I like cooking pork butt-roasts (shoulders), especially on the grill. And since I’m often cooking for one or two, I have the butcher cut me small roasts, usually under two pounds. They’re plenty tasty relatively plain, but every once in a while a guy feels a need to get fancy. That’s how I came up with this recipe.
Ingredients
One unsalted pork butt roast (2 lbs or so, but bigger will work, too)
Kosher salt
Black pepper
One bunch spring onions, or one small to medium yellow onion
Three cloves garlic (you could go with as many as six)
1-2 tbsp. Soy sauce
Small can mandarin oranges (in light syrup)
Small can pineapple chunks
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325°F, or get your grill fired up
Start a 12″ cast-iron skillet warming on a medium-high burner with a thin layer of olive oil in the bottom of it
Season the roast, rubbing salt and pepper on all sides
Sear the sides of the roast in the skillet
While the roast is searing, dice the onions and garlic
When you’ve seared all sides of the roast, shut off the burner, lift the roast, and toss the onions and garlic into the pan, setting the roast back on top of them
Pour enough soy sauce over the top of the roast to lightly coat it
Pop the skillet and roast into the oven with a meat thermometer in the roast
Drain the pineapple, and dump it, the oranges, and the syrup from the oranges into a blender. Buzz it up, and toss it into the fridge for now
When the roast hits 140°F, pull it out, and dump the citrus blend over it — in my case, it came about halfway up the side of the roast, which seems about right
Pop it back into the oven until the roast reaches an internal temp of 155°F
Pull the roast out and drain the juices from the pan
Cover the roast with a piece of tinfoil, and let it rest until it reaches 160°F
Slice and serve
Preparation time
15 minutes
Cooking time
An hour or two (30-45 minutes per pound)
Feeds:
6-8
One thing to watch about a pork-butt is that there are “seams” of fat running through it. It’s easy to hit one of these seams with the meat thermometer and get false readings on the temperature, so don’t be afraid to check in more than one spot (just make sure the thermometer is clean).
Add some ginger and chilies to the citrus puree if you want a more Asian flavor to the pork. Or a little cinnamon, nutmeg and clove (go light on them!) to give it a festive holiday feel. This is a pretty simple recipe to start with, so there’s lots of room for playing around. Me, I think I like the recipe as written. It’s got good flavor, but there’s still plenty of room for the flavor of the meat to shine.
Not something you’d usually think of cooking on the grill, this works well and small roasts are quick enough to cook that there’s no reason not to take them outside.
Originally written in late 2009
Ingredients
3 pound (or so) pork roast
4 yukon gold potatoes
1 large white (or yellow) onion
1 head garlic
salt & pepper to season
Instructions
Toss the roast onto the hottest part of the grill, and rotate it to sear the outside. Needs just a couple minutes per side, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper each time you turn it.
Ready a piece of aluminum foil, about two feet long.
While the roast is searing, slice the potatoes into ½″ slices, and place them on one end of the foil.
Slice the onion into thin slices, dropping them on top of the potatoes.
Mash up the entire head of garlic, throwing the slightly broken cloves on top of the potatoes and onions.
Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the potatoes and onions.
Place the roast on top of the potatoes and onions, and roll it up in the foil, trying to keep a layer of potatoes between the foil and the roast, all the way around.
Seal the foil up as best you can. You don’t want any of the tasty juices to escape if you can help it.
Place the foil package on the cooler end of the grill, and close the lid. You’re roasting, so you want to avoid opening the grill more than absolutely necessary.
Rotate the foil package about every 15 minutes. After the first 15, you can place a meat thermometer into one end of the roast (right through the foil) to monitor the temperature.
When the roast reaches 145-150°F, pull it from the grill, and rest it on a heat-proof cutting board, keeping the foil and thermometer in place. Get your plates ready at this point.
When the roast reaches 155-160°F, open the foil, place the roast on a cutting board, and plate the potatoes. They should have absorbed most of the juices, but any leftover juice can be set aside for use with any leftovers. If the potatoes are a little stuck to the foil, just peel them loose as best you can. Some of them will get a little broken, and that’s okay.
