburger buns, and top with sliced onions & dill pickle slices. Add more Sriracha to the sandwich for extra heat. The Sloppy #9 is delicious with Oven-baked Potato Chips. Enjoy!!