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 :)

Winter Cooking

I had the opportunity today to raid my friend's garden and bring home some lovely winter vegies. Turnip, swede, daikon radish, rainbow silverbeet and tuscan kale.

Tonight's dinner is a casserole with cumberland pork sausages, potato, turnip, swede and carrot in a tomato sauce with thyme and pepper. Served with sauteed silverbeet and pine nuts, seasoned with nutmeg and garlic, and a squeeze of lemon.

Yummy!

January Challenge: Day 17

Confession Time: I went shopping today and bought a new toy (a couple actually, but one is in the post).

This is my new cast iron wok. Isn't it pretty?

I have a very boring electric stove. I miss having a gas stove and I miss my carbon steel wok. I tried an electric version and it was ok, but the non-stick surface has given way, and it also took up a lot of precious bench space. This wok sits happily on the electric cooktop, and requires only a medium-high heat. Cast iron stores heat very well - I also have a cast iron pot and grill pan.

Tonight I used it to make one of my favourite stir fries - Pork Mince and Eggplant with a spicy sauce and glass noodles.

The Verdict: Nothing beats a well seasoned carbon steeel wok over a high gas flame, but this option will work well enough until the day that I can get a new stove (and some gas, or maybe induction).

Note: I don't bother salting and draining ("disgorging") lebanese eggplants - they are small and sweet. Often I don't bother usually with larger eggplant either - when cooking them with strong flavours such as garlic and soy sauce I don't tend to notice any bitterness they may have. If you generally find eggplant to taste bitter, then go ahead and salt them first.

Pork Mince and Eggplant Stir Fry (serves 3-4)

500g pork mince (I get organic pork mince and it is delicious)

4 lebanese eggplants (or 1 medium eggplant), chopped

3 green shallots, sliced

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp minced ginger

1 long red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp shaoshing cooking wine

1 tbsp water

1 tsp potato starch

1 tbsp sesame seeds

100g dried bean thread vermicelli noodles

Soak the noodles in boiling water, then snip through with scissors to make them easier to stir fry. Drain and set aside.

Mix the sauces  and water with the potato starch and set aside.

Heat the wok and add tbsp vegetable oil. When the oil starts to shimmer, add mince and cook until browned. You may need to do this in batches so that the meat browns nicely without stewing. Add garlic, ginger, shallots, chilli, and eggplant.

Cook for another 5-10 minutes until the eggplant is tender, then add the sauce mix and stir until it has thickened and become glossy. Finally, add the noodles and stir through. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and serve.

January Challenge: Day 11

We had a very bad night's sleep last night with the little guy deciding that he didn't want to sleep between the hours of 1am and 4am. Needless to say, today hasn't seen much action in the kitchen! It was very tempting to order takeaway for dinner, but instead I mustered the energy to make some fried rice - quicker than takeaway and healthier too!

Tonight's version was japanese style with fried garlic, thinly sliced pork and mushrooms, served with some stir fried snake beans. I often have chinese lup chong sausages in the freezer, and a tin of baby prawns in the cupboard, just to make special fried rice.

The trick with home made fried rice is to use a bit more oil than you think, and to add the rice last, so that it fries and gets coated with the flavourings without becoming soggy. It's best to cook the rice using the absorption method (on the stove or in a rice cooker), or use day old rice so that it's nice and dry and you get lovely grains, rather than a wok full of paste.

Today I used up the last of the rice, so now the challenge really begins.

Q: What's your favourite kind of fried rice?

BBQ Pork Wonton Noodle Soup

I have a new pressure cooker! They have a bit of a reputation because older models had a tendency to explode, covering kitchens in pea soup. New ones have multiple safety features - you simply can't open them if they're under pressure, and the valves let the pressure release safely. The science of a pressure cooker is based on the principle that water boils at a higher temperature when it's under pressure. So you can gently simmer your food at 150 degrees or more without the water boiling. So tough foods like meat on the bone, dried legumes and root vegetables cook in a fraction of the time. 


I see the pressure cooker as the opposite of a slow cooker. In a slow cooker, you throw everything in, turn it on and go enjoy your day, knowing that dinner will be ready when you get home. A pressure cooker gets used when you realise that you wanted to cook curry for dinner but got home late and only have 45 minutes to get dinner cooked. It requires your attention but rewards you with super fast results. Both are handy if you're busy, so it's no wonder they've had a revival.


Heston Blumenthal recommends using a pressure cooker to make stock. The higher temperature means that you extract more flavour from the ingredients, without losing flavour and volume from evaporation. Best of all, it takes less than an hour to make a pot of rich stock, so it's not only better, but much easier!


I've never had much success making my own stock. It always seemed to be insipid and watery - not tasty like the commercial made stuff. So I was very keen to try making stock in the pressure cooker. I'd saved a fresh chicken carcass and some chicken wings just for this purpose. Because I wanted to make an asian soup, I added carrot, celery, onion, peppercorns, star anise and some dried shittake mushroom. After it reached full pressure it cooked for approximately 1 hour, and the result was a beautiful, fragrant golden stock with plenty of gelatin - success!


The only thing left to do was season it up with some soy, shaoshing wine and fresh ginger, and turn it into a fabulously warming soup with some home made pork wontons. 


Next challenge - to make some brown meat stock - french onion soup perhaps?

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.