Sunday 28 July 2013

Pulled Pork and Ribs feast

A few months ago I cooked for a group of friends and on tweeting about the menu and food prep I received a few requests for invites. Given I had 14 guests already (I know!!), I really wasn't able to invite anyone else... which upset a few people... so much so that I ended up promising to do it again and invite them this time round.

Despite the fact that I had a few foodies (blogging foodies at that) coming round, I didn't stress over the menu too much. This was mainly because the menu had previously a) gone down well, b) been fairly easy to create and c) allowed for me to cook the majority of the food the day before and just serve food cold, or reheat it.



Pulled pork was made using this recipe. Once cooked, chilled it, pulled it, poured off and mixed in the juices and just reheated for an hour or so at about 100C on the day. As we ate at 1pm, cooking the pork on the day really wasn't an option (I wasn't going to get up at 4am to start cooking). I also didn't have time to marinade the meat overnight before cooking, I just managed a couple of hours, but reheating it seemed to take care of that.

Ribs were rubbed with a mix of spices and garlic (1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp hot chili powder, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp caster sugar, 1 garlic clove, sliced) and left in the fridge overnight. I also made up a BBQ sauce (using this recipe) and the next day I covered the ribs in the BBQ sauce, cooked for 3 hours (covered) before pouring the sauce off to reduce in a pan. The sauce then went back onto the ribs and I finished them off in the oven for 20 minutes, uncovered.

Sides included;
This bean chilli
Cold rice with tomatoes, spring onion, coriander and parsley mixed through, 
Coleslaw of red cabbage, carrots, onion, mayo, lime juice and a minced garlic clove, 
Salsa of tomatoes, red onion, chilli, coriander, lime juice, salt and sugar,
Grated cheese,
Soured cream,
Salad leaves (kindly provided by @EwanMitchell) and 
Home-made pitta breads (from @Mrs_Gaffer).

Good fun was had by all and the majority of the food was demolished (3.2 kg of pork hand and 25 ribs was probably just enough for this hungry group of 8!).

Thanks to @TheFoodNut we had chocolate tart for dessert, @ClairyClairy brought along an excellent cheese board and Aperold Spritz made a few appearances thanks to @EwanMitchell & @Urban_Magpie who brought the prosecco and @Mrs_Gaffer who brought the Aperol. A mention must also go to @MossValley, the Sheffield pig farm where I brought the meat; it was delicious!! 

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