Pulled Pork and Crackling

Mmm..tender roast pork with all the trimmings (including crackling). What could be better?

Well, another 4 leftover meals from a roast that only cost £3.50 in the first place sounds pretty fine to me.

So, our Easter Monday roast made filled rolls, Peking Pancakes, Puffy Porky Pies and Pork Chow Mein.

Sorry, but there wasn't any leftover crackling.


If you have a slow cooker, Pulled Pork is the easiest roast in the world to make.
Cut the skin and fat off your meat- this is going to make the crackling- and put the joint in your slow cooker with a glass of red wine, a glass of water, 1 tsp salt, two bay leaves, some small peeled onions, two tsp of brown sugar and 2 tsp of paprika.
Leave to cook on Low for 6-7 hours, according to the power settings of your cooker.

The meat is cooked when it can be pulled apart with a fork ( or probably a spoon!). Drain off the juice, wrap the pork in foil and leave to rest whilst you thicken the gravy.

Pulled Pork ready for resting

For the last hour of cooking time, make your accompaniments- roast potatoes, parsnips, veg- whatever you can cram into a hot oven whilst you make the crackling.

Heat the oven to 210 degrees.

Take the pork skin, scald it with boiling water and dry thoroughly. Score the surface with a sharp knife and lay in a baking tray. 

Rub vegetable oil over the surface and sprinkle with rock salt.

Bake for 20 minutes or so, until crispy enough to cut into strips to serve with your roast.

Crispy crackling

Still lots of meat left over of course.

Loads of leftover pork

I divided it up into 4. The first batch went into Puffy Porky Pies ( with lashings of leftover gravy).

I try to keep trimmings of pastry in the freezer, ready for defrosting and rolling out to make pie tops but here is a quick method of making some puffish pastry.

Pulse 180 g of flour and 90g of butter together in a food processor.

Blitz flour and butter

Add 180g of cream cheese or petits suisses

Add in the cream cheese

Pulse to a soft dough. It will be very soft- so needs to be wrapped and refrigerated for an hour before rolling out as thinly as you can on a well floured board.

Wrap and chill your dough

Meanwhile mix the portion of leftover pork with gravy and place in a pie dish. Top with your pastry. Trim and bake at 180 degrees until golden brown.

Puffy Porky Pie

You could put the next lot of leftover meat into sandwiches, baguettes or rolls- with just some brown sauce to accompany it. Yum!

Or be a little more adventurous by wrapping it in steamed Chinese pancakes with spring onions, sliced cucumber and hoisin sauce to  make Peking Pork Pancakes:

Peking Pork Pancakes

Or a healthier version, wrapped in lettuce leaves to make Asian Pork Parcels with a dipping sauce:

Asian Pork Parcels

I made a Pork Chow Mein. Equally simple.

Cook and drain some egg noodles ( and dress with some sesame oil if you have it).

Egg noodles cooked, drained and dressed

Then stir fry some spring onions, green beans or mangetout and mushrooms:

Stir fry some veg

Add the pork:

Pork in the wok

Add 2 tsp of Chinese 5 spice, 2 tbsp each of soy sauce and chilli sauce:

Add your flavourings

Add some beansprouts, the noodles and a splash of water or rice wine:

Noodles and beansprouts in

Et voilà:

Pork Chow Mein

Any leftovers go well with some miso paste and hot water to make a Miso Soup:

Miso Noodle Soup

Or make little saucer-sized pancakes with a pinch of turmeric for colour and fill with your leftover Chow Mein to make Ban Khoai:

Ban Khoai

Phew! A veritable pork pilgrimage. I hope there's something here to appeal to everyone.

Well, perhaps not everyone.