Pulled "Pork" Vegan Style

Since my husband is cooking pulled pork (the actual pig related stuff) for our trip to Queen Acres I decided to try to make a vegan style of this fine fine dish! I ran across several recipes which all called for Jackfruit. I mainly worked with this one: http://eatingappalachia.com/2012/05/24/vegan-pulled-pork-with-rhubarb-bbq-sauce/#.

In the end I combined several of them to create my own concept before I proceeded to run with it.

I should let you know that it was really really hard to find the jackfruit. There were cans of jackfruit in syrup at the Berkeley Bowl in the "ethnic" section. There were no cans in brine. Since pulled "pork" is savory, syrup will simply not do! I was almost going to just go to an Asian market. I'd gotten everything else I needed and really did not want to make another trip somewhere else. Several clerks looked at Mike like he was crazy when he asked them if there was any jackfruit anywhere. We finally did ask the help desk, which was unmarked as a help desk,  and they said it was in cut melon section. Since I had never seen a whole jackfruit before, it took my smart phone to help me look at picture to indeed confirm that this thing labeled "winter melon" was  actually a Jackfruit after all. I didn't even know that it was a melon. I had creeped this guy out for, like, an hour while staring and stalking the unusual fruit section of Berkeley Bowl that he was camped out in for his own unknown reasons. Who hangs out in a fruit section for an hour anyway? Creepy.....
Just sayin'

Now, the Jackfruit is a thing that seems like it came from a William Burroughs novel. In fact, pulling all the yellow fruits from the center of the melon has the texture and feel of what I imagine it would be like to disembowel a creature from Naked Lunch but without the imagined horrifying smells or possible unearthly screams.

I showed you this already. But here it is again:

I chose fresh Jackfruit because I could not find the item in brine. As a result, I had to brine it myself. I threw a bunch of vinegar on top with a little salt and some water to cover the whole mess. I let it soak overnight so it will be a little salty and acidic instead of just smelling vaguely like a lab created banana.

In the morning I drained the brine and coated it with a dry rub. For dry rubs you could use any combination of things like paprika, crushed pepper, cayenne, cumin, onion flakes, garlic powder, and salt.  Since all of these were already mixed in the Chili 9000 stuff my mother-in-law got me, I used that.  I let the coated thing-a-ma-jigs sit for a few hours in the fridge while I started in on the Rhubarb BBQ sauce. I also chopped some onions, some red bell peppers, and some garlic to keep the jackfruit company.

I pulled from this recipe: http://eatingappalachia.com/2012/05/24/vegan-pulled-pork-with-rhubarb-bbq-sauce/#

But, of course,  I used my own awesome style because I am so awesome!

First off, I don't really understand what constitutes "a bunch" of rhubarb. Berkeley Bowl sells them in individual stalks. I was doubling the recipe. So I used three of the four stalks I had bought.
Another thing different I did was to add half the Adobo chili can's sauce into the mix. It's an awesome sauce! I don't want to throw it out.

I used white onions instead of red ones and I threw in the entire small can of tomato paste since whatever was left would have gone bad anyway. I finished off with a tablespoon-ish of tamarind concentrate.  Then I boiled the hell out of it for about an hour and a half.

I tried to throw all of this into the Cuisine-art to mix it, despite it far exceeding the indicated limit for fluids. As you may have predicted, this did not work and I had to clean some sauce off the floor, which was sad.

Maybe because I threw in the extra adobo sauce, I don't know, but it was very very spicy! Not that I mind. But I have a higher spice threshold than others do, so think about that when you make yours.

I took most, but not all, of this sauce and I added the jackfruit mix that was marinating in the fridge. I threw a little water on top because I wanted it all covered with liquids and I set aside a cup of the BBQ sauce in case I wanted some for something later. It was so tasty, it was! As for the stuff in the pot,  I slow cooked the hell out of this mix for six or so hours. Here is it just starting out:

Wikipedia said that the roasted seeds of the jackfruit is a delicacy, so Mike decided to try it. Finding no real recipes for it, he treated them just like you would regular pumpkin seeds. That is to say, fry them in oil and salt and when they pop they are done.

One thing that is particularly weird about these seeds is that they taste almost exactly like carnitas. Or, rather, like carnitas if carnitas were not that good and had a chalky texture. It is true that they do become more tasty the more regularly you shell them and then pop them in your mouth.  I don't know if they will end up being the next Acai berry. Please don't invest in roasted jackfruit seed stock just yet. It's so untested. I mean, first we have to unlock the secret as to why they taste like carnitas at all.

When it was done I shredded up the remaining solids. Some say that you should roast those shreds to make a pork-ish like product. However, my end result was so tender that it was more like a sloppy joe than pork and there was really no way to dry that out in the oven. I *did* evaporate a fair amount of liquids by cooking on medium without a lid for a few hours.

