Kalua Pig

(This post is by my good friend Candy, who is a fabulous cook. She has also gone gluten-free and dairy-free over the past year.  When cooking gluten-free, be sure to ALWAYS check the label on your ingredients. Gluten varies from brand-to-brand on every product.  I asked Candy to share one of her favorite recipes with us, and I'm taking editorially liberty and inserting photos into her recipe since she didn't have any to post.  ~ Laurie)

Kalua Pig
 
This is a much requested recipe I received from a really good friend who grew up in Hawaii. It is one of the most authentic and easy recipes in my recipe box!

Prep time:   20 minutes, plus at least 1 hour to marinate 
Cook time:   3-5 hours

• 2 teaspoons powdered ginger
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons crushed garlic
• 1/4 cup Aloha Shoyu (Hawaiian Soy Sauce, available at Asian markets and wal-mart)
• 1 Tablespoon Rock Salt (available at Asian markets, may be labeled as Hawaiian Rock Salt) or use 1 Tablespoon Kosher salt or ice cream rock salt
  
• 1 Tablespoon Liquid smoke
• 2-4 pound pork butt
• 1 medium sized cabbage

How To:

• Spray aluminum foil and roasting pan with Pam. Make a cross with your foil (be very generous with your cross over or all the juice will run out into your pan and not marinate your meat while cooking!!) and place the pork butt in the middle of it.

• Mix together all the above ingredients EXCEPT cabbage to make your marinade. Pour over the meat and wrap the foil as tightly as possible. Let sit marinating at least 1 hour (I sometimes let it marinate overnight).

• Heat oven to 325. Place in oven for 3-4 hours. Do not open the oven...just let it go and check it at the 4 hour mark (for bigger piece of pork). The longer the better really!! The meat should just fall off the bone.

• Remove from oven and let sit about 10 minutes. Open up and start shredding with 2 dinner forks. (if the meat if hard to shred with the forks then it is not ready yet!!) Shred pork and place in a big stock pot.

• Chop up cabbage in skinny strips and throw into the pot with the pork. Using a baster suck up some of the pork juice from the pan and squeeze it over the pork. I use at least 1/2 of the juices. Heat the pot over medium low heat for 30 minutes to an hour. Stirring every 10-15 minutes.

• Sprinkle a few pinches of the rock salt into the pot and pour another 2-3 tablespoons of Shoyu over it as well. Once the cabbage is cooked thru and the pork is hot it is ready!!

Serve with sticky white rice. We use Shoyu to pour over it again once I've served it up. Enjoy!!