Barbecue Pulled Pork

My friend, Amy, introduced me to the Facebook group "Slow Cooked Wonders", then sent me the recipe for "Epic Pork". I'd done something similar in the slow cooker before, so this is my personal take on the recipe. It made a big difference to get rid of some of the cooking liquid before adding the barbecue sauce, and although it would be easier to use a shop-bought sauce (in which case I like Paul Newman's Original Sticky BBQ Sauce), it didn't take much more effort to make my own version. And the great thing about that is that I get to plug Colman's OK sauce. I am very attached to this sauce, as I was responsible for installing the process plant at Colman's in Norwich, which makes it! Now that the memories of falling into bed at 5am, exhausted after a night of commissioning, to be woken at 5.30am by an operator saying "we need you to come in, we can't get the clean working", are in the dim and distant past, I remember my time in Norwich very fondly.



Colman's OK Sauce - a product close to my heart!

The recipe on the Facebook group mentioned discarding the rind after the slow-cook, but being Chinese stingy, I rendered the fat in a frying pan, poured it off, and made myself an enormous pork scratching instead. The children had the pork in sandwiches, but we ran out of bread, and the adults had it with boiled rice and stir-fried greens - both meals were very good.

 

Ingredients

• 1 pork shoulder, 1.7 - 2kg
• 1/2 glass white wine
• 1/2 glass apple juice
• 2 slices of ginger

Barbecue Sauce

• 35g butter
• 1 small onion, chopped finely
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 mug of cooking liquid from the slow cooker
• 1/4 mug of tomato ketchup
• 3/4 mug of Colman's OK sauce (or use a brown sauce)
• 2 tbsp worcester sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp paprika
• (optional) 1 tsp chilli flakes
• (optional) 1 dessert spoon of cornflour, mixed with 50ml of water for thickening

Serves 8-10

 

Instructions

• Wash the pork shoulder and scrape/burn/pull off any stray hairs
• Place the shoulder (skin side up) in a slow cooker. Add the white wine, apple juice and ginger. Cook on low for 8-10 hours
• When the pork has finished cooking, remove it from the slow cooker, cut off the rind (you can discard this or make it into a pork scratching) and set aside
• (If you are making your own barbecue sauce, take a mugful of the cooking liquid)
• Pour the cooking liquid away and return the pork to the slow cooker. Shred with two forks, then pour over the barbecue sauce and mix thoroughly
• If you have time, leave the pork and the barbecue sauce to slow cook for an hour, to let the flavours mingle
• Serve with crusty bread, or with rice and green vegetables

Barbecue Pulled Pork with Crusty Bread

 



• To make your own barbecue sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan
• Add the chopped onion and minced garlic, and soften over a moderate heat for 5 minutes
• Add the cooking liquid from the slow cooker, tomato ketchup, OK sauce, worcester sauce, ground black pepper, balsamic vinegar, honey, paprika and chilli flakes and stir well to combine
• Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes
• After cooking, remove from the heat and blitz to a puree with a stick blender or in a liquidiser
• If you wish to thicken the sauce, return to the hob, and add 1 dessert spoon of cornflour, mixed with 50ml of water. Bring the sauce to the boil and stir until the sauce is thickened

• To make a pork scratching, use a knife to score the fat on the underside of the rind
• Heat in a moderate frying pan until the fat renders - pour off the fat periodically
• When most of the fat is rendered, turn the heat up and place the rind skin-side down. Press down with a spatula until the rind is bubbling and crisp
• Drain on kitchen towls, grind over salt and pepper, cool and enjoy

Enormous Pork Scratching