Pulled Pork

 Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Recipe

By Christine Gallary

Difficulty: Easy | Total Time: 30 mins, plus 6 to 10 hrs cooking time | Makes: 6 servings

 For this easy pulled pork recipe, just coat the pork shoulder with a spice rub of dark brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, and cinnamon, then cook it on a bed of garlic and onions covered with chicken broth.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 4 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 cup chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (4-1/2- to 5-pound) boneless or bone-in pork shoulder (also known as pork butt), twine or netting removed
• 2 cups barbecue sauce (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place the onions and garlic in an even layer in the slow cooker and pour in the stock or broth. Combine the sugar, chili powder, measured salt, cumin, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Pat the pork dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture all over the pork and place the meat on top of the onions and garlic. Cover and cook until the pork is fork tender, about 6 to 8 hours on high or 8 to 10 hours on low.
2. Turn off the slow cooker and remove the pork to a cutting board. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium heatproof bowl. Pour the onion mixture from the slow cooker through the strainer and return the solids to the slow cooker. Set the strained liquid aside.
3. If the pork has a bone, remove and discard it. Using 2 forks, shred the meat into bite-sized pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat. Return the shredded meat to the slow cooker, add the barbecue sauce, if using, and mix to combine. If you’re not using barbecue sauce, use a spoon to skim and discard the fat from the surface of the strained cooking liquid, and then add 1/4 cup of the liquid at a time to the slow cooker until the pork is just moistened. Taste and season with salt as needed.

Limoncello

Recipe courtesy Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar

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YIELD: Varies

LEVEL: Easy

ingredients

• Limoncello
• 6 1/3 cups /1.5 liters 75-percent volume alcohol (recommended: 2 bottles Everclear Grain Alcohol)
• 14 lemons

• 6 1/3 cups /1.5 liters water
• 2 1/3 pounds/1050 grams sugar

Directions

Grazie Zia Laura, for opening your secret kitchen book for us... we might think of starting designing a label for it now and put it in our market!

To make the Limoncello:

This recipe occurs in 2 different stages: first the macerating of the lemon peels in alcohol, and then the actual brewing with the rest of the ingredients.

First stage:
Peel the lemons, making sure to only separate the yellow part of the peel from the fruit, and not go too deep.

A potato peeler does the trick, even if it behaves sketchy in the hand (lemons are much rougher than potatoes) still, you can try with a small blade, like a paring knife, but you will probably end up cutting too deep.

Place the peels in glass jars, possibly big enough to accommodate all the ingredients in the recipe, seal tight and let rest for two weeks. Find a dark corner in your house, even a basement or a cellar where to let your Limoncello rest, absolutely do not leave it exposed to sunlight... also, try to resist the temptation of opening your jars and sniffing it. It is called "resting" for a reason, be respectful, you will be rewarded later! We actually keep our jars on a library, to decorate our dining room...

Second stage:
After macerating for two weeks, the alcohol is now ready to be drained and mixed with the water and sugar.

Heat the water in the pan and mix the sugar, then let cool off for about 1 hour, stirring every now and then to make sure that the sugar collected on the bottom of the pan "stays in the game".

Drain the lemon peels from the jars and mix in the sugar water. Be careful, this is a moment you have to keep an eye on your volumes: figure out how many jars you are working with and maintain the proportion of ingredients! To simplify your life you, can brew everything in a big enough pot to accommodate all ingredients and then bottle it back into the jars.

And again, for the second time, you have to exercise control and patience. Sniff all you want, than close your jars tight and let rest for a whole month. You can shake the liquid gently when you start noticing some sugar deposited on the bottom of the jars. Where did you decide to let your Limoncello rest, in the basement on a kitchen shelf? Remember, no sunlight!

After a month, it is time to bottle, and it is totally up to you, just make sure you can fit your bottles in the freezer.


Brew Responsibly!