Pressure cooker pulled pork burgers

One of the extremely generous wedding presents that Teresa and I received last year was a pressure cooker (thanks Paul and Bel!). Pressure cookers have seen a recent resurgence in popularity over the last couple of years, which is most likely driven by the fact that pressure cooking is an extremely fast method of cooking, something which is highly valued in today’s time-poor society. I had never used a pressure cooker before, so I figured making the classic American barbeque favourite of pulled pork (typically cooked by smoking over a barbeque) would be an excellent opportunity to put our new pressure cooker through its paces.

This recipe is provided courtesy of Jessica of Feed the People – check out her blog here.

Pressure cooker pulled pork burgers

Ingredients:

• 2kg boneless pork shoulder (NB: sometimes labelled as forequarter in Australia)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup tomato ketchup (or tomato paste)
• 2 tablespoons cider or white vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 x 330 ml bottle beer
• white crusty bread rolls

Method:

1. Grind the spices together in a spice grinder until fine. In a large bowl mix together the ground spices, brown sugar, 2 tablespoons ketchup, vinegar, garlic and beer.  Season well with salt and pepper.


Marinade ingredients - a full bodied, fruity beer like the Little Creatures Pale Ale works like a treat

2. Cut your pork in half to fit comfortably in your pressure cooker.
3. Place the pork in the marinade and rub to cover.  Refrigerate and leave to marinade for 20 minutes.


Leave the pork to marinate for at least 20 minutes - longer if you can!

4. Place a metal steamer or small wire rack on the bottom of your pressure cooker. This will prevent the pork stewing in the marinade and sticking to the bottom of the pot.
5. After the pork as marinaded add to the pressure cooker with all the marinade. Top with 1 cup of water and place over a medium heat.
6. When the liquid comes to a simmer, cover with the lid and cook at medium high pressure for 1 hour (adjusting the heat as required).
7. Turn off the heat and cool until pressure has reduced.
8. When safe to open the lid, remove the pork and the metal steamer.
9. Skim off any fat from the marinade and return to a medium heat.  Add the remaining tomato ketchup and simmer for 10- 15 minutes, stirring, until the sauce has thickened.
10. In the meantime, remove the fat from the pork and discard.


Shredding the pork

11. Using two forks or your fingers shred the meat and place in a bowl.  Pour over as much barbecue sauce as desired, mix through and serve in a crusty white bread roll drizzled with more barbecue sauce.

Traditionally, pulled pork is just served by itself in a crusty bread roll, or over rice.  Teresa and I decided to make things a little bit more interesting and add some tomato relish, gourmet lettuce, slices of vine-ripened tomato and tabasco, for an added kick.

While I was making this dish, I thought about the role the slow cooker had left to play given the revival of pressure cookers in recent times.  In summary, I think the slow cooker is definitely an appliance which still remains relevant:

• Supervision - I think the benefit of the slow cooker is that it’s very much a “turn on, leave and forget” sort of appliance, whereas with the pressure cooker I found myself checking on it every 10-15 minutes to make sure it hadn’t exploded or suffered a catastrophic loss of pressure (although that may be just because I’m a newbie).  It’s also fun to open the lid of a slow cooker to stir things around, something which you can’t do with a pressure cooker.
• Method - dishes cooked in a slow cooker also stew in their own juices, whereas a pressure cooker raises the meat/vegetables above the liquid.
• Capacity - unless you forked out for a gigantic pressure cooker, the use of the trivet and steaming tray means you can physically fit less stuff in a pressure cooker.  Looking to cook 4-6 lamb shanks at a time?  Turn to the slow cooker.

Under pressure: with the winning combination of smokey barbeque sauce and juicy, fall-apart tender meat, pulled pork burgers are a summer favourite and, with the help of pressure cooker, can be whipped up relatively quickly.