Father’s Day is tomorrow and what better way to treat the patriarch of your family with more than a pulled pork sandwich. It has to be one of the most carnivorous, hands on dishes out there, still being made today. Just getting hands on, makes you feel like a hunter returned from the field with your catch. It’s a dish that requires patience and time. So free up a day and get stuck in. Mark my words, by the end of 2013 there will be dedicated pulled pork restuarants around the country. Since Man vs Food and Diners, Drive in’s and Dives first aired, the Irish public have become more aware of the various american cooking styles and the slow cooking technique here really pays off in the end. And anyway what lad hasn’t a soft spot for a bap.

So Dads, stand proud and say “ Please no more charred sausages on a disposable bbq because I am a Man and I will cook meat as it was intended to be.”

Quote from Hunter Gatherer 10,000 BC.

Ingredients:

3kg of pork shoulder(from your local craft butcher,please)

The Rub:

1 tbsp Smoked Paprika

1 tbsp Cumin

1tbsp Garlic salt

1 tbsp Black peppercorns

1 tbsp Rock salt

1 tbsp Mixed herbs

1 tbsp Coriander leaf

1 tbsp Mace blades

1 tbsp Fennel seeds

1 tbsp Brown sugar

1 tbsp Caster sugar

Mother sauce:

Every last inch of your pork dripping

Beef stock cube

Vegetable stock cube

1 shot of Amaretto or Madeira

3 tbsp  tomato ketchup

1 tbsp mustard

1 shot of cider vinegar

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1tsp tabasco

2 tbsp apple jam

2 tbsp golden syrup

Soft Bap:

750g 00’ bread flour

28g bread yeast

1 tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp milk powder

50g caster sugar

1 tsp salt

60g coconut oil

400ml water

20g semolina

The Make:

Take Rub ingredients and blitz in a blender until fine. Rub all over pork shoulder. Make sure you use every last bit. Set fan oven to 150C . Put shoulder on a roasting rack in tray. Add a pint of water to the tray,and add a seperate tray of water on the shelf underneath for moisture. Now cook pork for at least 6hrs, turning 180 degrees every hour. If you can let it go for 8hrs,do.

In the last two hours of pork cooking, prepare your baps. Take all dry igredients and mix in a bowl on low speed using a dough hook. Now on a medium speed add coconut oil and slowly add water until dough holds together. Place on a floured suface and knead for 10 mins,into a smooth ball. Place dough into a greased bowl and leave to prove for 1hr or so until it has doubled in size. Now divide the dough into your desired size. Roll ball into semolina and place in tray,be sure to flatten a little. Cook on 160C for 18mins.

When pork is done,up to 100C in the centre. Wrap in foil and let rest for 40 mins.

Now take those sweet beautiful pork juices and pour into a pot. Add mother sauce ingredients. Reduce in pot, skimming of  fat as you go. When your sauce is glossy and silky its done. Taste. Pause. That’s why it is called the mother sauce.

Take pork and pull apart discarding bones and fat , leave for the dog. In a container mix pulled pork with a helping of mother sauce.

Slice a fresh bap and stack pork tall,drizzle with tomato ketchup and Eat.

Enjoy.