Pulled Pork and Corn Fritter Amazingness

So, it's been forever and a day since I posted anything on this blog.

When better to pick it up again than now, when I am in a new(er) city, meeting new people, and learning all sorts of new things about myself, keeping a home, and perhaps my favorite: cooking for the people I love (mainly my husband)!?

Quick catch-up if you don't know (and if you care): August 3, 2012 I married Matt, got a new name and moved down to Santa Barbara, CA. The last 5 1/2 months have been a whirlwind, and a time of learning, growing, and embarking on adventures together. Not going to lie, I am loving the opportunity to try new things, and find new recipes to keep my wonderful husband well fed.

One example:

Pulled Pork in a crock pot. Why anyone would make pulled pork any other way, is beyond me, but then again, I've only made it this once... so maybe the other way is easier, but the whole ability to make it at night, and have it ready for a yummy meal the next day is wonderful to me.


This is my meal:

Isn't it beautiful, and doesn't it look delicious!? Let me tell you, it was fabulous! The other little bits of amazing on the plate were Corn Fritters, deep fried, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside yumminess.

I've pretty much been a fan of corn fritters since I had them when I was a kid (probably 9 or 10) and have pretty much never been able to find them quite as yummy again. Well, for my wedding a little over 5 months ago, one of my besties decided I needed to have deep fryer, and while at first I was a little bit sceptical, I've pretty much been converted. We don't have the space to have it out all the time (we also don't need to be eating deep fried foods all the time... I tend to try and cook healthier than that on a regular basis) but since I had used it in the last week, and hadn't put it away yet, I decided to play around, and the corn fritters happened... YUM!

Not that you care. Not that you should. But IN CASE you want a couple of simple recipes for yummy food, I'm going to include them. If for no other reason, than that I want to write them down, so that I don't forget how I made them!

Pulled Pork

3 - 3 1/2 lb. Pork Shoulder (the label also called it a Boston Roast) Other recipes told me I could use a Pork Butt of the same size, and this was on sale (Hey, I'm working really hard to stay on a food budget!)

3/4 c. Apple Cider Vinegar

2-3 Tbsp. Yellow Mustard

3-4 Tbsp. BBQ Sauce of choice (I used Sweet Baby Ray's - Honey Barbecue... it was also on sale)

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

A splash to 1/4 c. of water.

Salt and Pepper

(I should warn you, the measurements in my recipes are usually estimates, because unless it's something that absolutely MUST be measured, I tend to cook according to my personal tastes, and play around with it until I'm happy, so it's difficult to tell JUST how much of ingredients I use)

I rinsed my roast in warm water, patted it dry, and then placed it into my slow cooker. Not sure whether that's "necessary" but it seemed like a good idea. Next I sprinkled the roast with salt and pepper to add a little extra flavor.

In a measuring cup mix together the Cider Vinegar, Mustard, BBQ Sauce, Worcestershire sauce and water. Pour over the roast. Put the lid on.

I set my cooker to medium-high for about an hour, and then turned it to low overnight (8-10 hours) but other recipes I looked up before I put mine together indicated you could just do the low for 8-10, or medium-high for 5-6. I don't know which you would prefer, but since I was doing mine overnight the 8-10 hours worked better for me, and when I opened the crock pot next morning, the whole thing shredded with two forks CRAZY easily.

After the meat has been shredded in a bowl, I mixed about a cup of the barbecue sauce, and about 1/4 c. of the liquid that it cooked in together and then mixed in the meat. If you like your pulled pork with a little more sauce, you could obviously add more, but I don't like mine too soggy, so I reserved extra barbecue sauce to be put on the buns when we actually ate it. Personal preference. So yummy!

(I feel I should mention, while I left the fat on my roast for flavor during cooking
and then removed the fat before I shredded the roast, some recipes do indicate that you should remove the fat before cooking)

Corn Fritters

Okay, disclaimer: THIS recipe is very um... well, let's just say I took a recipe I could find, and then substituted and added stuff that I had in my kitchen to make them more like what I was looking for... so unfortunately I cannot absolutely guarantee the same results. Basically, the recipe is as follows.

One box Jiffy corn muffin mix.

One Egg

One 14.5 oz Creamed Style Corn

Vegetable oil to fry (if you're using a full size deep fryer you will need 8-10 cups (follow the directions on your fryer, mine is just "fill it to line A, then plug it in, the light will go off when it's at the right temperature". If you are pan frying, you will obviously use less... like 1/2-1 c. Not sure.

Aproximately 6-10 tablespoons of all purpose flour (this part was more to get my batter to the consistency I felt comfortable dropping into HOT deep fryer oil, so that it wouldn't splatter apart and turn into little tiny balls instead of puffy round fritters, if you are pan-frying, a thinner batter won't be such a big deal, they'll just be flat fritters.)

about 1/2 tsp. Baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. white sugar

2 Tbsp. Packed brown sugar

2 Tbsp. Honey

I mixed the corn muffin mix, 4-6 tbsp. of the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars in a bowl, then I added the egg, creamed corn and honey, and incorporated it all together.

At this point, I did a sample run of the batter in the deep fryer, the first spoonful was so thin though, that it kind of plopped into the boiling oil, and broke apart into little pieces of deep fried yumminess... just not a FRITTER like I was looking for.

This was where I added more flour until it was a thicker batter that I could get a spoonful of, then scrape off with a second spoon just below the surface of the oil, and it would (usually *) fall gently into the oil and turn into a nice puffy, crunchy brown fritter.

Allow the fritter to cook for about a 90 seconds on one side (lid closed if you have one to keep the oil from spattering everywhere), flip the fritter over with a fork (or some tongs, just make sure whatever you use won't melt in the hot oil), and allow to cook another minute or so (basically a uniform brown color is what you're going for.

Pull the basket out of the hot oil, and dump the fritters onto a plate covered with paper towels. Ours were delicious "as is" but I am sure there are dipping sauces out there that should be tried with them. Delicous!

(*) PLEASE be careful when you are placing things into your deep fryer, although I was being super careful, the last fritter I made still managed to plop into the oil, and splashed a drop of HOT oil onto my face about a 1/2 inch from my eyeball. Honestly, I'm pretty sure it was a miracle that I DIDN'T end up that the ER that night (although lucky for us, we do happen to live 2 blocks from the ER...)

Anyway, it was a delicious meal, and all in all I'm super pleased with the result!