… following on from my recipe for slow-cooked vegetable and lentil stew with polenta dumplings I asked you all what you’d cook in your slow-cooker and there was an overwhelming majority of you who mentioned pulled-pork. Obviously being the good jewish boy that I am I’m really not that into cooking pork… don’t get me wrong, we eat plenty of sausages and bacon it’s just that because my mum never really favoured it as a meat at home I simply never really cooked it. I don’t particularly order it in restaurants although I do love me some pork belly. Saying all this, I am an avid fan of pulled pork. I realise that it’s the meat of the moment and I can understand why with it’s succulent shredded glory, so i’m not going to deny you of a good pulled pork recipe…
… a word to the wise on choosing the correct cut of meat. In the US it’s easy to find – they call it the butt-end… but in the UK asking for a simple pork shoulder just won’t cut the mustard. According to the festidious-for-all-of-us Felicity Cloake’s research from The Guardian who has thankfully done all the hard work for us pulled-pork novices, the cut of meat you need to ask for in the UK is the ‘bone-in neck end’ with a good layer of fat on top and you’ll only be able to track this down without losing face at your local butcher… believe me , like Felicity I tried at two of my local supermarkets and got sneered at…
slow-cooked panang curry pulled pork with a coconut curry sauce
so I had this traditional pulled pork recipe all worked out and then on Thursday night I attended a wok masterclass at the School of Wok, hosted by Jeremy Pang and I discovered a glorious brand of fusion-asian inspired ready-made pastes and curries called World Foods and with one taste of their panang curry paste and I just knew I had to use it with the pork. Now I often turn down requests for reviews of stuff that comes in jars because lets face it, the quality is often dubious, they’re made for convenience and whist they do their job very well I never find them particularly authentic so I was very positively blown away by the quality and taste of the World Foods products… all of their range is gluten-free, vegetarian, trans-fat free with no artificial colourings, preservatives or flavourings. I was genuinely impressed which is why i’m sharing them with you today… the product is available globally via their website and I urge you to at least give them a whirl…
for the slow-cooked pork
1 onion – roughly sliced
1 joint of well-marbled pork shoulder
1 jar of World Foods panang curry paste
1/4 litre or 1 cup of vegetable stock
1/4 litre or 1 cup of coconut milk
place the onion into the bottom of the slow-cooker
rub the joint of pork all over with the curry paste and lay the joint on top of the onions, pour in the stock and the coconut milk, place the lid on and cook for 6 hours on high or 8 hours on low
one the pork is gloriously tender, remove it carefully from the crockpot with a slotted spoon and place it on a board, be very careful as it will fall apart very easily… using the slotted spoon remove the onions which should be spectacularly golden and tender and set them aside in a large bowl
pour the remaining liquid into a small saucepan, add a teaspoon of cornflour and reduce on a high heat for about 10 minutes until you have a rich and thick curry sauce
the pork should now shred beautifully with a couple of forks, fat and all, place it all in the bowl with the onions and mix together.
i’m serving the pork au-natural in some delicious wholemeal pitta bread drizzles with the thick curry sauce but you could serve them with a salad or something green… if you feel you have to…
don’t forget, you still have a teeny bit of time to enter my giveaway to win a slow-cooker
eat and of course, enjoy!
