I have to admit that I'm not a big pork eater and very rarely cook it. But I do love good pulled pork though! It is just such a great way to cook cheap cuts of meat so they taste fantastic. You put it in the oven before you go to work in the morning, come home and spend a few minutes doing finishing touches and voila, dinner is ready!
If you wanted to, you could use ready made barbecue sauce but nothing beats homemade food. I always make enough meat to have some left over because this is such a great thing to have in the freezer and put in wraps or buns whenever you feel like it.
1,5 kg pork shoulder
2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons chilli flakes
1 tablespoon onion granules
1 teaspoon garlic granules
1 tablespoon mustard powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Barbecue sauce
150 ml vinegar, I use 50/50 white wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar
200 ml ketchup
2-3 tablespoons maple syrup or brown sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon chilli powder or more if you want this spicy
juice from 1 orange
1 heaped tablespoon Dijon mustard
Start by mixing all the dried spices and rubbing it all over the meat. If you can remember to put the dried spices on the meat the night before, perfect! If not, it's not a big deal. Put the meat into a roasting dish that you can close with a lid or foil.
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce and pour over the meat. Cover with foil or a lid and put into the oven at 100° for at least six hours. I go in and turn the meat every couple of hours so that all of it gets nicely cooked in the sauce. The meat is ready when you can pull it apart with your fingers or a fork. You might need to give it 8 hours for it to be perfectly soft.
When the meat is ready, remove it from the sauce, take of all the fat and pull it apart. Pour over some or all of the sauce and give it a good mix. If the sauce is to runny you can pour it into a saucepan and let it reduce a little before adding it back to the meat.
No mayo coleslaw
1/2 head white cabbage
2 carrots
handful mangetout
1/2 red onion
juice from 1 lime
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
small handful fresh coriander
I love making a fresh coleslaw with this, the lime juice and crunchy cabbage goes really well with the soft and sweet meat. You can add the vegetables you like, cucumber, pepper or anything you want.
Start by finely slicing the onion and squeeze over the lime juice. Let that sit while you prepare the rest of the salad.
Finely slice the cabbage and mangetout and cut the carrots into long thin strips and put everything in a large bowl.
Stir the olive oil into the onion and lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the salad and sprinkle with roughly chopped coriander.
I like to serve this in a bun or a tortilla wrap. This time we had brioche buns and also some avocado and creme fraiche. With the buns I made some simple sweet potato fries. And to top it all off you just have to have and ice cold beer :)