Grilled Corn Cakes with Pulled Pork and Guac

I love being able to talk about to anyone that will listen. Luckily I have some fellow foodies at work that love to converse about local restaurants, what we made for dinner last night, and occasionally order cheese pizzas for lunch and lock ourselves in an office to devour it privately. My boss recently told me about her favorite dish, carne asada on a potato pancake, at a local establishment here in Phoenix, and I told her how I was determined to re-create it at home. But then apparently I thought she said pulled pork and corn cakes, so I made those instead of what she was talking about. Oops! Sorry Jess! I may or may not have celebrated my boyfriend's half birthday with this dinner and polished it off with some black and white cookies! And can I just tell you how much fun half birthdays are? No one ever expects them, which makes for a nice little surprise, and I may or may not have hung birthday signs in the bathroom and topped Andrew's dinner with a birthday candle.

 

Grilled Corn Cakes with Pulled Pork and Guac

Pulled Pork:

• 2 1/2-3 lb. pork shoulder
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 cup bbq sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon 
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. cumin

Guac:

• 2 avocados, peeled and pitted
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 2 tbsp. cilantro, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 jalapeno, minced
• salt and pepper to taste

Grilled Corn Cakes:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 ear of corn, cut from cobb
• 1 egg
• 1tbsp. canola oil
• 1/2 cup almond milk

In a crock pot, add the pork shoulder, broth, bbq sauce, onion, cinnamon, oregano, and cumin. Cook on low for 8 hours, until the pork is cooked through and shreds easily with a fork. Remove the pork from the crock pot and shred in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside while you prepare the guac and corn cakes.

To make the guac, simply mash all of the ingredients together and place in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to serve.

When the pork is done cooking and shredded, begin to prepare the corn cakes. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and sugar. In a small bowl, mix together the corn kernels and the egg. Add the corn mixture to the flour mixture and mix to combine. Then add in the oil and enough milk to create a pancake batter type consistency.

Preheat a griddle or large skillet and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Add the corn cake batter about 1/4 cup at a time, cooking until the edges begin to bubble (about 3-4 minutes), then flip and cook on the other side another 1-2 minutes.

To serve, place corn cakes down on a plate, top with a healthy serving on the pulled pork, and the top them off with a dollop of the guac.