Recipe: Pulled Pork Shoulder - Real, Cheap, Slow Food...

I thought it was time to share a favourite recipe of mine, although one that I have changed - and continue to adjust in different ways - over the years.

I've bought pork shoulder from the same local butchers for a long time, and I buy it there because of the quality, price and convenience as much as - logically - the local aspect. Not all butchers have it in stock but most should source it for you easily.

As I say, the recipe has changed a bit over the years and I've cooked it on the barbecue and in a slow cooker, but this is the oven method, as it will suit more people. As ever, remember I am not a trained cook so use common sense when handling food and follow best practice when cooking anything.

Ingredients:

1.5-2kg  Pork Shoulder - deboned, and if it's tied up untie it.
1 Apple - Sliced
1 Onion - Sliced
1 Garlic Bulb - Split and cloves slightly crushed
6 sprigs of Rosemary or 2 tsp of dried
I tsp of Caraway Seed
1 tsp of Fennel Seed
1 tsp of Juniper Berries
1 tsp of Yellow Mustard Seed
1 tbsp of Cider Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Water

1 tbsp of Mustard
1 tbsp of Tomato Sauce
1 tbsp of Barbecue Sauce
1 tbsp Brown Sugar
1 tsp of Smoked Paprika

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Anything else you fancy!

Method:

1. Set the oven to 150°C.
2. Make a bed with the apple, onion and garlic in a large, deep roasting tray and place the shoulder, skin side up, on top.
3. Put good splash of water in the tray, enough to cover the 'vegetables' half way up then add the cider vinegar, caraway, fennel, juniper, mustard and rosemary into the water.
4. Season the pork with salt and pepper, and cover with two layers of tinfoil. Place in the oven and cook for at least 4 and preferably 6 hours.(Check when cooked that the inside temperature is at least 185-190°C.)
5. Remove tinfoil and put the shoulder on a rack on a new tray, remove the skin and place on another tray. Place both in the oven at 200°C for 20-30mins until the shoulder starts to brown a little and the separated skin is crisp and blistering.
6. While this is happening heat the tray that has the vegetables, spices and liquor on a hob until it starts to boil. Mash the vegetables and add the mustard, tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, smoked paprika and brown sugar, stirring constantly. Add more water, or pork - or chicken - stock if necessary to prevent the tray from burning.
7. Sieve contents into a saucepan and boil on the hob, reducing to a thick gravy consistency, skimming off any fat. Adjust flavour to suit your palate by adding more of the core ingredients.
8. Remove pork from oven and let sit for 15 to 20 mins, then shred using two forks. (I cheat by cutting the beef into large, thick slices first!) Discard any large pieces of fat.
9. Place meat in a large saucepan and add the reduced, hot gravy. Let sit for a few minutes.
10. Remove crackling and let it cool, season to taste.

That's it!

Serve whatever way you like, but I prefer it in a bread roll or or a wrap with mustard coleslaw and bacon jam, with a serving of roast veg, stuffing and the crackling on the side.

It's great the next day in a pie too, just add peas and parboiled potatoes. (Make up a little stock and add it to the mix to keep it moist.)

Kids love it on a sambo for lunch too with tomato sauce and mustard!

It should do you for 4 to 5 meals at the very least, just be sensible about its storage, so it works out great value for money.

Enjoy your cheap meat!

Woo hoo!

Liam

Cheap Food, Cheap Shots...

I don't get into arguments...

Although I do get into animated discussions quite often because I'm an opinionated person, and I tend to call shenanigans when I see them. Also, I don't normally post about stuff like this ... in fact I haven't posted anything in a few months as you can see.

But last week something happened that has awoken me from my recent blog coma.

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It all started with a Tweet that I disagreed with, which I felt was a sweeping statement and only partially correct...

You can read the whole discussion on my Twitter account but my point was as follows:

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This all ended in a not exactly agreeable manner with one of the parties in the discussion but certainly without any expressed or perceived animosity on my part, perhaps we were even arguing over semantics...

... but during the night my Twitter feed exploded with a stream of explosive abuse from a chef in a restaurant with a connection to the original poster, and less so from the restaurant's account itself. I'll give you a little taste of it here, but more is available on my Twitter feed - there were around 15 or more in total I think. I've nothing to hide so check back on my Twitter account if you want to, you can see the dates above and below.

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The Tweets are a little bizarre to say the least and written by someone who obviously knows nothing about me or my ethos and history ... not to mention the abusive language they contain. Being passionate about a subject is one thing but a vicious, rhetoric-ridden tirade is another thing altogether.

Hardly the professional response of a business owner, and chef of restaurant I thought. So I responded...

As you can see, I pulled the restaurant and its owners up on these unjustified mistruths and defamations, with one of them then saying it had nothing to do with him/her. Perhaps not ... but if you're the owner of said business and you are not condemning the odious, abusive behaviour of the chef then you're condoning it in my book. Not great for their own PR image either judging from the support I received...

