Pulled Pork with Red Cabbage and Apple Slaw and Apple Ketchup Served in Brioche Buns

Apple Ketchup

Ingredients

• 200ml sweet Madeira
• 200ml tomato ketchup
• 60ml French’s mustard
• 25ml cider vinegar
• 40ml Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. Tabasco
• 100ml cloudy apple juice
• 50ml blackstrap molasses

Red Cabbage and Apple Slaw

Ingredients

• 3 apples, cored and finely sliced
• 650g red cabbages, thinly sliced
• 250g raw beetroot, peeled and finely grated
• 2 tbsp. cider vinegar
• Juice of half a lemon
• 5 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• small bunch of parsley, chopped

Method

• Place the apples, cabbage and beetroot in a large bowl. Mix together the vinegar, lemon juice, oil and seasoning and pour over the cabbage mixture. Mix well, then stir in the parsley just before serving.

Dry Rub (makes 300g)

Ingredients

• 10g fennel seeds
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1 tsp. coriander seeds
• 100g soft dark brown sugar
• 50g granulated sugar
• Keep in a sealed container for up to one week.

Method

Toast the fennel seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns and coriander seeds in a dry pan over a medium heat for a few minutes, shaking the pan, until the spices release an aroma. Tip into a bowl and leave to cool. Blitz the toasted spices in a blender to a rough powder. Combine with the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.

BBQ Sauce (makes 2.5 litres)

Ingredients

• 500g dry-aged beef trim, diced
• 1 litre beef stock
• 1 litre pork stock
• 5 shallots, finely diced
• 50g butter
• 10g garlic powder
• 100g fine salt
• 15g smoked paprika
• 30g paprika
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. cayenne

Pulled Pork

Ingredients

• 1 pork neck-end shoulder, weighing 4-5kg
• 250g Dry Rub
• 200ml BBQ sauce
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

• Skin the pork shoulder, reserving the skin to cure for scratchings.
• Prepare a barbecue for smoking and set the temperature to 105°C. A shoulder of pork is pretty forgiving, but keeping a constant temperature will produce the best results. Once a decent bark starts to form, the smoke no longer effectively penetrates the meat, so there is no point continuing to add more wood chunks after the first few hours of cooking.
• Evenly massage the meat with 200g of the dry rub, then smoke it on thepulled_pork barbecue, making sure it is fat (skin) side up. It can take up to 10 hours, so keep an eye on it and have your meat probe to hand. Cooking times can vary massively – some pork just takes longer than others. The internal temperature should reach 88-90°C. Once it hits this temperature, the pork will have a thick bark and be very dark. It will not be burnt, and will not taste burnt, so don’t panic. The blade bone should pull out with little resistance and the shoulder should fall in on itself if pressed gently from above. Remove the pork and set aside to rest, wrapped in foil, for 30 minutes.
• Unwrap the pork and remove the bones and begin to pull the shoulder – keep it in big chunks. Add the remaining rub to taste, sprinkling it evenly like seasoning. Add the BBQ sauce and mix this all through the meat. Serve immediately, in warm rolls, with slaw and apple ketchup.