Tropical Pork Shoulder Rice
Freeze-dried pork, pineapple, and soy-ginger sauce over instant rice. Slow cooker pulled pork rebuilt for one pot.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 450 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried pulled pork | 2 oz | or a shelf-stable pouch of pork, drained |
|---|---|---|
| Instant rice | 3/4 cup | the parboiled kind that rehydrates in five minutes |
| Dried pineapple | 1/4 cup | chopped small so it softens in time |
| Tomato paste | 1 tbsp | from a tube, not a can |
| Soy sauce powder | 2 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground ginger | 1/2 tsp | |
| Honey | 1 tbsp | in a small squeeze tube |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | a pinch |
Method
- Boil 450 ml of water. Drop in the pork and pineapple first and let them sit off heat for three minutes to soften.
- Bring it back to a simmer, add the rice, cover, and pull it off the flame.
- Wait five minutes. Do not stir, do not lift the lid.
- Stir in the tomato paste, soy sauce powder, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes until nothing is clumped.
- Add the honey and oil last. Stir once and eat straight from the pot.
The original is an eight-hour slow cooker braise, which is the one thing a stove-and-a-pot cannot do. Ten minutes of soak time replaces it. Freeze-dried pork rehydrates all the way through in hot water, so the sauce has to arrive already built rather than being cooked into the meat.
Sauce goes in at the end for a reason. Tomato paste and honey scorch on a thin titanium pot bottom, and soy sauce powder stirred into boiling water clumps. Off the heat, everything dissolves into the rice starch and coats it. The pineapple is the acid that keeps a sweet-salty sauce from going flat.
Packing
Rice, soy powder, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes go in one bag. Pork and pineapple in a second. Tomato paste, honey, and oil ride as tubes or a dropper bottle so nothing leaks into the dry goods.
Variations
- Swap the pork for a foil pouch of chicken if freeze-dried is out of budget.
- A packet of instant miso in place of the soy powder gives it more body.
- Crushed corn chips on top, if you carried any, add fat and crunch.
https://mealswithmaria.site/summer-slow-cooker-meals