Luau Appetizers, Big Flavors

Aloha

I just did a pretty cool Luau party for a good customer.

It wasn’t fancy, but I came up with some new appetizers for it that I would like to share.

We used to do a Grilled Ham and pineapple skewer. I know... kinda boring.

Well, not anymore. I hate to steal a phrase but, we not only kicked it up a notch, we kicked the S&8^t out of it.

Smoked Pork Belly Braised in Asian BBQ Sauce Skewers with Grilled Pineapple. Hell, yeah!

We also served up some Teriyaki Meatballs with red pepper skewers,

Coconut Shrimp in a sweet chili, mustard glaze,

and Bacon Wrapped Shrimp in a chipotle raspberry glaze.

They were all a big hit.

Heres is how we did the new Pork Belly Pineapple skewer

First you need to find you some good pork belly. Then you trim off some of the fat to make it as even as you can.(my inspiration for this came from Vindulge blog

Then cut into cubes. The size depends on what you want to do with it. We want to put it on a skewer so it has to be a little smaller than if it were just on a platter. Also they will shrink about 40 to 50 %.

Next, put the cubes in a bowl and drizzle some olive oil on them. Season with kosher salt and cracked black pepper.

Then season liberally with a nice BBQ rub of your choice. I used…XXXX

Toss it well and spread it out on a screen (cooling rack) if you have one. The screen makes it much easier to put the meat on the grill and to remove it.

Cooking.

We used a pellet smoker but you could use an oven or a regular smoker.

We cooked it 225º for about 3 hours.

By then, it should have shrunken and gotten a nice color. If you had it in a smoker it should also have a nice bark.

They are really good just like this. If you want, you could just smoke them another hour and leave them unglazed.

What I did was remove them to a pan and tossed them with some BBQ sauce that I mixed with Hoisin sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil. Then I added a few pats of butter and stirred it all together.

Then put it back in the smoker or the oven for about another 60 to 90 minutes at 250º until you reach an internal temp of about 200º

You can serve them just like that on a platter or skewer them with some grilled pineapple.

We garnished them with some fresh chopped cilantro or mint.

This blog stuff is new to me. If you have any comments or topics you would like me to look into - that would be a big help. Culinary technique, recipes, savory recipes, pastry recipes, review a product, review a restaurant. What would you like?