Kalua McPig

I did not grow up eating corned beef and cabbage, Irish stews, or soda bread - my grandmother appears to have been of the generation that abandoned any cultural food dishes and instead favored the food of Whiteness and convenience: white bread, velveeta, canned vegetables, cream of mushroom soup and potato flakes. Of all the parts of my ancestry, the Irish one is the least evident in my growing up years in terms of some tangible cultural food. There was lefse (Norwegian), kolaches (Czech), and my maternal grandfather calling my sister's and I "kartoffelschnitz" for our love of potatoes (German). But nothing stands out as Irish. There was of course my red hair, my grandmother's maiden name O'Neal, and the large Catholic family of 11 kids, but no special foods. I don't think I even ate cabbage (other than cole slaw, which I didn't like) until college.

My Charming Companion is a medly of ancestry too - including Hawaiian, Chinese, and Swedish. Kalua pig is a popular Hawaiian dish - which traditionally means that the pig cooks slowly under ground, wrapped in leaves in a large pit heated by hot rocks and coals. The pork is flavored only by Hawaiian salt, which is brownish red, just like the soil in Hawaii, and the smokiness of the wood.

So, the ultimate blend of Hawaiian-Irish cuisine? Kalua pig with cabbage! Not cooked in a hole in the ground, but in the next best thing - the crock pot. The ultimate flavor is simple and super tasty. I put a little sauerkraut on top to add some tang, but this was total comfort food of buttery tasting cabbage with tender, melt in your mouth pork.

Kalua McPig
3-5 lb. pork butt or shoulder
1 1/2-2 lbs cabbage (about 2 small heads of cabbage)
1/2 c. water
1 t. liquid smoke (opt)
Hawaiian salt

1. Chop about 1 lb of cabbage. This will go in right away, and the rest will be added once the first batch has cooked down. Place a layer of cabbage on the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Rub salt over the pork, and set it on the cabbage in the crock pot (fat side up if there is a fat layer). Fill in any remaining space with cabbage, add the water and liquid smoke if using, put on the lid, and turn the crock pot on!
3. Set the crock pot to low and cook at least 8 hours, or ideally 10-12. After several hours, give the cabbage a stir/rotation so that the stuff on top can cook in the liquid at the bottom. You can add the rest of the cabbage at any point when there is room, just make sure to stir every so often so that all the cabbage gets cooked in the liquid.
4. After your 8-12 hours, remove the pork and shred to mix in the fat and meat, or just separate into chunks. Serve in a bowl on top of the cabbage.