Roasted Pork Butt + Noodle Soup Stock (ramen)

Atlanta is suffering from a lack of motivation in clearing snow/ice from the roads, so the entire region has been shut down.  The first two days of school at Georgia Tech have been cancelled, so I've been cooped up in the house cooking.  Luckily, the fridge is well stocked from my trip to the Dekalb Farmer's Market on Friday.

Lots of pork.  First, the 7lb pork butt was cured and then roasted for five hours and finished off under the broiler with a brown sugar glaze to caramelize.  I invited a bunch of folks over for a snow-in party with board games and was surprised that most of them trekked through the snow/ice to make it.  Popular butt.

Roasted pork butt with caramelized brown sugar glaze

I served the tender, savory, pulled-pork style meat over steamed rice with a magical ginger/scallion oil, cumin carrots and sauteed spinach.

Simultaneously simmering throughout the day was a ramen stock I like to make using pork bones from the market and, if I have any, scrap chicken bones from the freezer.  That cooks for at least six hours with ginger, onions and kombu (seaweed) for umami.  It produced about three quarts that I have in the fridge now.

Home-style ramen noodle bowl

Silky soft scrap meat from the pork bones, Chinese wonton noodles (egg noodles), a poached egg and a dash of tamari soy combined in the soup stock produced a veritable ramen noodle bowl for my breakfast/lunch today.  It's simple wintry comfort food at its finest.