Today I picked the recipe in a slightly different way than usual. Ordinarily I just go for whatever seems exciting or whatever we fancy eating but this time I wanted to use a couple of things from my pantry. This is how we ended up making these Barbecue Pulled "Pork" Sandwiches from Joni's blog. Sometime in the last year or two I heard about a new thing in vegan cooking, using jackfruit to imitate pulled pork! Crazy times! Now I'd never actually heard of pulled pork but I was still excited to try something new & I eventually tracked down canned jackfruit in water (as opposed to syrup) at an ethnic grocery store in Reading when I was visiting one of my best friends last summer.
I was pleased to see that this recipe also used a lot of barbecue sauce, we had some left over from a recipe we made months ago and whilst I didn't particularly love it then I didn't want to throw an almost full bottle away!
Obviously we needed to make some buns to enjoy our pulled "pork" in and it only felt right to use a recipe from Celine & Joni's book Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites. I chose the Scarborough Fair Buns for no other reason than that they sounded good & I had all of the ingredients in the house! Joni also suggests serving these with coleslaw so that's just what I did - nothing fancy here, just grated cabbage, carrot, some Veganaise & a bit of wholegrain mustard. Kinda like the one I made for Come Dine With Me back in April.
The Barbecue Pulled "Pork" was really easy to throw together, it needs to spend an hour simmering but that's pretty low stress cooking if you ask me!
I feel bad saying that we didn't love these but we kinda didn't, we loved the herby buns and we were definitely into the jackfruit-as-pulled-pork thing but that barbecue sauce that we didn't love before? Yeah, strangely we still didn't love it, and unsurprisingly when the sauce makes up the majority of the recipes flavour it's kinda important to like it! On the plus side I still have a can of jackfruit and we will be making these again, we'll just be using a different barbecue sauce!
These look really good, especially the buns, but I'm with you. I'm picky about barbeque sauce.
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad about the barbecue sauce! The sandwich does look really good, I bet it can taste amazing with the right sauce. I keep reading about jackfruit but I've never seen it anywhere - will have to keep an eye out. Hope you still had a great football Sunday!
ReplyDeleteWe sure did! The game we're most excited about is only just starting and I'm still munching on the leftover coleslaw!
DeleteDespite the bad BBQ sauce, your sandwich still looks lovely. I've never tried jackfruit before because it scares me! I don't know if you have access to VegNews magazine, but their April 2011 issue has an amazing recipe for barbecue sauce. It's my favorite and I make it often.
ReplyDeleteI've only done the jackfruit thing once before, but I've been meaning to do it again. I like the idea of smothering it with barbecue sauce, so something like this could be the way to go! The barbecue sauce from Vegan Diner is the only one I've made myself, but it was good! Pretty sure I added chipotle powder, but I add that stuff to anything that I can.
ReplyDeleteAhhh so that's what the jackfruit is supposed to represent! Pulled pork, now I am less scared.Thank you for giving me the courage to try a new vegan staple.
ReplyDeleteThis is so funny, you have been the coment before mine on at least the last ten blogs I've read. I've been here reading a few of your nifty posts and even read about your great wedding, how do I follow?
Too bad the sauce wasn't great :(
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to try the jackfruit carnitas/pulled pork thing for a long time, but one reason or another I still haven't made it. It's incredible how much it looks like meat!
I have been meaning to try this jackfruit-as-pulled-pork thing for years, and obviously I should get with the program already and track some down, 'cause that sandwich looks great! Better luck with your next bottle of barbecue sauce :)
ReplyDeletewell, you win some and you lose some - right? I like hearing realistic kitchen stories like this though... without the spirit of experimentation, life would be so boring! :)
ReplyDeleteI am just rewatching the first season of Dexter. She constantly talks about pulled pork sandwiches. Now I feel like I need to watch the next episode with one of these in my hand. Although I am the pickiest person ever when it comes to bbq sauces.
ReplyDeleteI'm still yet to try a good bbq sauce recipe, I'm very picky about the flavour of them so I feel your disappointment. But the jackfruit looks yummo, it's been too long since I've had some!
ReplyDeleteSouth Ayrshire is a jackfruit desert otherwise I'd be making this right now. It looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteColeslaw is practically a health food right!? Must be at least 2 of 5 a day...
I've made a dud pulled jackfruit too and I'm pretty sure the sauce was to blame! Your buns look fantastic though, can't go wrong with fresly baked bread.
ReplyDeleteIt looks great, shame about the sauce. I can recommend bbq sauce in Vegan with a Vengeance, it's got pomegranate molasses in it and liquid smoke, if you've not tried that one before. I put a bit of sweet chilli sauce in it rather than chilli powder.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried the VWAV BBQ sauce yet, I'll have to try that one with the next jar of jackfruit!
DeleteEven though you didn't like to BBQ sauce they look fantastic! I've only tried it once but I love pulled pork jackfruit, the texture is so cool.
ReplyDeleteOh hon, so sorry about the BBQ sauce. I know how it goes. I don't think I am picky about my BBQ sauces, but I do have a favorite: the pomegranate BBQ sauce from Vegan With A Vengeance, only HOLD the pomegranate. I think it's the best ever. Here's the recipe with a few minor changes: http://cracktheplates.com/2010/09/the-ultimate-vegan-bbq-sauce/ Let me know if you try it!!
ReplyDeleteAs this is the second recommendation for that very BBQ sauce recipe I'll definitely be giving it a try.
DeleteYay! Good! But don't use pomegranate molasses as called for. It's too floral!!
Deletepulled pork out of jackfruit?! this is great! I have yet to find jackfruit in water...it's syrup galore around here!
ReplyDeleteWhat sort of flavour does the jackfruit have, or is it more kind of there for the texture? Intriguing!
ReplyDeleteI would say that with such an overpoweringly flavoursome sauce like barbecue the jackfruit is definitely just for texture.
DeleteThis looks like something I must try! Your bread looks great too, I'm normally far too lazy to make my own but this looks so nice :D
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