Pulled pork in BBQ sauce with home-made coleslaw.

Pulled Pork. Soft, melt-in-your-mouth pork covered in a sweet and tangy, home-made BBQ sauce. Served on a fresh, buttered roll with a good spoonful of home-made coleslaw. Are you drooling yet? Because I certainly am.

I know that for South Africans, this is a new-ish concept but I predict this is going to change soon as this, the perfect of ‘pub foods’ in my opinion can’t be ignored for this much longer. I didn’t follow any particular recipe when making my version of this classic American ‘dish’. I simply had an idea and knew which direction I wanted to take it in.

I decided to use a bone-less leg of pork and rubbed it with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. I popped it into the oven and allowed it to roast for approximately 3 hours at 160°c. The key is to get the pork to literally fall apart once it’s cooked. This makes the ‘pulling’ much easier.

To accompany the pulled pork, a classic Barbecue sauce is needed. Now, please feel free to use your favourite bottled BBQ sauce but I wanted to make it myself and it really is incredibly easy. I used my own discretion once again and used this as a way to finish a lot of little bottles of sauce I had in my fridge. If you would like a more classic BBQ recipe, have a look at Martha Stewart’s easy BBQ sauce recipe.

And the final component to my pulled pork rolls was a good, home-made coleslaw. I’ve been making my own coleslaw since getting my food processor for my birthday a couple of years ago. It makes it insanely simple as all the grating gets done in literally 10 seconds but for this I wanted a slightly chunkier slaw than my food processor normally gives me (as I use the grater attachment). I decided to grate the carrots as normal but then used the slicing attachment for the red cabbage. I also wanted it to be less sweet than normal coleslaw (I’m also not a fan of coleslaw drenched in mayo) so I made a dressing with mayo, yoghurt and lemon juice. The end result was delicious and complimented the sweet pork perfectly.

I served the pulled pork and coleslaw on fresh rolls with butter and a few pickles on the side. Oh, and of course ice cold beers!

Serves 6-8

For the pork
1 kg de-boned, pork leg
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cracked pepper
2 tsp smoked paprika
for the barbecue sauce
3/4 cup tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce (you can also use Worcestershire sauce)
1 tsp smoked paprika
for the coleslaw
1 medium red cabbage, sliced/grated
4 carrots, peeled and grated
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
3/4 cup good quality creamy mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt to taste
to serve
fresh bread rolls
butter
dill pickles/gherkins
cold beer

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160°c. For the pork, drizzle the olive oil over the leg of pork and rub the salt, pepper and paprika into the meat. Place in a greased baking dish and cover with foil.
2. Place in the oven and allow to roast for 3 hours until the pork pulls apart easily.
3. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before pulling the meat apart with two forks.
4. To make the barbecue sauce, combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Combine the pulled pork with the barbecue sauce and set aside.
6. To make the coleslaw, combine the grated carrot, cabbage and parsley in a bowl. Mix together the mayo, yoghurt, lemon juice and salt. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss. If you want it sweeter, simply add more mayonnaise.
7. To serve, place a few spoonfuls of pulled pork into a buttered bread roll, top with coleslaw and eat immediately.