Five Pepper Sauce Pork

Every country has its own type of peppers, and pepper sauces. All are revered and beloved in their country of origin. However, none of them, used alone, has ever given me a “complete” or “balanced” taste. There always seems to be something missing e.g. not spicy enough, not sour enough, not sweet enough etc. I guess this is the reason why I’m always trying new combinations of the various sauces to see how well they “play” together. This recipe came from that thinking. The Jamaican meat seasoning I used is just to provide some background spice notes, along with the shallots and garlic. Some of the pepper pastes do contain onion powder, and spices but I have never found that concentration to be strong enough to prevent me adding my own spice combination. To balance the “hot” with “sweet”, I used dried Cranberries.

Ingredients

1 3/4 lb pork butt strips, with some marbling and fat (see photo)

2 tbsp Jamaican meat seasoning

2 shallots

4 cloves garlic

1 tbsp Korean red pepper paste (Gochujang)

¼ cup Aji Amarillo paste (Peruvian)

¼ cup Aji Panca (Peruvian)

¼ cup sweet and spicy Thai Chili sauce (Thailand)

¼ cup Sriracha pepper sauce

1 tbsp Vinegar

1/4-1/3 cup dried cranberries

Method

1. Make some shallow cuts in the pork strips, and place in a Ziploc bag. Add the meat seasoning and make sure all the pieces get covered with it.
2. Put the shallots, garlic cloves, vinegar, and pepper pastes in a small chopper. Blend to a smooth paste and put that over the pork in the Ziploc bag. Massage the bag well so that all pieces of pork are coated with the paste. Marinate in refrigerator overnight.
3. When ready to start cooking, set oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Dump the contents of the Ziploc bag in a roasting pan lined with foil (see photo).
   
   Sprinkle the cranberries over the meat, and cover with foil. Bake for 1 ½ hours. This cooks the meat slowly, and helps render any fat present.
4. Remove from oven, uncover, and place under broiler for 3-5 minutes until sauce is bubbling. Keep turning the meat in the thickening sauce, making sure that it coats all sides. Broil to slight char.  To plate, slice and dress with a tablespoon of the thick sauce (see photo at top of page).