Bimonthly lit journal The Lifted Brow is many wonderful things but I never thought it would be a recipe bible! Nevertheless, as soon as I saw James McCulloch’s recipe for pulled pork burritos on the back of issue 13 (I got to it late, ok?), I knew I’d have to try it. Pulled pork is a Tex-Mex/American thing, where you slow cook pork until it flakes apart, add sauce and serve it as part of a barbeque or on a sandwich or burrito. Delish! I made a nice light rainbow slaw to complement the hearty sweet spices of the pork, and luckily my neighbours were having some drinks because there was oodles of food!
Pulled Pork
- 1.5kg boneless pork shoulder
- 50g salt
- 50g brown sugar
- 800g tin of tomatoes
- 2 onions
- Chillies
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 green apples
- 2 cobs of corn
- 2 sticks celery
- 1 green capsicum
- 1tbs dried oregano
- 1 tbs ground cumin
- 2tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground coriander seeds
- ½ tsp white pepper
- Mix the salt and sugar and rub it into your pork. Put it in a tight fitting oven proof dish, cover and leave it in the fridge over night. The recipe said about 10 hours, mine was neglected for probably 14. No harm done! The salt will draw out some of the pork’s juices; pour most of these off before covering the pork and putting into a super slow oven (120 degrees) for about five hours. Mine was done in about four, but I did cook it at 150 degrees the first hour. Every half hour (or hour) check the pork and baste it with some of the juices collecting in the pan. Once it’s falling apart when you poke it, it’s done.
- Once you’re 3-4 hours in, make the sauce. Fry your diced onions, garlic, chillies, capsicum and spices for about 10 minutes. I had a bunch of local long green chillies and added about four, but it wasn’t nearly hot. I added a few birds eye chillies late in the game but it still could have used more heat. Basically you’re going to end up with a huge quantity of meat/stew so you can stand to add a fair bit of chilli.
- Add the cut-off corn kernels, cored and diced apple and chopped celery to the fry pan. Cook another 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, bring to a steady simmer, then turn the heat right down.
- Drain off the juices from your pork (you might like to reserve this salty porky liquid to season your sauce) and flake the meat apart with a couple of forks. Add the pork to the sauce and let it simmer for a good half hour. I had to tip the sauce into the baking dish (I used dad’s camp oven) because there was too much for the frypan. Then rather than simmering on the stovetop, I put it back in the oven with the lid on to let it all cook down a bit.
Serve with tortillas and your choice of other fillings – a nice green salad with herbs, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, feta, whatever you like. I made a very simple and pretty healthy coleslaw:
Rainbow slaw
- ¼ purple cabbage
- 2 carrots
- A few shallots
- A cob of corn
- Greek yoghurt
- 1 lime
- Fresh coriander
- Finely shred cabbage, peel and grate carrots, slice up shallots and strip the kernels from the corn.
- Toss it all with a quick dressing: 3-4 heaped spoons of greek yoghurt, the juice of a lime, a good handful of chopped fresh coriander. Season with salt and pepper if you like.
If you needed any more incentive to grab a copy of the Brow, it now includes a column called “Law School” wherein Benjamin Law (the OG: original gaysian) and his mum Jenny respond to readers’ questions about sex and relationships. If you’ve read The Family Law, you’ll understand how rude and hilarious this column must be. Go forth and get Brow-beaten.
Clare Fletcher 