The Traveling Epicurean

Slaw

Broccoli slaw, Asian Slaw with ginger andsoy

Maurice’s Piggy Park BBQ

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Maurice’s Piggy Park BBQ

Maurice’s Piggy Park BBQ is real fine homemade gourmet BBQ with a mustard base sauce that makes you pucker, all awhile biting into a succulent piece of pork rib that just melts in your mouth. The savory hickory smoked flavor of their ribs is something you will definitely be back for with out a whole lot of time lapsing in between visits. The mustard-vinegar based sauce just grows on you and you can’t really put your finger on it so you just keep dipping into this sauce for another lick. I recently had the opportunity to eat here when my son Reilly and I met up with his tennis team in South Carolina for his National Team competition.

Well, I tell you, when I travel I want to visit places to eat where their heart and soul is served up to you on a plate.  To taste different foods from other regions is one of the most wonderful opportunities we get when we travel. If you are not into this kind of thing you ought to open your self up and try to appreciate new tastes and ways to prepare foods that have become traditions for people in that region. That’s what makes the world such a diverse place with so many different flavors to soak up.

I decided that during our stay in South Carolina I wanted to accomplish a few of things before heading back. First off, was having Southern BBQ, of course! The second was to get my son, Reilly, to Carowinds Amusement Park in North Carolina which would be an easy task since we were flying in and out of Charlotte and the third was to get in a couple rounds of golf! My friend Luanne, one of the other tennis mom’s, had the same point of view as me on the whole Southern BBQ thing and tasting new foods from where ever you happen to be traveling especially if you are miles away from where you live. On one of the afternoons at tennis practice much of our group was ready to hit up Chic-fil-A AGAIN! I am happy to say that didn’t even enter my mind nor did I go there during our stay in South Carolina. I looked at my friend Luanne , we began to laugh and said lets go, lets do REAL BBQ. She had already looked it up on her phone and it wasn’t far from The Cayce Tennis Facility so off we went in my rental car.

It was the tastiest meal I had on this trip to South Carolina and it totally lived up to my BBQ standards. I ordered the pork ribs, collard greens, and coleslaw and needless to say I wore much of it that mustard based BBQ sauce all over the front of my white with navy blue pinstripe cotton dress I had on. Too funny but it was definitely worth it…should have gotten a picture of that 🙂 The ribs  were moist and falling of the bone tender slathered in their mustard-vinegar sauce and I can’t help but love that hickory smoked flavor. The collard greens were delicious, earthy but not too bitter and the chopped style coleslaw was a refreshing balance with the mustard sauce from the ribs. Each item complemented one another very well! I did buy a bottle of Maurice’s Piggy Park BBQ sauce to take home with me. They have quite the assortment of sauces to choose from (shown below) but I bought the one I had that day. To my surprise I was able to get the yellow mustard stain completely out of my dress before it dried.

On the last day Reilly and I headed to Carowinds Amusement Park and he had the time of his life bravely riding on several loop coasters over and over again! We actually found another gourmet BBQ eatery in downtown Charlotte which was a bonus. I was also able to get in two rounds of golf during our stay so it was a wonderful trip all around. Don’t you forget to treat yourself to Maurice’s Piggy Park BBQ when you are in Cayce, South Carolina …you won’t regret it!

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Thai Slaw

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Thai Slaw

This is definitely not a boring old cole slaw. It has 2 cabbages, sweet and green onion, carrots, crunchy peanut butter, ginger, soy, fresh lime juice, and a few other seasonings. I have used both napa cabbage for this slaw and regular green cabbage and I have to tell you that the green cabbage holds up so much better while the napa gets mushy quickly. This Thai slaw is packed with flavor so you may want to pair this with something on the more simple side of things like grilled salmon, or steak, sautéed chicken or sea bass. Then a chocolate-avocado mousse or pavlova with fresh pineapple & berries could do the trick to end the meal well.

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Ingredients:

    • 4 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
    • 2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
    • 1/2 cup thinly sliced Spanish onion or Vidalia onion
    • 1 cup shredded carrot
    • 1/2 cup thinly diced green onions (6 of them)
    • 3 Tbsp fresh zested ginger (on micro planer)
    • 1/2 cup Helman’s mayo
    • 3 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 2 tbsp olive oil
    • 2 Tbsp rice wine
    • 2 Tbsp cider vinegar
    • 2 Tbsp reduced sodium Kikoman soy sauce
    • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
    • 3 dashes tabasco
    • juice from 2 limes
    • 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds plus 1 Tsp for the garnish

Directions:

  1. Toast sesame seeds on medium heat in a small pan shaking the pan periodically back and forth
  2. This happens quickly once they heat up…it will only take about 3-4 minutes so it’s best not to leave the pan or the stove so they turn golden evenly
  3. Once the sesame seeds are golden remove from the pan, place in a ramekin and set aside
  4. Add sliced green cabbage, red cabbage, Spanish onion, green onions, shredded carrot and zested ginger to a large mixing bowl
  5. Then add in peanut butter, mayo, soy, vinegar’s, oils, fresh lime juice, sugar, Tabasco, sesame seeds and toss together to mix thoroughly
  6. Serve in a large bowl and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds

Easy Pulled Pork Sliders

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Easy Pulled Pork Sliders

I love my easy pulled pork slider recipe because it works in an oven or in a crock pot!  There are so many different versions of pulled pork out there but this one is super easy because we use pork tenderloins instead of a pork shoulder. You just have the moist and delicate meat of the tenderloin pulled apart in seconds and mixed with a homemade BBQ sauce made in mere minutes that’s sweet and tangy!

