Saucy Pulled Pork Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

Pulled pork with barbecue sauce is a great savory filling for cornbread muffins, perfect as a take-along for tailgating parties or game day buffets. 

I made slow cooked pork in the crockpot a couple of weeks back. Nothing remarkable about it except that I did use a cloudy apple juice with ginger that I buy in my nearby supermarket. And I hummed in a few ounces of raspberries from a punnet that was getting past its best. As it turns out, apples, ginger and tart raspberries all make delicious slow cooked pork shoulder. We ate the roast the first night sliced, with mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts. 

Then I shredded the leftovers and added homemade barbecue sauce and we enjoyed barbecue sandwiches on lovely Portuguese rolls, coleslaw on the side, another night. Which left about one cupful of saucy pork as leftover leftovers. I was fully prepared to eat that with a spoon. I warmed it up the next morning and took a bite, but I just couldn’t get over the idea I’d had in the middle of that night before. My husband laughs because there is always a small part of my brain that is planning a meal or working on a recipe, no matter what else the rest of my brain seems to be concentrating on. I put the spoon down and put the bowl back in the refrigerator to chill. 

I had to use that pork to fill some cornbread muffins. 

Ingredients

1 cup or 180g fine yellow cornmeal

1 1/2 or 190g cups flour

4 teaspoons sugar 

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup or 355ml milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup or 80ml canola or other light vegetable oil plus more for the pan

Filling: One cup or 250g pulled pork with barbecue sauce

Optional for garnish: Small pickles or slices of pickle

Method

Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C. Prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by oiling it liberally with canola or non-stick baking spray. 

In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your milk, egg and oil. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat until fairly smooth, about one minute, making sure to scrape bottom and sides well.  

Divide about two-thirds of the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Add a generous teaspoon of the chilled pulled pork to each. 

Top with the remaining batter.

Add the pickle garnish if using. Mine were the little French cornichons. I drained them on some paper towel, sliced them partially through twice with a sharp knife and fanned them out. A slice of dill pickle would work as well. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned on top and on the sides. 

Remove to a wire rack to cool a little before eating. Do be careful with the first bites because the pork will be quite hot inside. 

Serve with coleslaw on the side to complete the saucy pulled pork muffin experience. 

Enjoy! 

Arepas with Pulled Pork and Black Bean Corn Salsa

What inspires you to cook?  For me, it can be something as simple and as fleeting as a Facebook mention by a friend of a meal she is eating.  Sometime this summer, my friend and former college roommate, Susi, went to Miami with her beautiful daughter.  She posted a photo of an arepa with pulled pork in a restaurant and it looked so delicious that her meal has been in the back of my mind ever since.  She has probably not given it a second thought!  I just went back to find the photo, only to discover that she had shredded chicken in her arepa!  But never mind.  I made pulled pork!  Because that’s what I’ve been dreaming about for weeks.

Ingredients for four stuffed arepas with leftover pork and two generous servings of salsa. Everything can be easily doubled or trebled, if your crockpot is big enough.

For the pork:

2 pieces of pork shoulder – 1/2 kilo or about a pound total

1 large yellow onion

6 cloves of garlic

Sea salt

Black pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Water

Method

Mash the garlic with the side of a knife and then chop coarsely.

Slice your onion thickly and place them in the bottom of a slow cooker or crockpot. 

Put the pork on top of the onion and season with salt, pepper and cumin.

Scatter the garlic around and fill the basin with enough water to come halfway up the pork.

Put on the lid and cook on high for five to six hours.

Take the lid off and use the pork and onions to rub the lovely brown stuff off of the sides of the crockpot.  

Use two forks to shred the pork.  Check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary.

For the arepas:

1 cup or 150g of Harina P.A.N.

1 1/4 cups or 295ml lukewarm water

1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

Add the salt to the Harina P.A.N. and pour this into a bowl with the water and stir until it is completely absorbed and makes a soft dough.

Tip it out on the counter top and knead a few times. Divide your dough into four equal pieces.

Make a circle of each about three inches in diameter. Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Place on a hot griddle and brown both sides.  (Mine scorched a bit, as you can see. I think my fire was too high so be careful to keep it on a medium flame. Despite the color, they didn’t taste burnt at all though.)

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes.

For the salsa:

1/2 cob of boiled corn

1/2 small purple onion

2 small hot chilies

1 cup or 170g of cooked black beans

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Sea salt

Small bunch of fresh cilantro or coriander 

Method

Holding the stems, split the chilies down the middle and then chop them finely.

Slice the onion very thinly and then cut across to create tiny little pieces.

Add lime juice to the chilies and onion and leave them to marinate for at least 10 minutes. This takes the sharpness out of the onion and helps tame the heat of the chilies.

Finely chop the stems of the cilantro and add to the bowl, reserving the leaves for later.

Slice the corn off the cob, break the kernels apart and add to the bowl.  Mix thoroughly.

Add the black beans and mix again. Salt to taste.

Chop the coriander leaves roughly and add right before serving.

To serve all:  Slit the arepas and, using a slotted spoon, stuff them with the pork mixture. Add some extra hot sauce, if desired.  Each person gets two arepas and a good serving of salsa.

Enjoy!