Pulled Pork Tortilla Pie

     Seems like I'll never learn, I get so excited about trying something new that I sometimes dive right in without actually reading the recipe.  I mistakenly doubled the recommended amount of sour cream in the original recipe but it was so light and creamy, you can definitely stick with the full 16 ounces.  Once you have all of your ingredients lined up and ready to go, all you need to do is light your coals and assemble the pie.  Pillsbury gives you the step by step instructions here.  In my 10 inch dutch oven, the pie baked for 30 minutes with 10 coals in a ring around the base of the oven and 20 briquettes on the lid.  I then sprinkled on the final topping of cheese and let it bake for an additional 5 minutes.  This is a great way to use up any leftover pulled pork you may have made from scratch.  The smoky barbecue sauce pairs very well the the green chiles, a unique, somewhat quirky combination of flavors and like lasagna allow the pie to sit before serving so it will firm up and become easier to slice.

Pulled Pork Tortilla Pie
1 11 oz can corn, drained
1 4 oz can chopped green chiles, drained
12 corn tortillas
1 16 oz package hickory smoked pulled pork
1 16 oz container sour cream
1 10 oz can mild green chile enchilada sauce, divided
8 oz (2 cups) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

     Lightly oil or spray 10 inch dutch oven.
     Reserve 2 Tblsp. enchilada sauce.
     In small bowl, mix corn and chiles; set aside.
     In prepared dutch oven, layer 4 tortillas, half each of the pork, corn mixture, sour cream, enchilada sauce and 1/2 cup of the cheese.
     Repeat layering once.
     Top with final layer of tortillas, spread with reserved 2 Tblsp of enchilada sauce.
     Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until pie is bubbling around edges.
     Top with remaining one cup of cheese, bake 5 more minutes or until cheese has melted.
     Allow to sit in dutch oven for 20 minutes before serving.
     Makes 6 servings.

Layer ingredients ending with a final topping of
enchilada sauce

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes before adding cheese

Continue baking until cheese has melted

Allow pie to sit for 20 minutes before serving

Sizzling Sausages and Grapes

     Leave it to the Italians to think of pairing rustic sausages with sweet, roasted grapes.  I was drawn to the simplicity of this dish, an easy one pot meal that you can toss together in your dutch oven.  Roasting the grapes heightens their sweetness, turning them almost into a jam-like consistency and when cooked with the spicy sausages, it's an unusual but very tasty combination of flavors. In my 12 inch dutch oven the casserole baked for one hour and fifteen minutes with 12 coals in a ring around the bottom and 28-30 on the lid.  It's not necessary to turn the sausages at the halfway mark but it will help them to brown more evenly. The polenta soaks up juices and a dash of balsamic vinegar right before serving helps this peasant dinner to really shine.  From Better Homes and Gardens the Ultimate Casseroles book.

Sizzling Sausages and Grapes
1 1/2 lbs seedless red grapes, stems removed and rinsed
1 16 oz tube cooked polenta, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 red onion, cut into thin wedges
2 Tblsp olive oil
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped OR 1/2 tsp dried
6-8 sweet and/or hot Italian sausages (about 1 1/2 lbs total)
2 Tblsp balsamic vinegar

     Lightly oil or spray 12 inch or larger dutch oven.
     In large bowl, combine grapes, polenta, onion, oil and rosemary; toss to coat.
     Spread mixture evenly in prepared dutch oven.
     Using a fork, prick each sausage in several places.
     Add sausage to dutch oven, nestling them into the grape mixture.
     Bake at 350 degrees for 60-75 minutes, turning sausages halfway, or until sausages are cooked through and grapes are slightly shriveled.
     Drizzle with balsamic vinegar right before serving.
     Makes 4 servings.

Nestle sausage in polenta, onions and grapes

Roast at 350 degrees for 60 to 75 minutes

Serve with a slotted spoon and drizzle with balsamic vinegar

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Country Ribs

     Adapted from this recipe I found on the Just A Pinch website, these bacon wrapped ribs are seriously good and just made for dutch oven cooking.  Really, is there anything that doesn't taste better when wrapped in bacon?  Juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside, applewood smoked bacon paired with a hickory barbecue sauce made for a winning combination.  In my 10 inch dutch oven, I started with 10 coals in a ring around the base of the oven with 26 briquettes on the lid.  I left them alone and in spite of the wind and chilly temperatures, in one hour the steam was pouring from my oven and they were perfectly done.  This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled, depending on the size of your oven.  Just be sure to bake them in one layer and don't cover them with too much sauce, you want the bacon exposed to the heat, otherwise it will become soggy.  

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Country Ribs
5 pork country ribs
10 slices uncooked bacon
1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce
toothpicks

     Lightly oil or spray dutch oven.
     Cover bottom of dutch oven with half of barbecue sauce.
     Wrap each rib with two slices of bacon; secure bacon with toothpicks.
     Place ribs in single layer in dutch oven.
     Spoon remaining sauce evenly over ribs.
     Ribs should not be swimming in sauce.
     Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until bacon is crisp on top and ribs are tender.
     Recipe can easily be doubled and baked in larger dutch oven.