Last step-   chill that goddamn shit and then reheat it and then put that fucker on a bun with some vinegar based cole slaw and some god damn jalapeno pickled carrots!

 See if you can get *that* at your local Chick-fil-a, motherfucker!

Pickled Carrots with Jalapenos!

I am cooking a mess of food for a gathering of gay men who dress in 80's finery and engage in a Dynasty bitch fight at a lovely scenic pond in the mountains. Because of this, I may do a few more posts than I normally do this month.

Today I made spicy pickled carrots. I also started some pickled watermelon rinds and pulled "pork" made from  Jackfruit. Jackfruit is a creepy melon type fruit that is apparently labeled  "winter melon" instead. I was only able to find it by matching my phone's pictures of jackfruit with the actual fruit. The decimated item looked like this:

More about jackfruit later.

The first thing one does when one starts cooking any tedious and labor intensive item is to open the wine. Todays wine is a Cava that was on special from Berkeley Bowl since my husband was very excited about having mimosas. The other thing that is important is to put in some good music. I chose Electric Six because they are both spicy and ridiculous, like pickled carrots with jalapenos are!

I bought a bag of, what is sometimes termed, horse carrots. This means that they are fat and cheap and just a little old. Just like me. Don't worry about them being tough. You're going to pickle their asses and they will tender right up! If you want to be all cute and fancy you can get those teeny tiny baby carrots and pickle them whole in a charming canning jar and pretend you are Martha f'in Stewert when you serve them to your local senators for tea with tiny cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. But I says, fuck that shit! We got horse carrots! We are ready to roll.

You are going to wash and peel and cut the ends off these carrots just like you would for any other recipe. Now it's your choice after that how you want to slice them. Traditionally they are sliced in round or oval slices all the way up the carrot. Today I chose to slice and quarter them into sticks. They not only go on sandwiches when they are done, but they will be perfect to put in Bloody Mary's in the morning.

 I know. I think of everything.

When they are all sliced how you like them throw those puppies in a bowl and focus on the jalapenos because they are going to need your attention. Gloves, darling. You are going to need gloves.

No. I am not propositioning you for some kinky activity. You need those gloves to protect you from the  acid that leaches from those peppers and stays with you for days. Russ says to put two pair on, but I never have found that I need that much protection unless I am working with habaneros or  some juicy little tart that just loves to be tasted. You know who you are, Esmerelda!

So, you've taken all the seeds out of the peppers and sliced them up into - well, slices. Now is the time to combine the carrots and the peppers with, oh, I don't know... five bay leaves? Five is a good number.
And then you throw in some peppercorns. You don't need me to tell you how many! You are a responsible adult and you can decide for yourself! I trust you.  I mean, kinda.

Here is where it gets tricky. Now listen. I poured in some white balsamic vinegar. It was white. It was vinegar. It did have some funky flakes of some sort floating around in there that I swear were not that there a year ago. The bottle said the vinegar was filtered to be "crystal clear." I tasted it, and it tasted okay. And vinegar is supposed to be a preserving fluid, so..

I just threw the whole bottle into that bowl, yes I did! That way I won't have to worry about how those flakes develop next year. And then I put in some water. Then I put in some apple cider vinegar since there was just a teeny bit left in the bottle. There were flakes in there, too! And then I put in some cumin and a little ground cayenne spice, because you *know* those jalapenos just aren't all that hot. I topped the mix off with a little more water and  bit of regular white vinegar and then I sprinkled salt over the whole top like a fine Christmas snow. Or possibly what a fine Christmas snow looks like to someone who was born in Los Angeles. It did snow there, once. I don't think it was on Christmas. Actually, I was getting my hair cut and the whole damn mess melted before I could get outside to look at it at all. But I *did* see it from the mall's glass top roof. Anyway, the salt should be kind of like the snow that day.

I had these five garlic cloves all smushed and skinned and  ready to go when I found I had forgotten to buy olive oil. I don't really own any other kind of cooking oil normally. But then I remembered I had just bought the coconut oil for the vegan pulled "pork" so I used that to fry up those garlic nubs. When I was satisfied that the garlic was all cooked up I threw everything else in the pot and simmered the whole damn mess for like, I dunno, ten minutes?

You are going to let the whole thing cool before eating some or you might hurt your mouth. Unless you take one carrot out and let that cool . That could be okay. But really the whole thing's got to cool before you put it in the fridge. I don't much care how you store it. That's your business. Just remember, these are not going to last forever like your store bought neon yellow mustard does. You should eat them before they go bad. And if you have a reaction to the funky vinegar that you put in, I will not be held responsible. I ate mine two hours ago and I feel fine.