Slice the roast, placing slices on top of the potatoes.
Preparation time
10 minutes
Cooking time
about 20-25 minutes per pound
Feeds
8
The leftovers from this will make pretty tasty sandwiches the next day, too. The small amount of juice that didn’t get absorbed by the potatoes will keep the roast from drying out in the fridge overnight.
3 or 4 quart round porcelain casserole with heavy domed lid
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 275°F
Saute onion in a couple tablespoons cooking oil.
Place in bottom of 3 quart round casserole.
Brown beef in pan used to saute onions.
Add to casserole.
Add curry sauce mix, and one quart boiling water, which should be enough to cover the meat.
Stir to break up curry bricks and make sure everything is in the water.
Lid and place into oven for 3-4 hours, stirring hourly.
When meat is falling apart, remove soup-bone (if present), any gristle, and skim off whatever fat you can. Make sure the meat is in bite-sized chunks.
Add carrots and potatoes.
Re-lid, and put back in the oven for another hour, or until the carrots and potatoes reach a consistency you like.
Season to taste, and serve over rice.
Preparation time
20 minutes
Cooking time
5 hours
Feeds
6
Pretty simple. Tasty. Hearty fare. All things I like when the morning low temp is below freezing. And the house smells pretty darned good while it’s cooking. It’s also better after the meat has had a chance to cool and re-set the gelatin, so any leftovers won’t last long.
This is a manually-curated collection of the recipes I've written here. Using the #recipe tag might find more, but they'll be in reverse order of publication. This will almost certainly be in some different order.
Note that many of these recipes will feed quite a few folks. I don’t throw huge dinner parties. Instead, when I cook up something like spaghetti sauce, I make enough for a few meals, and freeze the leftovers for when I’m feeling lazy. There are other notes on how I deal with leftovers in my colleciton of tips for cooking for one.
Also, some recipes will have a small grill icon to the right of them. Like this: Those recipes were written to be cooked on a BBQ grill, but can usually be adapted for indoor use, as well.
This recipe was originally in a cookbook my sweetie had which called out all sorts of Name Brand ingredients. It also called for making kebabs of the mix and grilling them. We decided we'd rather have a stir-fry or fry-up all in one pan. I ate mine with a slice of bread, but over pasta or rice would also work.
Ingredients
12 ounce smoked ring sausage (Hillshire Farms Smoked Turkey Sausage is what we used, but use what you like), cut into ½ inch pieces
1 C dried apricots, halved
1 can beer (12 oz)
¾ C apricot preserves
1 Tbsp mustard (we used dijon, but yellow will also work)
2 – 6oz cans sliced mushrooms, drained or ½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
Directions
Simmer sausage & apricots in beer in a large saucepan or skillet for 10 minutes
If using fresh mushrooms, add them about 5 minutes in
Combine apricot preserves, mustard, chile and Worcestershire sauce in a microwave-safe measuring glass, and heat briefly (enough that the preserves liquify) in microwave, then stir and set aside
Add apples & mushrooms to sausage mixture
Add sauce to sausage mixture
Simmer until apples are going soft and sauce has thickened to desired consistency.
Our neighbors had a bumper crop of peaches this year, so we got a couple dozen fresh peaches yesterday. We figured putting them in a crumble with some raspberries we already had in the house would be a good use.
Ingredients
A dozen fresh peaches
A pint of fresh raspberries
1 Tbsp flour
A couple tablespoons of sugar
150g all-purpose flour
100g butter
85g sugar
Directions
Peel the peaches and cut into wedges
Toss with a couple tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of flour and dump into a glass 8x8 baking pan
Put a pint of raspberries over the peaches
In a medium bowl, cut the butter into the flour.
When the butter/flour mixture looks like bread crumbs, toss the sugar over it.
Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the fruit
Bake for 35-40 minutes in a 400F oven,
Cool for a little bit before eating. Don’t burn your mouth!
More a method than a recipe, these are my rough guidelines for ham salad.
