Kailua Pork and Cabbage

My dad was in the US Army and so we moved around a ton while growing up -- I went to a different school every year K-12. We spent 3 years in Hawaii, and they had the best school lunches -- seriously, $0.45 got you a hot lunch with a veg/fruit side, roll, cookie and a milk or juice box.

One of the meals they served was Kailua pork and cabbage. This classic Hawaiian luau meal usually involves burying a pig under banana leaves in an earth oven with smouldering coals. I prefer to use a crock pot, though ;) It’s good that I still make my favourite school lunch well into my 30s.

Ingredients

• Pork shoulder
• liquid smoke
• cabbage
• rice
• sea salt

Directions

1. Make flavour holes by stabbing pork with a fork. Generously salt pork shoulder, stick in a crock pot, and drizzle Add about a tsp or two of liquid smoke to it. It’s super powerful stuff, so don't go overboard.
2. Set the crock pot for 8 hours and do other things.
3. About an hour before it's done, roughly shred some cabbage and toss it into the crock pot with the pork. Toss your Rice in your rice cooker, and get it started.
4. When done, use a fork to shred the pork -- it should fall apart pretty easily. Mix with the cooked cabbage and serve over rice. Eat with a slice of white bread and cold macaroni salad for authenticity.