I devised this recipe whilst nursing a pretty horrendous hangover with a ginger beer in hand. Slow cooked pork and ginger beer, why the hell not?
There are lots of recipes for pork cooked in coca cola so I swapped it for ginger beer and some fresh orange and bay leaves. The sugar in the ginger beer slightly catches the skin to give a caramelised edge and the ginger, bay and orange create an aromatic cooking liquor for the meat.
I mixed the meat juices with some apple sauce and added lots of chilli to serve.
Serves 6
For the Pork:
2kg half a shoulder of pork from the neck end (boneless)
2 cans ginger beer (330ml)
5 bay leaves
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large orange
2 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Method:
Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3/ 325°F
Place the pork in a large roasting dish with a little water on the bottom
Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl and pour over the top of the pork
Cover with tin foil and leave in oven for 4 hours
Remove from oven and leave to sit for a good half an hour under the foil
Shred with two large forks pulling the meat apart from each other, pour into dish and decorate with slices of orange
Spare some of the cooking juice to mix with apple sauce but keep the rest with the shredded meat to keep it juicy and tender