I love that good, american style cooking is making its way on to our plates in Australia.
The US often gets a bad wrap for only having pretty ordinary food on offer. Having been there a couple of times now I can absolutely tell you it's not true. Yes, there is rows and rows of processed crap in the supermarket and it can be difficult to find a good meal in a small town, but that is really no different to here in Australia. Wherever you go there is still plenty of fresh food to be found.
So, let's talk about one of my favourite things, pulled pork.
Pulled pork is fantastic stuff. You can stuff it in tortillas with salads, burrito style or add some cheese and other fillings, fold in half and grill to have yourself a great quesadilla, add it to a vietnamese style salad, serve it american BBQ style along side some coleslaw, grilled corn on the cob, don't forget a pickle or two and a dousing of good BBQ sauce on the side.
You can flavour it any way you want really but the following combination will leave you with delicious, melting meat. It is worth putting everything in the dish the night before that way to give it a chance to really soak in and so that the vinegar will have already gone to work on breaking down some of the connective tissues.
Pulled Pork enough to feed at least 6 people 2 times for dinner and once for lunch. It's perfect for when you have a crowd to feed.
Ingredients
2kg Pork Shoulder
2 Tbs olive oil
2/3 cup red wine vinegar
2/3 cup good worchestershire sauce (I use beerenberg)
1/2-1 Tbs chilli flakes
1 Tbs fennel seeds
Method
Put everything in a casserole dish together, leave it to marinade overnight if you have time otherwise it is worthwhile letting the pork bathe for at least an hour before you pop it in the oven.
Cover with foil and pop into a 170C oven for 2 1/2 hours. Uncover and cook for a further hour or until the pork pulls apart easily with two forks.
Leave the meat to rest, covered, for half an hour (or longer) before shredding with forks.