Pulled Pork. Soft, melt-in-your-mouth pork covered in a sweet and tangy, home-made BBQ sauce. Served on a fresh, buttered roll with a good spoonful of home-made coleslaw. Are you drooling yet? Because I certainly am.
I know that for South Africans, this is a new-ish concept but I predict this is going to change soon as this, the perfect of ‘pub foods’ in my opinion can’t be ignored for this much longer. I didn’t follow any particular recipe when making my version of this classic American ‘dish’. I simply had an idea and knew which direction I wanted to take it in.
I decided to use a bone-less leg of pork and rubbed it with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. I popped it into the oven and allowed it to roast for approximately 3 hours at 160°c. The key is to get the pork to literally fall apart once it’s cooked. This makes the ‘pulling’ much easier.
To accompany the pulled pork, a classic Barbecue sauce is needed. Now, please feel free to use your favourite bottled BBQ sauce but I wanted to make it myself and it really is incredibly easy. I used my own discretion once again and used this as a way to finish a lot of little bottles of sauce I had in my fridge. If you would like a more classic BBQ recipe, have a look at Martha Stewart’s easy BBQ sauce recipe.
And the final component to my pulled pork rolls was a good, home-made coleslaw. I’ve been making my own coleslaw since getting my food processor for my birthday a couple of years ago. It makes it insanely simple as all the grating gets done in literally 10 seconds but for this I wanted a slightly chunkier slaw than my food processor normally gives me (as I use the grater attachment). I decided to grate the carrots as normal but then used the slicing attachment for the red cabbage. I also wanted it to be less sweet than normal coleslaw (I’m also not a fan of coleslaw drenched in mayo) so I made a dressing with mayo, yoghurt and lemon juice. The end result was delicious and complimented the sweet pork perfectly.
I served the pulled pork and coleslaw on fresh rolls with butter and a few pickles on the side. Oh, and of course ice cold beers!
Serves 6-8
For the pork
1 kg (2.2 pounds) de-boned, pork leg
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cracked pepper
2 tsp smoked paprika
for the barbecue sauce
3/4 cup tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce (you can also use Worcestershire sauce)
1 tsp smoked paprika
for the coleslaw
1 medium red cabbage, sliced/grated
4 carrots, peeled and grated
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
3/4 cup good quality creamy mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt to taste
to serve
fresh bread rolls
butter
dill pickles/gherkins
cold beer
- Pre-heat the oven to 160°c. For the pork, drizzle the olive oil over the leg of pork and rub the salt, pepper and paprika into the meat. Place in a greased baking dish and cover with foil.
- Place in the oven and allow to roast for 3 hours until the pork pulls apart easily.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before pulling the meat apart with two forks.
- To make the barbecue sauce, combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
- Combine the pulled pork with the barbecue sauce and set aside.
- To make the coleslaw, combine the grated carrot, cabbage and parsley in a bowl. Mix together the mayo, yoghurt, lemon juice and salt. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss. If you want it sweeter, simply add more mayonnaise.
- To serve, place a few spoonfuls of pulled pork into a buttered bread roll, top with coleslaw and eat immediately.
Tags: Home-made barbecue sauce, home-made coleslaw, pork, Pulled Pork, Pulled Pork rolls, roasted pork
Post By
Alida Ryder
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