Welcome to my kitchen...today I will be showing you how to cook pulled pork and if you are vegetarian or vegan I will also give you an alternative that tastes just like pulled pork and with the same texture…

We ate ours with Pitta bread which took some practise my first ones were not so good but not one to give up I have practised again and again…

They were lovely topped with some shredded white cabbage and shallots and some sour cream…

Ingredients:

• 2k piece of Pork Shoulder
• 4-6 garlic cloves
• 1 cup of your favourite BBQ sauce…my homemade BBQ sauce
• 1/2 cup ACV
• 1/2 cup Chicken stock
• 1/4 cup brown Sugar
• 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 3/4 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 extra-large onion or two med onions
• 1 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil or oil of your choice
• 1 Bay Leaf

Let’s Cook!

Put all the ingredients in the slow cooker and cook for 5 hrs or until the meat is soft end tender. Baste the meat with the juices occasionally. Rest the meat for 30 mins before shredding and putting the meat back into the juice..  or add the juice to a jug and add as you serve…

Serve in the bread of your choice rolls or flatbreads or this homemade Pitta Bread.

Pitta Bread:

Ingredients:

• Water
• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• ½ tsp sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided (or 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour and 1 ½ cup whole wheat flour)
• 1 to 2 tsp  salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil (I used plus a little more for the bowl.

Let’s Bake:

In a large mixing bowl add 1 cup lukewarm water and stir in the yeast and sugar until dissolved. Add ½ cup flour and whisk together. Place the mixing bowl in a warm place, uncovered to form a loose sponge. Give it 10-15 minutes, the mixture should bubble.

Now add salt, olive oil and almost all the remaining flour (keep about ½ cup of the flour for dusting later). Stir until mixture forms a shaggy mass. Dust with a little flour, then knead the mixture inside the bowl for about a minute to incorporate all the flour.

Dust a clean working surface with just a little bit of flour. Knead lightly for a couple minutes or so until smooth. Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes, then knead again for a couple more minutes. The dough should be a little bit moist, you can help it with a little dusting of flour, but be careful not to add too much flour.

Clean the mixing bowl and coat it lightly with olive oil and put the dough back in the bowl. Turn the dough a couple times in the bowl to coat with the olive oil. Cover the mixing bowl tightly I use a plastic shower cap then lay a kitchen towel over. Put the bowl in a warm place. Leave it alone for 1 hour or until the dough rises to double its size.

 Deflate the dough and place it on a clean work surface. Divide the dough into 7 equal pieces and shape them into balls. Cover with a towel and leave them for 10 minutes or so to rest.

Shape the pittas. Using a floured rolling pin, roll one of the pieces into a circle that’s 7-8 inches wide and about a quarter-inch thick. It helps to lift and turn the dough frequently as you roll so that dough doesn’t stick to your counter too much. (If the dough starts to stick, sprinkle a tiny bit of flour). If the dough starts to spring back, set it aside to rest for a few minutes, then continue rolling. Repeat with the other pieces of dough.

Once you get going, you can be cooking one pitta while rolling another… You have two options for baking the pitta bread.

To bake pitta bread in the oven… Heat the oven to 475 degrees F and place a heavy-duty baking pan or large cast-iron skillet on the middle rack to heat. Working in batches, place the rolled-out pittas directly on the hot baking sheet (I was only able to fit 2 at a time). Bake for 2 minutes on one side, and then, using a pair of tongs, carefully turn pitta over to bake for 1 minute on the other side.  The pitta will puff nicely and should be ready. Remove from the oven and cover the baked pitas with a clean tea towel while you make the rest of the pittas. Doing it this way didn’t work for me I prefer using a griddle pan…

To cook pitta bread on the stovetop… This was my preferred way of cooking the pitta bread…Heat a cast-iron skillet or griddle pan over medium-high heat.

A couple drops of water drizzled onto the pan, when the beads of water sizzle immediately your pan is ready… Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil and wipe off any excess.

Working with one pitta at a time, lay a rolled-out pitta on the pan and bake for 30 seconds, until bubbles start to form. Using a spatula, flip the pitta bread over and cook for 1-2 minutes on the other side, until large toasted spots appear on the underside. Flip again and cook another 1-2 minutes to toast the other side.

The pitta is ready when it puffs up forming a pocket (sometimes, with this method, the pitta may not puff or may only form a small pocket. Try pressing the surface of the pitta gently with a clean towel). Keep baked pitta covered with a clean towel while you work on the remainder of the pitta bread.

My griddle pan is quite large so I could cook two pittas at a time…I just covered it with my wooden carving board and found this helped the pittas to rise…

I tried both methods of cooking and preferred using the griddle pan  I also rolled them too thin the first time I made them and they didn’t rise at all but I also think I used too much wholemeal flour…I now use half and a half …it took me about 3 test runs before my testers approved them with no comments apart from yum…

Jackfruit…when I first cooked jackfruit I was amazed at the difference when cooked and it really does takes on the look and texture of pulled pork to say I was surprised is an understatement…I have only eaten and cooked with fresh jackfruit but am aware that many of you can only buy the tinned jackfruit but I have been reliably informed that it does indeed do what it says on the tin…I have also included a link on how to prepare fresh Jackfruit.

Vegan Pulled Jack Fruit…

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp chipotle Tabasco
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 4 tbsp BBQ sauce…
• 200g can chopped tomato
• 2 x 400g cans young jackfruit in salted water or fresh jackfruit…see link on how to prepare fresh jackfruit.

Let’s Cook!