I was so excited about this that I forgot to post it anywhere! Last week, Ben Kessler of Unbreaded featured our Cherry Coke Pulled Pork Sandwich Episode! I’m pretty excited about it. Unbreaded is one of my favorite food blogs. I also loved one of the comments on the story, Larry said, “Pretty good show but that beard scares me.” Right on Larry. Wait until you see Josh and me together in the next episode. We may have to rename the show “Back Woods Cookin’ with Scruffs and Billy”.

Thanks Ben for the props!

We’ve had some very kind words from around the web about the food we made at Open Chefame on July 27th. I also have some good shots of the behind the scenes action that I’ll throw in below.

Mary Bingham at WCdish wrote, “Each bite was absolutely perfect and dripped with summer goodness.” Sounds AWESOME! Well, that was in reference to the dessert in particular but Mary had nice things to say about all 5 dishes put up by Sarah Feidt and me.

Livia from No Counter Space gave nailed me in her description writing, “Tim Crowe, of Eating Crowe, was loud and enthusiastic and eager to be the center of attention. Clearly, he was having a lot of fun.” Am I that easy to read? Hell yes! She also had great stuff to say about the food that Sarah and I plated up, in particular my grilled corn relish, Sarah’s quail and our very successful tres leches starwberry shortcake.

Thanks to both Mary and Livia for inflating my already ridiculous ego and for the link love!

This has 3 major elements to this recipe. All of them can be done at the same time with some good time management.

Process for braising pork shoulder

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and place the dutch oven onto the stove to begin warming it up.
2. Take the pork shoulder and cut it down into pieces about the size of a fist.
3. Prep the aromatics. These will not be served with the dish, therefore they don’t need to be cut in any fancy way. Cut about 3 celery stalks into large chunks, quarter 1 onion and cut about 10 serrano peppers into halves, leaving the seeds to add a kick.
4. Lightly coat the pot with olive oil and begin to sear all sides of the pork shoulder.
5. Once they are lightly browned, throw in your aromatics and a few bay leaves.
6. Pour in just enough broth to cover the contents of the pot and bring to a boil.
7. Cover and put in the oven for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
8. Once the pork is done braising, you can take it out of the liquid and use 2 forks to pull apart and shred the cooked meat.

This part was not done in the video, but is awesome, delicious and important! The braising liquid has tons of porky, spicy goodness in it. You don’t want to lose that.

9. After you have pulled the pork, strain the braising liquid into a small sauce pan.
10. Simmer the braising liquid over a low flame to reduce until the braising liquid is a thick sauce.
11. Add a bit of butter to mellow the flavors and salt to taste.
12. Pour this sauce over the pulled pork and mix it in.

Process for the Cherry Cola BBQ sauce

1. In a small sauce pan, slowly reduce a liter of cherry cola, gradually adding more to the pan as it cooks off. This is a long process, so there is plenty of time while the pork braises.
2. After you’ve reduced the cola, in a larger pan, saute and brown 1 roughly diced onion and a few garlic cloves.
3. Add some brown sugar to help caramelize, 3 tablespoons of dijon mustard, a good amount of paprika, a little chili powder and a whole lot of ketchup.
4. Mix in the reduced cola and allow to simmer.
5. Pour the sauce into a food processor to break down the large chunks in the sauce.
6. Taste and season to your liking.
7. The sauce can be mixed with the pork, or just dizzled on top.

Process for the cole slaw

1. Take 1 full head of cabbage and remove the outer shell. We used half red and half white. Cut in half, remove the core and thinly chop.
2. Place the chopped cabbage into a collinder and mix it with a lot of salt. This is to remove any extra moisture. Place collinder into a sink or a large bowl to catch excess liquid. Allow this to sit for about 1 hour.
3. Thoroughly rinse the salt off of the cabbage and allow it to drain or squeeze out as much of the water as possible.
4. In a medium sized bowl, combine 3-4 scoops of mayonnaise, with about equal parts buttermilk and just a little bit of pickle juice to add some tartness.
5. Toss the cabbage in the sauce and serve on the sandwich or as a side dish.

These Cherry Coke Pulled Pork Sandwiches are crazy good. I think this is one of my best creations to date. The spiciness of the pork, with the sweetness of the Cherry Coke based barbecue sauce and the creamy goodness and crunch of the cole slaw makes an amazing combination.

I’ve broken down the dish into the braising of the short ribs and the recipe for the potato parsnip puree to accompany it. The braising takes a few hours, so you will have tons of time to prepare the side item while you wait.

Process for braising short ribs

1. Preheat the oven to 300° and place the dutch oven onto the stove to begin warming it up so that you can sear the short ribs before the braising process begins.
2. Prep the aromatics. These will not be served with the dish, therefore they don’t need to be cut in any fancy way. Dice 1 onion. Peel and dice 2 parsnips. Peel and dice about 5 or 6 garlic cloves.
3. We used a concentrated tomato paste, so take about a tablespoon on the paste and pince it. To do so, add a little water and mix it, just to make it into the consistency of ketchup.
4. Salt and pepper the short ribs to help bring out their flavor.
5. Now that the pan is hot, lightly coat it with olive oil and begin to sear all the sides of the short ribs and then set them aside.
6. Once the short ribs have all been seared, in the same pot, lightly saute the aromatics.
7. Add the pinced tomato paste, the ENTIRE bottle of chianti and allow this to boil so that some of the alcohol cooks off.
8. Add the can of diced tomatos, then begin to add your short ribs to the pot.
9. Once you have all of the short ribs in, you want to add just enough beef broth to cover the top short ribs.
10. Add a few thyme sprigs and a bay leaf and bring everything to a boil.
11. Cover the pot and place it into the oven and allow it to cook for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. This allows the meat to get very tender and really moist.

This sauce was not done in the video, but is awesome, delicious and important!

12. When they are finished cooking, remove the ribs from the Dutch oven. Place them in another cooking vessel and put them in a 170° oven to keep them warm.
13. Strain the braising liquid into a small sauce pan.
14. Simmer the braising liquid over a low flame to reduce until the braising liquid is a thick sauce.
15. Add a bit of butter to mellow the flavors and salt to taste.
16. When you plate the ribs, brush the ribs with this sauce.

Process for the potato parsnip puree

1. Take equal parts potatoes and parsnips, peel them and cut them into about 1 inch cubes.
2. Boil both the potatoes and the parsnips until they become a mashable consistency. The parsnips are denser, so they will take a little longer to become soft.
3. Once they are cooked, you want to strain the potatoes and parsnips, then return them to the stove for a few minutes. This is to cook off any extra moisture.
4. Take the hand masher and begin to mash them together.
5. Add heavy cream to eye, to make them a little creamier than regular mashed potatoes.
6. Add an entire stick of butter and proceed to mash until it is a smooth consistency.
7. Salt to taste.