It would be a lie to say it didn't bother me a little but I didn't reply to any of his comments and I had started to forget it. But then I thought more about it and I decided you should never let bullies away with abuse. Isn't that what we were taught and what we try to teach our kids? If it happened to my son I would tell him to stand up for himself so why shouldn't I do the same? So I decided to put pixel to screen to highlight it, as anything else would be hypocritical and there are enough of those kind of people around. If nothing else it records it for the future and might prevent it happening to others, or can be cited by someone if it happens again.

Okay, enough about that - this isn't a 'Poor me, listen to my woes!' post, there are also enough of those written by other bloggers. I'm big and ugly enough to look after myself, thank you very much!

The point of this blog goes beyond all of that...

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Eating cheaply doesn't have to mean eating poorly or not supporting Irish products. Indeed the word cheap has taken a bashing in recent years, but it still means 'affordable' or 'reasonably priced' to many.

So what's wrong with the concept of eating cheaply in general anyway?

I was brought up in an average Irish household where every meal was important and appreciated, because at a certain age you realised how much your parents had to work to put it on the table. It was mostly Irish products back then anyway, either bought in the small local shop or by a trek into the local town, or harvested like the spuds in our garden or the extra veg in my grandfather's. Back then people appreciated the value of the cheaper cuts of meat that might take more time to prepare and cook but were the most flavourful - chicken thighs, pork shoulder, stewing beef were the norm in our home, apart from Friday when we had a glorious fish pie bulked out with eggs and peas! We used tinned and frozen products, and gratefully tried new exotic produce like mandarins and yogurts when they arrived in affordable quantities on our shores! Ah, the 70s and 80s, I loved them - as I said, don't feel sorry for me I had a wonderful childhood!

This all stayed with me, the use of cheap but honest foods, using veg and other produce to bulk out meals and that constant need to try new things. And surely this is what we need to be teaching - at home not in schools - that so-called cheap food goes beyond ready-meals and frozen dinners. Food economy is about using all of the animal, it's about using those not-so-perfect vegetables, it's about reducing waste and knowing 'Best Before...' is not a magical cutoff point in food safety. It's about imparting practical, meaningful knowledge, and avoiding food snobbery and ignorance.

So nowadays I cook for my own kids, and I try to pass on the same ideals, tricks and recipes to them, although they are still quite young and not overly interested at the moment. We eat mostly healthy, nourishing foods - with the odd splurge or treat of course. I buy a lot of meat from the local butcher, although I do shop in certain supermarkets for veg and tinned goods, and exotic treats - and, yes, occasionally so-called junk food...

I pickle and ferment my own foods and, goddamit, I even use local Wexford malt in my homebrews, and some hops from my back garden!

And by doing all of this we also save some money so that we can get away on a good few family trips around the country, and perhaps splurge a little if we need to.

If you can afford to buy expensive products that's fine, but don't belittle others who choose not to or can't afford to.

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The other issue I have is that just because a product is local doesn't mean it's good. I'm sure we have all had dodgy, locally produced food and drink products - not to mention the fact that local pork could be intensively raised whereas the wild boar from foreign shores could have had a happy life foraging in a forest! Given a choice of both, which is the better choice? I gave an extreme example there but it gets my point across I think - don't eat local just for local sake.

If your only criteria for eating local food is the fact that it is local then you might be eating substandard or poorly raised or grown produce. To be honest the whole 'Eat Local!' shoutout can often smack of hollow marketing speak and nothing else.

Not to mention the fact that I can't comprehend how you can prepare meals without the wonderful ranges of imported spices, exotic fruits and veg, and wonderful cured meats, etc. that are freely available. Tinned tomatoes are always best for pasta, and proper Italian pasta itself is a staple in our house. I use passata and the above mentioned spices in my curries as otherwise surely they would be bland and flavourless. There are no local turmeric growers or cumin farmers near me anyway!

Also, if we hadn't tried these exotic products we probably wouldn't have the wonderful locally made produce we have in the country at the moment. No hoppy Irish pale ale, no nettle pesto, no local biltong  .... and no Italian, Chinese or Indian restaurants.

Don't get me wrong, I do have plenty of time for restaurants like Sage who clearly define the parameters of what they mean by sourcing 'local' by applying a measure of 12 miles to it, (and they are honest enough to point out this isn't always possible)  but I have less belief and faith in restaurants who champion so-called 'local food' but have sea fish on their menu when they might be 40 km or more from the sea!

So my mantra is buy decent, honest, reputable food when you can, preferably local but it doesn't have to be, indeed if you're being honest it just can't always be! And don't be hypocritical, you can't say you only support local, artisan produce and then go to the local pub and drink foreign owned macro-beers or knock back spirits from other shores.

I try to get to know the people who grow, raise and prepare my food, it's easier now because of social media.You can learn alot about someone by looking them up on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, and then you can be better informed as to whether this is the kind of person you want to support.

I've always believed that the sign of a good chef is how well they can cook a fillet steak, but the sign of a great chef is how well they can cook tripe - not spout it.

So now you know a little more about the real me...

Here's to cheap eats!

Liam