028/18 – Filipino Barbecue Pork with Achara:
I have cooked a couple of recipes this month from Chef Tom Jackson and All Things BBQ. When I was looking through all their videos I spotted Filipino Barbecue Pork with Achara which looked fantastic so went onto the list!
The Meat:
2kg of Pork Butt from Turner and George – £16. I have had this a few times from Turner and George and the pork is always top quality.
The Prep:
The Achara needs to be made the day before so I grated Mango (couldn’t get Papaya) and put it in some muslin over a bowl then put some of my Oak smoked salt on top. This was left for half an hour before the juice was squeezed out of the muslin cloth. In a pan I heated vinegar, water, sugar, ginger, garlic and Thai chilli leaving it to simmer for a few minutes. I then grated carrot, Asian Pear (couldn’t get Jicama – had never heard of it before either!), red pepper, red onion and the squeezed, grated mango then added the vinegar mix to cover it all. This went into the fridge overnight.
In a bowl I mixed soy sauce, banana sauce, calamansi juice (I got the banana sauce and the calamansi juice online from a Filipino grocer), brown sugar, ginger ale, garlic and black pepper. I split this marinade so some was for the meat and some for basting during the cook.
As with the last pork butt cook I had to take the bone out, the shoulder bone is not the easiest to get out but with a sharp knife and some patience it soon came loose.
I sliced the pork thinly and placed it into the marinade mix in the bowl giving it a good stir around so all the meat was covered. This was left in the fridge for 4 hours.
As the end of the 4 hours approached I fired up a full chimney of Oxford Charcoal Cherry Lumpwood. I chose cherry to add a bit of a fruity taste to the pork. Once fully lit I poured it into a charcoal basket.
I took the Russian Skewers from Manchester Vacs – £7.99 for 4 and slotted the pork on trying to keep a good gap between each part and slotting each one on a few times.
The Cook:
Quite quickly I released the charcoal basket was the wrong choice for this cook as the skewers were longer than the basket! I poured the charcoal out to each side and left a basket in the middle to create a cooler zone through the largest part of the grill.
After grilling each skewer directly for 5 minutes I flipped it over.
After another 5 minutes I moved them all to the cooler, indirect zone and basted them with some of the reserved marinade.
Once 10 minutes had passed I flipped them and basted them again.
The colour of the meat was looking great and it smelt fantastic!
The black bits were going to taste so good! Time to take the meat off.
Time to Eat:
I took the meat off to rest whilst I put some of the Achara into a bowl.
My Achara is quite wet compared to Tom’s, Grated mango is a different beast to Papaya! I placed some of the pork on top.
Making sure I got plenty of charred bits, they are always the best!
Summary:
The pork marinade is quite simple but the addition of the banana sauce and calamansi juice applies a turbo boost to the flavour profile! Really, really nice tasting meat – thoroughly enjoyed it! As with the video recipe I ate the meat with the Achara which complimented the meat and provided quite a contrasting flavour. Both worked well together and both tasted great individually also.
Another great recipe from Chef Tom Jackson and All Things BBQ and another one I would recommend!
| Cook Difficulty: | 2/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Short: 2/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Kettle |
| Cook Method: | Direct/Indirect |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Cherry |
| Smoking Wood: | N/A |
| Cook temperature: | 250c |
| Cook time: | 30 minutes |
| Internal temperature: | N/A |
| Notes: | No major changes |