Kalua Pork Fried Rice

For Nico’s 2nd birthday party, I made shredded kalua pork – it was easy and delicious. I got 2 5-pound bone-in pork shoulders with a nice layer of fat on top. To season, I used 1/4 cup of sea salt, 1/2 cup soy sauce, almost 1 whole head garlic (grated), 1 inch ginger (grated), and 2 teaspoons of liquid smoke. I put all these ingredients in a small bowl and combined thoroughly. I made about 1/2-inch cuts all over the pork shoulders with the the tip of a small knife then massaged the mixture into each. Since I didn’t want to drive the extra 10 miles to find banana leaves, I simply triple-wrapped the meat in foil. I managed to stuff both 5-pound shoulders into my large dutch oven. I put a little water in the bottom of the oven, popped on the cover and baked it at 350 for about 6.5 hours. Halfway through the cooking process, I turned the meat. This was to distribute the marinade evenly. The meat rested in the dutch oven with the lid off for at least an hour after taking it out. It was still pretty hot when I opened up the foil. I shredded it with 2 forks and my fingers. I have to admit that pulled pork doesn’t really look like anything special, but when the flavors are there, it’s really tasty!

So … since I when overboard with the menu, there was quite a bit of the kalua pork left over. It makes for a great leftover item. For a couple meals, I simply put some in a dry skillet on medium heat and let it brown and crisp up in its own fat. We ate it with rice and other dishes. But one can only eat that so many times. What to do with the rest of the pork? Kalua Pork Fried Rice! Here’s the run-down:

Ingredients

• leftover kalua pulled pork
• 2 small onions (or 1 large onion)
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 3-4 carrots
• 4-5 stalks celery
• 1/2 head napa cabbage
• 2 eggs
• pepper
• 3-4ish cups cooked rice

Put the pork in a dry skillet on medium heat. Here’s the pork when I first put it on the heat:

Let it crisp up – this can take a while (20 minutes or so). Here it is crisping up:

Once the pork has some crispy brown bits, take it out and set aside:

While the pork is doing its thing, dice/mince up the vegetable matter.

Use the fat in the bottom of the skillet to fry up your vegetables (I had to add a little olive oil because there wasn’t quite enough fat). Once the vegetables have browned a little, thrown the pork back in with the 2 eggs and pepper.

Mix everything thoroughly and let it cook together. Add the cooked rice. Combine. Season to taste.

I served the fried rice with some miso shiru (miso soup), and my kids ate it up! Since the pork had been sitting in my fridge for a few days, it had become really salty. You may want to wash this dish down with some beer like I did (or water for the kids). Enjoy!