Rhubarb Pork
The inspiration for this recipe came from Jamie Oliver’s show on Food Network. He did a rhubarb pork using pork belly and it was intriguing to me since rhubarb is considered to be a dessert item not something to be served with pork.
I have rhubarb and duh I have pork so well why not give it a run. Instead of using belly I opted to change it up and use a 2 lb pork shoulder. This is not because I have a hatred of belly but rather convenience since it was easier to defrost a 2 lb shoulder than a 7 lb belly to get what I needed.
There was definitely a good hit of the tartness from the rhubarb in the dish which was nice and balanced with the heat from the jalapenos made for an awesome all around dish.
For this recipe you will need:
- Pork shoulder
- 1 lb of rhubarb cut into medium slices
- 1 shallot finely diced
- 3 cloves of garlic finely diced
- 2 jalapenos finely diced
- 1/2 cup of dry white wine
- 1.5 cups of chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 TB of honey
- 2 TB of soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of 5 spice powder
- 1 teaspoon of ground ginger (feel free to use fresh just use about 1 TB of it)
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 2 TB of canola oil
In your trusty cast iron dutch oven over medium-high add in the oil. Salt and pepper the pork shoulder all over and brown on all sides (about 5 minutes a side). Remove and drain all but 1 TB of the oil from the pan.
Add in the rhubarb, jalapenos, shallots, and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes.
Add in the 1/2 cup of white wine and reduce by 1/2. Return the pork shoulder to the pan along with the chicken stock, honey, soy sauce, and bay leaf. Bring this mixture to a boil and then reduce to a gentle simmer and cover.
The shoulder will take about two hours to cook and make sure to flip halfway though. The pork shoulder is done when you can take a fork and easily shred the meat. If the pork does not shred easily cover and let it cook for another 15 minutes and try to shred again.
Once the pork shoulder is easily shredded I went ahead and just shredded it in the dutch oven and mixed into the sauce.
I served the rhubarb pork over rice with rice and sprinkled green onions over top of it.
wow, this actually sounds really, really good to me. i mean really good. i never would’ve thought about tossing rhubarb into a pot of pork, but now that you mention it, it just sounds right. and the jalapenos are a must-have. i’m really excited about this, jeff–i was getting tired of plain ol’ pulled pork bbq sandwiches!
I like the sound of using rhubarb in a savoury dish like this!
Whoa, I used to make rhubarb chutney (we grew it at the last house) that I would exclusively serve with pork! You know what this means? You’re a genius, that’s what.