nicole lee

It’s Independence Day in the U.S. and I celebrated it by cooking and eating. Just like any other day, I suppose.

Last night I salted about 5-6 pounds worth of pork shoulder with Hawaiian sea salt, stuck about five garlic cloves in the meat, and threw them in the slow cooker along with three pieces of bacon. This is based on Nom Nom Paleo’s kalua pork recipe, but I used two pork shoulders instead of the Boston butt. No liquid added.

I then went to sleep, got up, said Happy 4th of July to the kitties and Brandon, and made a quick breakfast of bacon, eggs, and leftover veggies (Or should I say lunch? Hey, I slept in on a holiday, okay?)

About 15 hours after I placed the pork in the slow cooker, this is what it looked like:

Slow cooker kalua pork

You see all that liquid? That is all the drippings that were rendered out of the meat. Yeah, it’s a lot.

I took the pork out, and shredded it.

Pulled pork

The meat literally fell off the bone. It’s tender and fatty, though it does need some of the liquid to keep it moist.

Since I had a head of cabbage sitting in the fridge, I shredded it up and added it to the slow cooker liquid and continued to cook it on low. After about two hours, I had a whole mess of cabbage to eat with the pork.

Cabbage in kalua pork drippings

Here’s my final dinner plate:

Kalua pork and cabbage

Om nom nom indeed. The best part is I now have a whole mess of leftovers that I can save for tomorrow!