Holiday Main Dishes- Kalua Pork and Stuffed Pork Loin Roll (夏威夷烤豬肉，厘肌肉卷)

It's the Thanksgiving in 2015, the beginning of the Holiday Season. We were trying to come up with a main dish or two for our family get-together in Northern California.  Here they are, delicious, authentic, and easy to make!  

The Kalua Pork is usually the main dish in a Hawaiian Luau, which takes 6-8 hours or longer to cook, when wrapped in banana leaves and roasted in a fire pit known as an Imu.  The recipe below is adapted from America's Test Kitchen's Pressure Cooker Cookbook and combined with a couple of online recipes.  The cooking time is 1.5 hours, and the result satisfying!  The stuffed pork loin roll was also adapted from half a dozen online recipes.

I. Kalua Pork (夏威夷烤豬肉)

1. Get a 4-6 pound piece of pork shoulder, or pork butt.  I used half of a Costco pork shoulder pack (boneless and skinless, with fat trimmed).
2. Make crisis-cross deep cut into the pork surface on both sides.  Sprinkle liberally sea salt (or kosher salt), black pepper, and brown sugar, and rub them into the meat (one side of the meat at a time).
3. Place the meat into a 6-Quart (or bigger) pressure cooker.  Sprinkle green tea leaves liberally (2-3 Tbsp), and Liquid Smoke sparingly (2-3 tsp, drizzled all over the top surface). Let sit for 2-3 hours. 
4. Dissolve 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp liquid smoke into 2 cups of water.  Pour the water into pressure cooker (lift meat to allow water to flow under the meat).  Close the pressure cooker lid and place the cooker top on properly.
5. Turn on high heat to allow the pressure cooker to reach High Pressure.  Maintain High Pressure at medium heat for 1.5 hours (high pressure is maintained as long as a steady, but slow, stream of steam comes out of the pressure cooker).  Allow to cooker to naturally release its pressure (15-20 minutes).  Open the lid, let the meat rest under the loosely covered lid for 15 minutes. 
6. Scoop the meat out into a large plate.  Carve and serve with rice, and Hawaiian Coleslaw, i.e., a mixture of cabbage and carrots (sliced, or Julienne-sliced), small chunks of pineapple (diced from fresh or canned pineapple), seasoned with Mayo, Dijon Mustard, salt, sugar, and Vinegar (or lemon juice) to taste.  Here is a picture of the finished product (garnished with cherry tomatoes).
   

II. Stuffed Pork Loin Roll (厘肌肉卷)

1. Get a 3-4 pound piece of pork loin.  I used a Costco pork poin pack.
2. Cut the pork loin into 8-10" chunks (6" long chunks seem a bit too short to wrap stuffing in), 
3. Butterfly the pork loin (see this video for the technique).  A picture of pork loin butterflied into 3 folds is shown to the right here.  Note- Butterflying the pork loin into 3 folds seems to produce a thick sheet of meat, even after some vigorous pounding under plastic wrap.  Will butterfly into 4 folds next time, and report back.
4. Trim the fat from pork loin with a pair of kitchen scissors (keep some fat for flavor).
5. Marinate pork loin with salt and pepper (liberally sprinkle sea salt, or kosher salt, and black pepper on both sides and rub), and set aside for 2-3 hours.
6. Prepare the Stuffing:  Place 4-6 pieces of bacon into a dry frying pan.  Turn on low heat and fry the bacon till browned, but not crispy.  Take out the bacon strips, chop into smaller chunks, and set aside. Turn on medium-to-high heat.  Place minced garlic (4-6 cloves) and sliced mushroom (a box, 8-oz) into the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes.  Add baby spinach (leaves only, 1 bag, 8 oz) into the pan, stir and mix for 1-2 minutes.  Add 1- 1.5 cups of bread crumb into the pan, and mix all the ingredients thoroughly together.  Turn off heat.
7. Lay butterflied pork loin flatly on a cutting board (covered with wax paper).  Spoon stuffing on top of the pork loin sheet (leaving 1" of one edge without stuffing).  
8. Roll the sheet up from stuffing filled edge to the edge without stuffing.  Tie the stuffed pork loin roll tightly with cotton strings about 2" apart. 
9. Sear the pork loin roll in a frying pan at medium-to-high heat till browned (3-4 minutes each side)   A picture of 4 rolls placed in a skillet before searing is shown to the right here.
10. Preheat the oven to 350-deg-F.  Place the rolls in a baking pan, and bake for 45 mins. Let the rolls rest under tented aluminum foil for 15 mins.  Cut off the strings with kitchen scissors, and cut the rolls into 1/2"-thick slices and serve (or 1/4"-thick slices, once the rolls are refrigerated).