Wrap ribs with bacon and secure with toothpicks

Cover ribs in a light layer of sauce before baking

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour

Mmmmm, bacon keeps the ribs moist and juicy

Fall Apart Tender Slow Roasted Pork

     In Boston, around the time of the Revolutionary War, cuts of pork were stored and shipped in casks, or barrels, called butts. This popular cut of meat came from the upper part of a hog's shoulder, hence the name Boston butt.  Very affordable, I paid only $2.00 a pound, and cooked best at low and slow temperatures, it's a marriage made in heaven with dutch oven cooking.
     This recipe comes from Shirley Corriher's book, Cookwise.  She also brought us my all time favorite, Touch of Grace Biscuit recipe.  Her original version calls for cooking the pork, covered in the oven, for 5 hours at 250 degrees.  Not wanting to spend all day lighting coals, I chose to roast it at 300-325 degrees for 3 hours instead.  I cooked a 3 lb. roast in my 12 inch dutch oven with 10 coals in a ring around the bottom and 16-18 in a ring around the outside of the lid with 4-6 spaced evenly in the middle. I changed the coals three times, cooking the roast for a total of 3 1/2 hours.  It is extremely tender, you can slice it or pull it apart with a couple of forks.  The best part is the wonderful sauce that forms in the bottom of your dutch oven, light and sweetened with apple and brown sugar, add some salt to it if you like but be sure to drown the juicy meat in the delicious drippings.

Fall Apart Tender Slow Roasted Pork
1 pork butt roast (3-4 lbs.)
1/4 to 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup apple juice
1/2 tsp salt

     Lightly oil or spray dutch oven.
     Place pork in large bowl.
     Sprinkle the roast on all sides with Worcestershire sauce.
     Press brown sugar into pork, coating all sides evenly.
     Carefully place in prepared dutch oven.
     Pour apple juice around pork roast, being sure not to drizzle it on crusted meat.
     Roast at 300 degrees for 3-3 1/2 hours, replenishing coals hourly.
     Pull the meat apart.
     Stir the salt into the juices remaining in dutch oven.
     Serve pork in its delicious juice hot or at room temperature.

Coat roast in Worcestershire and brown sugar then pour in apple juice

Roast for 3-3 1/2 hours around 300 degrees

Very tender and the sauce is out of this world

Anita Lo's Mother's BBQ Spareribs

      In honor of the Chinese New Year I decided to make these spareribs from chef and New York restaurateur Anita Lo.  This five ingredient recipe comes from her mother and is so amazingly simple you won't believe something so easy can taste this juicy and good.  Mix the sauce, coat the ribs, place in your dutch oven and bake.  In my 12 inch dutch oven they baked with 12 coals in a ring around the bottom and the lid completely covered with 28-30 coals.  I left them alone for one solid hour and when I lifted the lid they were glazed, browned and tender.  Serve them with a side of rice and spoon some of the sauce over the ribs, it is simply too good to waste.  This recipe is from the Martha Stewart show, you can view the recipe and watch the video here.  Usher in the Year of the Dragon with these succulent and easy ribs. 

Anita Lo's Mother's BBQ Spareribs
1 rack (about 2 1/4 pounds) pork spareribs
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup ketchup
1 cup hoisin sauce

     Lightly oil or spray dutch oven.
     Cut spareribs into individual ribs.
     Season with salt and pepper; transfer to a large bowl.
     In small bowl combine ketchup and hoisin.
     Pour ketchup mixture over ribs; turn to coat evenly.
     Place ribs in single layer in bottom of prepared dutch oven, meat side up.
     Bake at 400 degrees for one hour or until meat begins to pull away from the ends of the bone.

Coat ribs with sauce then place in a single layer in well oiled dutch oven

Bake at 400 degrees for one hour

Not overly sweet and incredibly juicy

Glazed Pork Roast with Carrots, Parsnips and Pears

     I have always known that meat can be roasted beautifully in a dutch oven, but until today I haven't actually given it a try.  All one has to do is look at the perfectly browned and juicy roasts entered in the World Championship Cook Offs to see how well a dutch oven can cook meats.  This recipe for Glazed Pork Roast with Carrots, Parsnips and Pears from a Dec. 2003 edition of Fine Cooking magazine hits it out of the park with a honey-mustard crusted loin of pork and crispy roasted vegetables.  The sweetness of the pears, carrots and parsnips combines with the honey to give just the right balance to the flavor of the pork.  I made this in my 12 inch dutch oven with 14 coals in a ring around the bottom and the lid completely covered with coals, at least 30 or more.  Without peeking, I left it to cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  My 2 1/2 pound roast was cooked through and wonderfully juicy, I can't remember when I've had a pork roast that was as tender and flavorful as this was.  The original recipe calls for fresh sage, I opted to use thyme I still had in the garden.  You may think it looks charred but the glaze is supposed to blacken and form a crunchy crust.  This gourmet dutch oven dinner is as economical as a weeknight meal but elegant enough to serve for a special occasion.

Glazed Pork Roast with Carrots, Parsnips and Pears
One 2 pound center-cut boneless pork loin roast
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tblsp Dijon or wholegrain mustard
2 Tblsp honey
2 Tblsp freshly chopped sage OR thyme
3 or 4 carrots, peeled and sliced into thick pieces
3 or 4 parsnips, peeled and sliced into thick pieces
2 firm but ripe Bosc pears, cored, stemmed and cut into thick slices
2 Tblsp olive oil

     Lightly oil or spray 12 inch or larger dutch oven.
     In small bowl, mix the mustard, honey and half of the sage OR thyme.
     Place vegetables and pear slices in dutch oven. Toss with olive oil and remaining sage OR thyme; season with salt and several grinds of pepper.
     Place pork in center of dutch oven; arrange vegetables around roast.
     Spread the top and sides of the pork roast with the honey-mustard mixture.
     Bake at 400 degrees for one hour and fifteen minutes or until pork registers 145-155 degrees in the center.
     Allow roast to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.

Surround roast with vegetables then cover with honey-mustard glaze

Bake at 400 degrees for one to one and a quarter hours

Be sure to spoon some of the sweet, mustardy juices over the succulent pork,