The Slow Treatment

I feel like I have tried them all—Instant Pot, Sous Vide, Slowcookers, Steamroasters, Airfryers, Traegers, Electric Smokers, Kamados, Convections. In truth, except for Gordon Lum, I know nobody with more cooking gadgets than me, because I am always looking for a simpler path to culinary perfection. Alas, I have found no single silver bullet. Only many gadgets.

I thought my new holy grail could be the Instant Pot, since it offers multiple sauté, pressure cooker, slow cooker features. The only appliance I would ever need! I hoped it would help me declutter my kitchen. Although some people love it, I have found that it does a mediocre job of sautéing, a pathetic job at slow-cooking and a great job at pressure cooking. I have not tried making rice in it, because I already have a rice cooker that has never let me down. And I already had a pressure cooker. Good thing I got it on sale.

I imagine an Instant Pot would be a perfect compromise for a small kitchen that cannot accommodate other appliances. That is not my issue. So now I have yet another hulking appliance.

So, I decided to go back to basics. The recipe I am sharing with you today is a fabulous slow roasted pork. I considered doing it sous vide but have found that a lot of the meat liquids accumulate in the bag, rather than staying in the roast, where they belong. I considered instant pot, but it doesn’t provide the rich caramelization that makes me swoon. A low, slow oven was the only answer.

Pan Asian Slooow Roasted Pork Shoulder

Pan Asian Slooow Roasted Pork Shoulder

This takes a several hours to cook, so plan ahead.

First get a four pound pork shoulder roast with the fat cap still on it, rub it with oil, cross hatch the fat and generously salt and pepper the roast all over. Let it set.

Then briefly pan roast the following spices together: one tablespoon of coriander seeds, one broken dried pepper, 3 juniper berries, one broken star anise. Toss them around in a pan until you get a nice smell, then put them into a mortar and pestle and grind them down to medium texture. I tried taking a shortcut in my mini-food processor. Once again, the shortcut does not work.

Now blend 3-4 smashed and minced cloves of garlic, one chopped knob (about 1 ½ inches) of peeled ginger, 1 T each of smoked paprika, oil, honey and soy sauce into a lumpy wet rub. It will smell so good.

Massage that all over your pork shoulder, wrap it with foil, leaving the top part open and let it set a couple of hours in the fridge, if you can. But if you need to cook it right away, no prob.

Bring your over to 400 degrees, cooking it for 20 minutes, fat side up. Then turn the oven down to about 275. At this point you may wish to put a little foil hat on your roast to keep the juices from evaporating. Cook another 4-5 hours or so, until the roast starts falling apart into moist, luscious chunks.

That is all. I may need to have a yard sale.