Kalua Pork

Smokey, salty, sweet; there is nothing not to love about Kalua pork.  It doesn’t need a lot of attention, it is ridiculously easy to make, it makes great left overs, and it is downright delicious.  It also shares well with a big group of friends!

Now traditional kalua pork involves building (digging mostly) an imu, which for those of you who don’t know an imu is; simply put it is an in-ground oven lined with heated lava rocks.  Drop a whole pig in it, bury it, and eventually you have some kalua pork.  There is a bit more too it than that, but that’s the gist of it.

However, I have never lived in a place where I could dig out an imu, nor do I know where to buy a whole pig.  So like many others I cheat and use some pork butt (shoulder) and a slow cooker.

To make kalua pork all you need is 4-6 lbs of pork, 1 ½-2 tablespoons Hawaiian Sea Salt, and an optional tablespoon of liquid smoke.  Drop all of that in a slow cooker.  Maybe stab the pork a few times and massage some of that salt and smoke in it, turn the slow cooker on to slow, and wait 16-20 hours!  So plan in advance, Kalua Pork is not something you cook for instant gratification.  The only attention the pork requires is a quick turn halfway through and then a few hours before it finishes go ahead and shred the pork with a fork.

The pork can be eaten simply with rice, or turned into sandwiches using either hamburger buns or even better- sweet bread rolls!  If you are intrigued read on…

I am not traditional, so I like BBQ sauce with my kalua pork.  Head Country BBQ Sauce is my favorite, but if you can’t import it from Oklahoma then go ahead and use whatever sauce you like.

I go even further afield by making a blue cheese sauce to go on the sandwiches as well!  Giving the whole package a salty pork, sweet bbq, tangy blue cheese taste.  Nothing could be more amazing and nothing disappears quite as fast off the plate.
           

The blue cheese sauce I make a couple different ways depending on how ambitious I feel.  But the most successful involves making a béchamel sauce; fancy French for a sauce made from butter, flour, and milk, and then dumping in blue cheese to melt on down.

The Recipes
Part 1: Kalua Pork


Ingredients
1 pork butt/shoulder roast (~6lbs)
1 1/2 tablespoons Hawaiian Sea Salt
1 tablespoon liquid smoke

Directions
1) Pierce the pork all over with a knife or carving fork and put it in the slow cooker.
2) Rub the pork all over with the liquid smoke and then salt.
3) Cover the slow cooker and turn it on low.  Cook for 16-20 hours, turning halfway through, shred the pork an hour or two before cooking.

Part 2: The Sauce (An easy béchamel)


Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup blue cheese

Directions
1) Melt the butter on low heat, then stir in the flour as the butter completely melts down.
2) Add a small amounts of milk, stirring constantly and allowing the mixture in the pan to thicken before adding more milk.  Continue doing this till all the milk has been added.
3) Add the blue cheese.  Stir the cheese into the roux as it melts.  Don't worry if the cheese does not completely melt!  It will taste delicious no matter what.
*) Sometimes I also add a little garlic powder, some pepper, and a sprinkling of salt.

Recipe inspired by and adapted from: Mom.