As the weather cools, many of us turn to slow cooked meals to warm us up. This month, home cook LYNN BAIN shares a slow-roasted pulled pork recipe with a delectable sauce.
Slow cooked dishes are ideal for winter, and pulling the pork apart is a presentation option that enables the pork strands to be served via a variety of styles. Dished up on fresh bread rolls with lashings of sauce is one of my favourites.
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Handy hack one: When pureeing warm/hot liquids, I prefer to use a glass blender. Take the middle insert out of the lid before blending to allow steam to escape. To avoid any sauce escapes, place a tea towel lightly across the hole — the steam can rise through the towel (the towel gets quite damp during this process).
Handy hack two: When pureeing the sauce in the blender, I usually blend using the pulse button until the sauce is the desired consistency.
Handy hack three: I used a complete seasoning that contains, among other ingredients, garlic and onion salt. Any rub or meat seasoning that you like is fine.
Pulled pork with barbecue sauce
Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
1 whole red chilli
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
6 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste
1 tsp salt
½ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 x 400g tinned tomatoes
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
5 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
A very generous grinding of black pepper
1 cup pineapple juice
Additional ingredients
Pork butt
1 cup chicken stock
Bread rolls (for serving)
Step 1: To make the sauce, heat the olive oil over a medium-low heat in a large saucepan or pot. When the oil is warm, add the onion and garlic. Stir fry for a couple of minutes and then allow to cook until the onion has softened and the garlic is fragrant.
Step 2: Add the whole chilli, salt, brown sugar, balsamic, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, dried chilli flakes and black pepper to the onion and garlic mixture. Pour the pineapple juice over the contents of the pan and stir well to combine. Please note that the red chilli is placed in whole, cooked with the sauce and then removed before the blending step later in the sauce recipe.
Step 3: Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer on your stovetop. Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes or so.
Step 4: When the sauce is cooked, remove the pot from the heat and allow the sauce to cool a bit. Carefully pour the sauce into the blender and purée in short bursts until the sauce is to your desired consistency. Some people like their sauce ultra smooth while others prefer a “rustic” consistency. When blending the sauce, please see handy hack one. Pour the sauce into clean, sterilised screw top jars and store in the fridge until use. The sauce can be made a day or so ahead of time.
Step 5: Preheat oven to 120°C. Lay the pork in the pan. Season generously with a seasoning/rub of your choice. Season both sides of the pork, rubbing the seasoning on to the surface.
Step 6: Place the pork into a baking dish. Pour the sauce and chicken stock around the pork in the baking dish.
Step 7: Stop before it overflows. Please note that the pork isn’t completely covered by the braising liquid.
Step 8: Cover the baking dish with a double layer of tin foil before placing in the oven for some low and slow pot roasting/braising. Depending on the size of your pork butt, I would recommend at least four to five hours cooking time at 120°C.
Step 9: The pork is cooked and ready to shred/pull.
Step 10: Shred the pork with two forks. When cooked, the pork should just about fall apart.
Step 11: A close-up showing the texture of the pork shreds.
Step 12: There are a couple of ways of presenting the pulled pork rolls.
- Serve complete: generously pile the pulled pork on to either a soft or crusty bread roll and top with a spoonful or two of the barbecue sauce that you made.
- Make your own: put a heaped amount of the pulled pork into a bowl and mix the sauce through until the pork is well coated. Serve in a bowl to each, and a basket of toasted buns to your guests. Then your diners can pile the sauce coated pork on to their selected bread roll and enjoy.
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