Thai Red Curry and Tamarind Pork Butt in Banana Leaves

I love pork. Between my classes and contests, I usually have one or two pork butts in the fridge or freezer. I’m constantly tinkering with different ways to cook this versatile and delectable cut from the hog. You may not be aware that the pork butt has seven major muscles that all taste different and have completely different textures. Of course, when you eat a pulled pork sandwich, you can’t taste the different textures and flavors as everything is mixed together. For example, you’ve probably heard of the very tasty and well marbled “money muscle” which is what barbecue competitors like to turn into the judges. There’s also a 1-inch diameter tubular muscle within the butt called the cellar that looks and tastes just like chicken breast. There’s another area of that can be pulled into individual 5-inch strands that you can braid like rope.

A pork butt has a lot of connective tissue so a low-and-slow roast in an oven, barbecue pit, or crock pot is a perfect way to tease tenderness and flavor out of it. Since I enjoy Mexican and Thai food for their bold and spicy flavors, I drew my inspiration for this dish from a traditional Mexican slow-roasted pork dish called Cochinita Pibil from the Yucatan Peninsula where the Mayan culture once flourished.

I replaced the red annatto seed paste with store-bought spicy red Thai curry paste. Also, I replaced the acidic citrus juice (lime, blood orange, lemon) with sour tamarind and coconut milk. If you don’t have tamarind, you can substitute with balsamic vinegar and you can replace the coconut milk with yoghurt sweetened with some sugar. I also added some Asian herbs I like such as lemongrass and Kaffir lime leaf (I have a Kaffir bush growing in my garden). If you don’t have kaffir lime leaf, don’t worry as some lime peel or lime zest will also work. The banana leaf adds a unique flavor as the pork roasts in it but if you don’t have it, it’ll be fine.

I like my Thai-style banana leaf barbecue pork with some fragrant garlic Jasmine rice which I cook with 2 cups rice, 2 ½ cups water, 2 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon minced garlic (I fry the garlic in the foil first and add the oil and fried garlic in the rice before cooking). The rice and the pork is garnished with fresh cilantro and more sliced red Jalapeno if you like it spicy.