An American Feast

Another Friday night dinner...

Are you getting bored of these yet?

For weeks I'd been craving cornbread which meant an American themed meal was inevitable. So I basically designed my meal around that. I've mentioned before that I can't really eat pork but this Friday I thew out the Crohn's rule book and made pulled pork with cornbread muffins, homemade baked beans and corn on the cob. It was delicious and I don't regret it one bit.

First the pulled pork.

I took a 2kg boneless pork shoulder and rubbed it in BBQ seasoning, salt and pepper. If you don't have BBQ seasoning, use a mixture of smoked paprika, chilli powder, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper. I put the shoulder on a bed of thickly sliced onions in a large casserole dish and pour in 1 cup of apple juice (you can also use cider) making sure not to pour it on the pork as it removes the seasoning.

I put the dish, with the lid on, into a 150° oven for 3 hours. After 3 hours I took the pork out of the oven, removed the fat and pulled the pork with two forks. I then added around 4tbsp of bourbon BBQ sauce, stirred and put it back in the oven with the lid on for another hour and a half.

Now onto the baked beans. I completely winged this recipe so once again, there are no measurements. I apologise for this now but now I know the my experiment worked, I can remake and update you all with measurements. I basically read a lot of baked bean recipes online and combined them.

I fried 6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon in a casserole dish and added a chopped onion. I then added BBQ seasoning, salt and pepper. I put in three tins of beans without draining them, I used cannelini, borlotti and haricot but you could use any beans you like. I let this come to a boil and added around 3 tbsp of BBQ sauce, brown sugar and cider vinegar before putting the dish into the oven with the lid on for one hour. At this point, I'd taken the pork out the oven (which will stay warm with the lid on for an hour) and turned it up to 200°.

After an hour, I took the lid off and cooked it for another half an hour.  I would recommend stirring often because the beans will stick to the bottom if not and you'll have bean mash instead. Delicious but not baked beans!

I mentioned at the beginning of this that cornbread was the whole reason I made this meal. I knew I wanted to make muffins as they can be frozen individually for a later date. 

If you haven't had cornbread, you're missing out. It's an acquired taste because it tends to be sweet and you eat it with savoury meals but something magical happens when you eat cornbread with a savoury dish such as pulled pork or chilli.

I used this recipe for my muffins and added honey and cheddar cheese. You could also add jalepenos or even Mexicana cheese. They are better eaten warm with butter on. Honey butter is traditional to have with cornbread which is exactly what it says on the tin: honey and butter mixed together. 

Corn on the cob is so easy to make and delicious too. I prepare mine by mixing softened butter in a bowl with a lot of smoked paprika and seasoning. This mixture then gets smothered all over the corn and wrapped tightly in baking parchment, like a Christmas cracker. I put them both into the oven with the baked beans and cooked for 20 minutes. The cornbread also takes 20 minutes to cook so I put them in with the corn. We also had coleslaw with it which I know I could have made from scratch (and I make an amazing blue cheese coleslaw, but that's for another day) but I'd already made so much and I'm really struggling with fatigue at the moment.

The good thing about buying a pork shoulder is that you will most definitely have leftovers. If you're making this for two people, you will be eating pulled pork for the next few days. Which isn't a bad thing! Although my IBD nurses would say otherwise...

There's so much you can do with leftover pulled pork too! Nachos, pasta, wraps, rolls and so on.

I'm struggling to come up with an idea for this Friday now. I could go back to a roast chicken but if anyone has any suggestions for something more exciting, I'm all ears.

I promise I'll do a post soon on actual baking. My illnesses are flaring currently so baking has been rare recently. But I'm working on sharing an actual recipe of mine with measurements and everything! 

*gasp*