Pulled Pork with BBQ Sauce

I've recently had to adopt a fairly strict meal planning regime - Sunday night is my night to cook slow and experiment. Tonight is Pulled Pork with BBQ sauce.

We're having American for dinner tonight

BBQ Sauce (from scratch)

I found it very interesting that a lot of recipes for BBQ sauce claim to be made "from scratch" but are just a mixture of ketchup, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar. Here is my attempt. It's spicy and smoky. I like that it has some texture from the pureed vegetables. I've used rum instead of bourbon because that's what was in my booze cupboard. 

THIS RECIPE from A Life From Scratch illustrates all the steps beautifully.

Makes 3 cups

1 red onion

1  diced carrot

1 mild red chilli

1 apple

1 kiwi fruit (because it was there)

1/2 capsicum (red or yellow)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp each minced garlic, ginger and hot chilli paste (sambal oeleck)

1/2 tsp each of dried thyme, oregano and basil

1/4 cup brown sugar

400g tinned tomato

1 tbsp treacle

3 tsp spanish sweet smoked paprika

2 tsp cocoa powder

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tsp mustard seed

1 bay leaf

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

90ml Bundaberg rum

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup (250ml) water

Peel and dice the fruit and vegetables. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over a low heat. Add the salt and gently sweat the fruit and vegetables until soft. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Bring to the boil, and then simmer until reduced by at least half. Remove the bay leaf and blend until smooth, then allow to simmer until thickened. I made this the day before so it had 24 hours to sit in the fridge and further develop the flavours. 

Pulled Pork

1.5kg Pork Neck (scotch fillet)

Spice Rub

• 2 tsp spanish smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp white peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp of cumin seed
• 1 tsp fennel seed
• 1 tsp mustard seed
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp dried oregano, basil and thyme
• 1 tsp garlic granules

Grind the spices in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Cut the pork neck into 2-3 large pieces so it will fit into your pot. I am using my pressure cooker. Rub the  meat all over with olive oil and the spice rub. Allow the meat to marinate for 4 hours or longer. Heat the oil in the pan and brown the meat, taking care to avoid burning the spices. Add 1 cup of water, and 1 cup of BBQ sauce. Mix well to coat the meat. Seal the pot and bring to pressure, then reduce the heat and cook for 1 hour. Remove from the heat and allow the pressure to slowly release. Carefully remove the meat from the pan and shred using two forks. It should be very tender.

To serve, cut a roll in half and add a generous portion of pulled pork, caramelised onions, warm bbq sauce and coleslaw. You will need a napkin :)

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki means "as you like it". It's usually described as a Japanese pizza, but it's only like pizza in the sense that it comes in lots of different styles, and it's a great food to eat with beer. It's a pancake! There really isn't a single recipe for it, but there are a couple of things that make a good okonomiyaki. It's been a long time since we've had an okonomiyaki dinner, but seeing as there is an abundance of cabbage in the fridge, the time has come! 

DIY Okonomiyaki in Harajuku

1. Use dashi stock instead of water and use a mix of potato or taro four and plain flour. You can buy okonomi batter at asian supermarkets, but like most processed foods, I find it too salty. Make a nice thick batter.

In Kyoto: Udon Okonomiyaki (left)
and Leek and Fish Cake Okonomiyaki (centre)

2. Finely shred the fillings. This way they mix well and cook evenly in the batter. Nothing worse than a lump of raw cabbage in the middle of your okonomiyaki. You can put almost anything inside - cabbage, carrot, green spring onions, octopus, prawns, pork, mushrooms, fish cake, tofu... (hence the name!)

Okonomiyaki Bar in Osaka

3. Get good japanese brown sauce and mayonnaise. Don't even try using aussie style bbq sauce and mayo - both are way too sweet. I get the Bull-Dog brand brown sauce and Kewpie brand mayonnaise. 

Okonomiyaki on a stick? :P

4. Get some good toppings. The usual topping is a sprinkling of aonori (powdered seaweed) and katsuobushi (shaved dried bonito flakes - they dance in the heat!), but you can also use other toppings such as crispy panko breadcrumbs.


5. Decorate! Okonomiyaki should look pretty! One thing I was very happy to buy on my last trip to Japan was some special squeezy bottles with thin nozzles for drizzling sauce on top of okonomiyaki. 


Tonight's version was made with savoy cabbage, carrot, spring onions, cooked pork mince, some mini king brown mushrooms and shaved pork belly.

Vegetable Soup with Cabbage and Potato

Perfect for watching football

Vegetable soup is one of my favourite winter meals. It's such a good way to use up any vegetables that might be getting a bit too old for salad, and the flavour varies so much depending on the type of vegetables used. While minestrone is the classic vegetable soup, this one has flavours that are much more like a hungarian goulash, with the stars being smoky paprika, cabbage and potato. If anyone knows if it's possible to buy an organic smoked paprika, I'd like to know!


There aren't any measurements here, just chop and toss into the pot. Saute the onion, carrot, celery, potato and cabbage before adding the stock, tomato, herbs and spices. Add enough stock to cover everything, but not too much. 


olive oil
finely diced onion
finely diced carrot
finely diced celery
diced potato (I've got nicola potatoes at the moment)
finely sliced cabbage
tinned diced tomato
bay leaf
smoky paprika and sweet paprika
salt and pepper
chicken stock
bay leaf