Recipe: Pulled Pork & Sweet, Crunchy Coleslaw

When Sam does something, he likes to do it properly and his BBQ escapades are no exception.

He's recently made, what he calls, a “life investment” in an all singing, all dancing BBQ/Smoker called a Komado Joe. A bright red beast of a BBQ who has swiftly become a firm friend in the Harris household. We've been eating a LOT of meat around here since his arrival (I say 'his', we call him by his first name 'Joe') and, if you follow Sam on Instagram (@samharrisesq) you'll have noticed that his stories are 95% food related, often feature late night marinading and an early morning blaze (not the ganja variety).

Until now this blog has been written solely by myself but Sam's expertise on the cookery front mean that you can certainly expect some more content from the man himself. I've been looking forward to sharing these dishes with you for ages as we've cooked them both a few times now and they've become firm family favourites.

The coleslaw is a great dish for serving up as a side with any Summer BBQ (great for taking along to friend's) and the pulled pork will give you enough for quite a few meals so is really cost effective. Our serving suggestion here is in a good old fashioned bap but you can enjoy it in so many other ways too (some suggestions listed below).

So, without further ado, here's how we dish it up at The Harris'.

Sweet and Crunchy Coleslaw

This couldn't be easier and the effort is really just in the chopping, grating and slicing. I tend to alter this every time I make it. I've left out quantities as these will depend how many you're cooking for and how much you like the ingredients!

Ingredients:

Red Cabbage

White Cabbage

Red Onion

Carrot

Apple

Figs

Apricots

Flaked Almonds

Coriander

Red Wine Vinegar

Mayonnaise

Method:

Thinly slice the cabbage and red onion, grate the carrot and apple and finely chop the figs and apricots. Add in finely chopped coriander and mix everything together with mayonnaise. Add a splash of red wine vinegar and seasoning to taste. Top with toasted flaked almonds and some coriander leaves to garnish.

Whilst the coleslaw will take you as quick as you can chop, you'll have to be a bit more patient for the pork. I won't take credit for the below, as it's all Sam's but here's what he told me.

Ingredients:

1 x 3kg shoulder of Pork (bone in or boneless)

American Mustard

Powdered Rub

Method:

Cover all over with the American mustard and rub with a spiced rub (we used Mac's BBQ 'Pork Powder' rub), cover and refridegerate over night.

Bring your BBQ/Smoker/Komado Joe up to 220-250f degrees and put in the pork shoulder. We cooked ours for 15 hours to an internal temperature of 203f degrees.

We've been using a ThermoPro TP20 meat thermometer which has been amazing. Using this means you don't have to monitor meat's cooking by time but instead just set the thermometer to tell you when the meat has hit it's optimum temperature. It's transformed the way we cook meat and means we'll never have to put up with dry, overcooked chicken again. If you don't have a meat thermometer, you'll know it's ready when a skewer goes into the meat 'like butter' (you can use 12-15 hours as a cooking guide, subject to the size of the joint).

Once the meat is cooked, cover it in foil and rest it for an hour. When ready to serve, pull the pork apart with two forks and squeeze on some BBQ sauce and enjoy! The baps are best lightly toasted and buttered, inside the pork speaks for itself but a dash of sauce never goes a miss in my book,

If you don't get through all the meat and have leftovers for another day, rehydrate it with a small amount of apple juice, butter and BBQ sauce when you heat it back up again. Here's a few ways you can put your leftovers to work:

- With nachos (sprinkle with the pork, red onion, BBQ sauce and cheese)

- Added to Mac N Cheese

- Spiced up and added to a stir fry

- As a topping on homemade pizza

It's been fun putting this post together to share with you, not to mention delicious! You can be sure to see some more Summer cooking heading your way. Up next week is our favourite pizza recipe, along with a very exciting GIVEAWAY with Ffedog who make 'the ethical apron' (you can see it in the background of few shots above), it's a cookery essential that you're going to LOVE!

Until then, have a great weekend and hope you enjoy whatever is on the menu. Do let me know if you give either of these recipes a go!