Pulled Pork and Coleslaw Brioche Bap
This is easy and so delicious. It can be served in a variety of ways but the most satisfying for us is in a bun. Biting into it gives me almost as much pleasure as biting into my first mince pie with brandy butter on December 1st. A knife and fork cannot be used as sinking your teeth in is half the fun! (I apologise that my photos are not fantastic – working on it – for successful photos shoots look at my Afternoon Tea book!)
Ingredients
1 pork shoulder
Table salt
Spice rub (you could use 1 tbsp smoked paprika, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp onion salt, 1 tsp cumin and 1 of coriander if you like)
1 x 284ml/10oz bottle of lager or cider (the ml measurement is not exact – add more or less that amount)
Coleslaw
half a green cabbage, finely shredded using a mandolin or very sharp knife
1 large carrot, shredded
100mls/3.5oz mayonnaise
1 tbsp cider vinegar
BBQ sauce
200mls/7oz ketchup
70mls/2.5oz mild mustard,
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, grated
a sprinkle of Worcester sauce
1 tbsp cider vinegar.
Don’t forget to add the liquid from the roasting pan at the end of cooking.
Gluten Free Brioche Buns
Put your shoulder of pork in a roasting dish or an earthenware pot. Sprinkle table salt liberally over the skin of the shoulder. Leave it for half an hour and you will find that moisture droplets form on top of the skin. Use a kitchen towel to absorb the moisture. This will help crisp the skin.
Set the oven to about 200ºC and when it has reached temperature, put the shoulder in the oven.
After about half an hour, the skin should be crispish and easy to remove.
Put on rubber gloves and remove the skin or use a knife. Lay the skin flat on a baking sheet. Return it to the oven to crisp up, for as long as it takes - about 10-20 mins depending on how much moisture it holds.
With the shoulder in the roasting tin, rub the spice into the skinless shoulder and pour 1 lager or cider into the tin so that it surrounds the shoulder.
Cover the roasting tin with foil and return it to the oven, turning the heat down to 150ºC. Don’t forget to check the skin which should be removed from the oven when it is crisp to touch. I break it up by bashing it with a rolling pin. You can have your homemade pork scratchings as a snack or as an accompaniment.
Leave the shoulder in the oven for 4-6 hours, until the meat comes easily apart using two forks. You could also leave it in the oven overnight, at a slightly lower temperature. The size of your shoulder dictates how long it will take. For a small one, I would say 4 hours minumum time. This can be done in advance so if you are not sure, then do it the day before.
Remove the roasting pan from the oven and put the meat in a dish and then cover it with foil, so that moisture is retained. Put it in the fridge if you are doing this the day before.
Pour the juices left in the pan into a jug and keep this in the fridge so that the fat may become cold and be removed before the next stage. If you are serving it that day or want to keep the fat on, go ahead. It will delicious.
Put the sauce ingredients in a large jug and whisk them together with the liquid from the roasting tin.
When the shoulder has cooled enough to handle with your hands, use them to break up the meat. If the meat is cold from the fridge warm it through, still covered in foil, in a 140C/285F oven for half an hour.
Mix together the mayonnaise and cider vinegar to taste and add the shredded vegetables.
Put some meat in a bun and top it with bbq sauce and coleslaw.
Make sure you bite into it either on your own or with close friends as you won’t want to be hurrying the experience!
