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Cool Jerk

We had this at the weekend with Jamie’s four grain salad and an apple cider slaw. It was a pretty successful combination, a bit of a mash up of Jamaica meets Jamie meets the deep south.

The sauce was delicious and a breeze to make, once again it was from Mary Ellen McTague (I'm liking the way Mary rolls!)
The pork was pretty good too but didn't shred quite as I would have liked it to .. I need to do some work on that.  Plus I missed a bit of crackling, I think the extra fatty crunch would have gone down a treat. Something to think about for the next time.

Jerk sauce

This goes with just about anything. I had to beg our restaurant manager Siobhan Sewell for her awesome recipe, and she relented only when I promised not to give it to anyone else, so let's keep this between ourselves. Siobhan served it with her jerk pork (below), which was by far the best thing at a recent barbie, which was annoying because I'd done the rest of the food. I've left all quantities as described to me: stealing the recipe and then messing with it would be a step too far.

Ingredients

6 spring onions, trimmed
1 onion, peeled
2 scotch bonnet chillies 
10g fresh thyme leaves
Oil, for frying
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp grated nutmeg 
1 clove garlic, peeled
2.5cm piece root ginger, peeled
1 tbsp ground allspice
50g brown sugar
80g cider vinegar
80g worcestershire sauce
75ml soy sauce
100ml pineapple juice
450ml tomato ketchup
2 tbsp molasses
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Jerk Pork

Method

Chop the spring onions, onion, chilli and thyme, then sweat in a little oil on a medium heat. Add all the other ingredients and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool, then blitz smooth. The sauce will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.
The thing that makes jerk "jerk" is the scotch bonnet chilli and pimento – you can add anything else you like, but the scotch bonnet and pimento are absolute musts. Start this in the oven, slow-cook for a few hours, then finish on the barbecue for that smoky flavour. Serves four to six.

Ingredients
2 scotch bonnet chilli
5g allspice (plus extra for throwing on the coals)
2g black pepper
1 spring onion
1 clove garlic, peeled
10g fresh chopped ginger
1kg pork shoulder
100g lemon juice
75ml cider (optional)
100ml water
1 handful wood chips (I favour applewood)

Method

A day ahead, put the chilli, spices, spring onion, garlic and ginger in a food processor and blend to a coarse paste. Rub the shoulder all over with lemon juice – once upon a time, this was for hygiene purposes, but nowadays it is as much for flavour. Leave for 10 minutes, then dry with kitchen towel and rub the spice mix all over the meat. Refrigerate overnight.
Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Put the shoulder in an oven tray, roast for 20 minutes, then pour the cider and water into the tray and cover with foil. Turn down the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2 and roast for two hours, basting the meat with the liquid in the tray every 40 minutes or so.
Now it's time to smoke the roast pork over the dying embers of the barbecue (or over a very low gas). Throw a handful of wood chips and a few allspice berries on the coals, lay the pork on the grill, shut the lid and leave for 15-20 minutes.
Shred the meat with two forks – it will fall apart easily – and serve with some jerk sauce.


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