The Baking Biker Chic

I’ve never eaten pulled pork and when we used to serve it in our wee coffee house (long story, but it was the dream that never was) I was always intrigued by its popularity. So when I discovered that you could make something very similar from jackfruit, well I just had to try it.

There’s loads of recipes out there and as always I recommend you play about with them to find the taste that suits you. I made this and served with nachos, Violife cheese and I made guacamole too (pictured).

You need to set aside some time to do this and it might be worth thinking about doing doubling or trebling the recipe – this is addictive stuff and the possibilities for serving are endless. Try:

• On a baguette with vegan slaw and how about some baked sweet potato chips too
• In a baked potato topped with cheese with some crisp salad
• Nachos with cheese, guacamole, salsa and anything else you fancy
• Make a shortcrust or hot water pastry pie, delicious hot or cold so perfect for lunch boxes (pictured)
• Prepare a portobello mushroom and place the BBQ jackfruit on top, bake for 15 minutes at 180 and serve with corn on the cob

One tin of jackfruit in brine will serve about four people if you are feeling generous:

• Tin of jackfruit in brine
• Half a small white onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed or finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp of hot chilli powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce
• 1/4 cup of water

1. First step is to prepare the jackfruit and after rinsing in cold water you want to remove the core, keeping the fleshy, fibrous strands. Within these strands you’ll find seeds and the pods – remove these too. Take your time, you want to preserve as much of the strands as you possibly can
2. Toss the prepared jackfruit in the chilli powder, black pepper, smoked paprika, tomato puree and brown sugar and set aside or a few minutes while you prepare the onion and garlic
3. Place the chopped onion and crushed/chopped garlic in a pan and saute until the onion is translucent. I use a chilli infused olive oil for this to give it a little extra kick
4. Mix the BBQ sauce with the water
5. Add the seasoned jackfruit to the onion and garlic and warm through slowly for a few minutes before adding the BBQ sauce and water mixture
6. Simmer for about 20 minutes, keeping an eye on it so that it doesn’t dry out – simply add a little water if it does
7. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees
8. Transfer the jackfruit to an oven proof dish and using two forks, you want to pull the fibres apart. At this stage you may find stray seeds or pods – just remove them – they’re okay to eat but they spoil the texture of this dish
9. Add a little water and put the ovendish in the oven for 10 minutes – keeping a close eye on it at all times as you don’t want this mixture to dry out.

All that’s left to do now is to serve and enjoy!