Slow-simmered pork shoulder and spicy BBQ sauce – what could be better?!? A winning lottery ticket, perhaps, or maybe a split of champagne at Fouquet’s on the Champs Elysées… but a dreary wet Friday evening in Strafford?!? Pulled pork sandwiches win hands down.
Victor put the pork into the oven at 275° for about 3 hours while I was at work. He used a heavy caserole with a tight-fitting lid. The pork shoulder was seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic – very basic – and he then added a couple of cups of water to the pot. Closed it tight and into the oven.
When I got home, it was fall-apart-tender. I drained the pot, shredded the pork, and added a bottle of Gates Kansas City BBQ Sauce. I popped it back into the oven for another hour just to get it sassy.
And sassy it was!
I seriously thought about making a BBQ sauce but remembered I still had one bottle of the Gates sauce in the cupboard. Gates is definitely one of the better bottled sauces available. “Tomatoes, vinegar, salt, sugar, celery, garlic, spices, and pepper.” Can’t beat the ingredients.
I baked off a couple of ciabatta rolls and added some Red Dragon cheese. Good ol’ Wikipedia states: Y Fenni is a variety of Welsh cheese, consisting of Cheddar cheese blended with mustard seed and ale. It takes its name from the Welsh language name of Abergavenny, a market town in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. Y Fenni, when coated in red wax, is also known as ‘Red Dragon’, a name derived from the dragon on the Flag of Wales. It really is tasty. It has a good mustard-y tang and the ale undertones are just discernible enough to be complimenting to the cheddar and the mustard seed.
The pork came out great and I’m glad I resisted making a sauce. Sometimes a classic sauce just works best and in this case, it worked perfectly with the cheese.