The Easy Pulled Pork Sliders are made with tenderloins instead of a giant pork shoulder. The reason I love to do this is it’s so darn EASY! The tenderloins are cut in 1/2 then coated with a mixture of light brown sugar, Colemans Dry Mustard, onion & garlic granules, s & P. Placed into a large baking dish with a small 7.5 oz. can of cola poured into the dish. The Coca-Cola helps to keep it moist and gives it a little caramel flavor. It’s baked for 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 hours, cooled and shredded apart. At that time the Bourbon BBQ Sauce has finished simmering and just waiting to be poured of all the pulled pork and warmed thru…YUM!

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Ingredients:

Directions: 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 325º
  2. In a medium size bowl whisk together the light brown sugar and all the dry spices
  3. Wash and dry pork tenderloins, cut in 1/2 – across and place in baking dish
  4. Rub the brown sugar mixture all over pork tenderloins
  5. Add 1 cup coke to the baking dish and put into the oven, leave uncovered
  6. Bake tenderloins for 1 1/2 -1 3/4 hour until falling apart
  7. Remove from oven and let pork cool to touch
  8. Begin to pull apart pork in the same bake dish with 2 forks to the desired size
  9. Add the pulled pork tenderloin to a med. size pan and mix with BBQ sauce
  10. Add 1/2 cup BBQ sauce at a time until you have the desired amount for the consistency you want
  11. Pulled pork sliders are incredible with a little crunch from some broccoli slaw
  12. Serve on dinner or Hawaiian rolls w/Broccoli Slaw & a drizzle of my Green Goddess Sauce

FOR PULLED PORK WHILE YOU SLEEP:

INGREDIENTS: NOTE – If you have extra brown sugar/spice mix because you’re making 1 pork butt just store in Ziploc baggie for next time!

  • 14 lbs. (approx 2  6-7 lb.) Boneless Pork Butts
  • 2 cups light brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp garlic granules
  • 1 tbsp onion granules
  • 1 tbsp SMOKED Paprika (Spanish)
  • 1 tbsp Chipotle spices
  • 1 tsp Colemans dry mustard
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp finely ground pepper
  • 1tsp finely ground Italian seasonings
  • 2 cups coke & rootbeer OR 2 coke OR 2 rootbeer
  • 1 lg vidalia onion sliced into 1/2″ slices
  • 1 stalk celery cut up into 3″ pieces

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Pre-Heat oven to 275º
  2. Add all dry spices and sugar to a bowl and mix thoroughly
  3. Place onion and celery pieces in the bottom of a lg 18″ x 13″ x 3″ approx. and place the pork butt(s) on top
  4. Rub brown sugar/spice mix all over pork butt(s) and lay the pork so the fat side is facing up
  5. Cover tightly with foil for 8 hrs. WHILE YOU SLEEP!
  6. In the morning remove from oven and let cool so you can handle the meat
  7. Remove all the fat and place in a bake dish
  8. Skim fat off pan juices and add 1-2 cups of the juice back to pork to desired moistness
  9. Add Homemade BBQ Sauce to desired texture ….enjoy!

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Broccoli Slaw

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Broccoli Slaw

In this recipe I am using pre-pakaged broccoli slaw from the store.  Sure you can shred it yourself but sometimes with all our hectic schedules running here and there it’s nice to be able to take a short cut and still have great taste.  Cole dressing is super simple as you will see below. I upped the mayo to 1/3 cup from 1/4 and the sugar from 2 tbsp to 3 tbsp because I like it a little saucier but I will leave that up to you!

You really ought to try my EASY Pulled pork sliders with this slaw and don’t forget the homemade BBQ sauce with Bourbon….outrageous!

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Ingredients – NOTE For a LITTLE LIGHTER SAUCE USE 1/4 CUP MAYO AND 2 TBSP SUGAR:

  • 4  cups broccoli Slaw (you can buy pkg slaw at the store)
  • 1/3 cup mayo ( I use Hellmans only)
  • 2 tbsp cider vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 Tsp Siracha or Tabasco (Siracha is a hot chili sauce sold next to Tabasco at the store)
  • S & P

Directions:

  1. Place all of the ingredients in a bowl, mix and serve.
  2. This slaw goes great with my Easy Pulled Pork Sliders done nice and easy in a crock pot.
  3. And if you have a little extra time you can add a Green Goddess Sauce to the sandwich that can actually be done a couple days ahead and while you are at it don’t forget the Homemade BBQ Sauce!