This past Tuesday it was cold and windy, even for N.E. Ohio! The warmest it got all day was about 8° with a windchill of -8°. School was cancelled due to windchill advisory & frostbite warning, the wife was off work, So I wanted to do something on the grill to warm things up a bit.
Let's see, we had a pork butt & pack of salad shrimp that need to be used, and I'm thinking a taste trip to someplace warm & sunny is in order...
Jamaica, Here we come!Jerk Pork & Shrimp FrittersI mixed up some Jerk Marinade. Deeply score both sides of an 8 lb pork butt & marinated for a bit.
Jerk MarinadeIngredients:Each batch is enough for a whole chicken, a Pork Roast or 7-8 Chops.
3 - 4 Scallions (or a small onion + plus 1/4 cup dried chives) roughly chopped
1 or 2 Scotch Bonnet (or Habanero) Peppers with seeds removed. Use 2 ONLY if you really like it hot! We used 1 per batch.
2 TBS. Allspice or: 1 TBS Allspice, 1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon & 1 1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
2 TBS Thyme (dried or fresh)
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
1/4 tsp. Granulated Garlic (or 2 cloves fresh)
1/4 cup Brown Sugar packed (Dark is best
1 Cup Orange Juice
1 Cup Vinegar
1/2 cup neutral flavored cooking oil (soy, safflower, peanut oil)
2 TBS. Lime juice or the juice of 1 Lime
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend.
OK, so how do we pellet grill users get some Pimento wood flavor into the jerk?
Let's mix up some of my super secret Jamaican pellet blend:
Shhh - don't tell anyone and whatever you do DON'T post it on some public forum! 
Add these to the hopper first then top with more pellets.Onto the MAK in smoke mode for a while, then bumped the pit temp to 275°
The grill stayed in the shed out of the wind!
After 3 hours or so, time to braise: into a pan with the rest of the marinade and covered tightly.
Jerk Pork is DONE! To serve just use some tongs to pull big chunks off.
Don't waste those pan drippings, they're full of flavor! Separate the fat, add a little brown sugar, reduce & thicken with a bit of starch to make a great Jerk sauce!
We also fried up some shrimp fritters:
YUM! Now dat tasted good, Mon [Insert Caribbean accent here]?
