Lulu Cooks and Tells: Crock Pot Filipino Pork Barbecue

I based today's recipe on the one I found in the Life on Manitoulin website. I wanted to prepare barbecued pork for a coming reunion in Washington DC but the packet of barbecue marinade I usually use was not available at the Asian Market in Monroeville, Pa. I decided to surf the net for all the promising alternatives and opted for the recipe for Filipino Barbecue in the Life on Manitoulin website.

I also wanted to try the recipe using a crock pot since I promised Dr. Pint at Pint Chiropractic to make him some kind of barbecued meat, (he emphasised meat), in return for him partially healing pain on my arms during an initial treatment at his office. My next appointment at Beautiful Image for a facial held also at his office is at 9 am next week so I do not have much time to skewer the meat and grill it so I wanted something I can put in a crock pot and forget it till I leave for the appointment.

This is how I adapted the recipe I found on this delightful Life on Manitoulin website. However, I have no patience to cut the meat into small pieces, marinate overnight, and place the pieces of meat on skewers in order for it to be then barbecued on a grill as enumerated in the instructions in the Life on Manitoulin website. I decided to just place the meat right from the package in the crock pot with the marinade and slow cook it without marinating previously.

After the slow cooking process, I just microwaved the meat and sauce and the partial drying of the meat in the microwave concentrated the flavor and for me tasted sort of barbecued.

Since my husband came home earlier than I expected, I took some pieces of meat from the slow cooker before the total time for cooking was finished and fried them in oil. They tasted really good and got a thumbs up from my husband. I should have, in retrospect, basted the meat with the delicious sauce while frying it. Anyway, however you cook the pork butt the result is just plain good because of the no-fail sauce.

Crock Pot Filipino Pork Barbecue

(Adapted from Life on Manitoulin website).

4 lbs pork butt
1 c. soy sauce
1 whole garlic, peeled, smashed, and minced
1 onion, minced
juice from 2 lemons
1/2 c. pineapple juice (or 7/up or sprite can be used)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
6 tbsp brown sugar
1 c. Filipino banana sauce (Jufran or Mafran or UFC brand. This is available in Asian stores. If you can’t get Filipino banana sauce, you can use ketchup just add a drop or two of sriracha sauce according to taste).
1/2 c smooth peanut butter

Instructions:

Add the soy sauce, garlic, onion, juice of 2 lemons, ground pepper, brown sugar, pineapple juice, Mafran and peanut butter to the crock pot. Mix the mixture well.

Add the pork slices from the package to the marinade and slow cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. I used the Aroma brand rice cooker/slow cooker wherein I cooked the pork in the marinade for 2 hours at slow cook setting.

Serve with rice. Caution: this is addictive. What the heck, enjoy, life is short.

Notes:

1. There is enough sauce for 4 lbs of meat. You can always use half of the recipe to cook a smaller amount of meat.

2. Pork butt is highly recommended because this cut of meat gives moister and tastier results. Feel free to use other cuts of meat.

3. Instead of pineapple juice, I used the juice from a can of unsweetened crushed pineapple I happened to have since I did not want it to go to waste. Use of pineapple juice, however, will give a stronger and sweeter flavor. One can use a combination of half pineapple juice and half Sprite if you have them both or just plain Sprite or 7-Up.

4. You can skip the peanut butter and the recipe will be closer to the classical Filipino barbecue. I prefer including it for a "satay" type of taste.