Ingredients
Ham – two thin slices, or one thick slice, chopped
One hard-boiled egg, chopped
1 Tbsp mayo (yes, you can use Miracle Whip®, but it’s better with mayo)
1 tsp yellow mustard
Optional Ingredients
Add up to three of the following
4″ stalk of celery – chopped
quarter-pickle “spear” – chopped
three or four pickle slices – chopped
three or four olives, without pit, and optionally with pimento – chopped
one ring pineapple – chopped
small chunk green pepper – chopped
roasted green chile – chopped
tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
one slice american cheese – chopped
small chunk (tablespoon or so) cheddar cheese – chopped
one carrot – chopped finely
Directions
Chop the ingredients, if you haven’t already
Drain the vegetable matter – you don’t want things soggy
Put the chopped things in a bowl big enough to hold everything and then some
Squirt in the mayo, and mix (go ahead and use your hand if you want)
Add salt and pepper to taste
If making a sandwich, smear it on the bread
If you don’t have bread, add about ½ cup cooked and cooled macaroni
You can double, triple or whatever multiple you’d like with this, but I find that I most often make about 2 servings, use half the result on bread for lunch, and the other half with a little pasta for dinner, and I’ve managed to clean up a lot of little odds and ends from the kitchen, while still having a tasty meal or two.
If you don’t have any ham, use two or three eggs and call it egg salad.
I needed to rewrite this recipe for my own sanity. The one online at the Food Network has all the ingredients in one list, which is handy for shopping, but worthless for trying to make sure you haven’t forgotten something as you’re baking.
Ingredients (crust)
2C all-purpose flour
2Tbsp sugar
Zest from one lime
1tsp salt
4½oz butter (1 stick plus one Tbsp)
1½oz lard (3Tbsp)
1½oz ice water, in a spray bottle
Directions (crust)
Place the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix them with a fork.
Add butter and lard and cut into the flour mixture.
Spritz mixture with ice water and mix with a fork just until it comes together.
Place into gallon zip-top bag, roll flat, and place in fridge while you work on the filling.
Ingredients (filling)
1# rhubarb, chopped into 1cm pieces
1# peaches, cored, and sliced into 1cm slices, then chopped into 1cm pieces
2Tbsp corn starch
Juice from one lime
1C sugar
Directions (filling)
Chop rhubarb and place in large mixing bowl.
Cut peaches in half, removing pit, them slicing into 1cm slices, and chopping into 1cm cubes.
Add sugar, corn starch and lime juice to bowl, and mix things with a fork so all the fruit is coated.
Directions
Place a piece of aluminum foil on the bottom rack of the oven to catch any spills.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Grease a 9x9 inch glass baking dish with lard or butter.
Take about ⅓ of the crust mixture out of the zip-top bag and crumble into the bottom of the baking dish.
Dump the filling in on top of the crumbled crust
Roll the remainder of the crust out inside the zip-top bag so it’s about the same size as the baking dish, then carefully slice open the bag along the seams and place the top crust on top of the fruit, pushing it down into the edges of the baking dish. If it didn’t break up like mine always does, slice it a few times so steam and juice can escape.
Bake for an hour. Or 90 minutes if you used frozen fruit.
Before removing from oven, broil (at the hottest setting) for a couple minutes to brown the top if needed.
Let cool for 15-30 minutes before serving and enjoying. It’s hard to taste the deliciousness with a burned tongue.
Cut chicken into bit sized pieces and throw into the crock pot.
Season with salt and pepper.
Top with corn, cream corn, sweet potatoes, optional chiles, and bbq sauce.
Pour 1C water over everything.
If making this in one shot, pour in the muffin batter over the top of everything.
Turn crock pot on “high” and cook for a cuppa-tree (2-3) hours, or “low” for approximately 6 hours.
Spoon muffin batter over top of boiling liquid, making dumplings, if you didn’t put the batter in earlier. Continue to cook on low for another hour or so.
Those recipes were written to be cooked on a BBQ grill, but can usually be adapted for indoor use, as well.
