If, like me, you love your leftovers, Sunday is the perfect day to cook a feast large enough to make extra food for the week ahead. Thick end of pork belly is one of my family’s favourite roasting joints, with a strong ratio of crackling to meat; the meat itself is super-rich and fatty, so even a small portion satiates. The leftovers are delicious cold, and even just a couple of tablespoons can be turned into fancy sliders. If you are lucky enough to have any crackling left over, too, chop it up finely and turn that crisp goodness through the pulled meat.
Leftover roast pork sliders with fennel, pear and gherkin slaw
There’s a fair bit of work involved with slow roasting and pulling meat, especially for sliders, but each one needs only a small amount of meat, so they’re a great way to use up leftovers – just two tablespoons of leftover meat is enough to stuff a slider bun generously.
Few supermarkets stock slider buns, so if you can’t find any, use halved hot dog buns, or make your own. I make mine with whole wheat, using a standard bread recipe, and they’re surprisingly quick to make if you use fast-action yeast.
I made a fennel, pear and gherkin slaw to go with the meat, and used some of the gherkin brine as a dressing. The fresh and sour slaw cuts nicely through the deliciously fatty pork, and fills out the bun nicely. The combination works very well, but any sliced veg would do the trick, so use up whatever you have to hand.
Makes 1
30g leftover roast pork
Leftover roasting juices, gravy, stock or water
1 tbsp barbecue sauce – shop-bought or homemade
1 small slider bun, or 1 hot dog bun cut in half
For the slaw (optional)
10g gherkin
10g fennel
10g pear (or apple)
1 tsp gherkin brine
1 stem parsley
If your leftover pork is slow-cooked already, simply shred the meat with two forks, then pop in a pan with the barbecue sauce and reheat gently.
If, however, your leftover roast pork needs tenderising further, put it in a small, hard-wearing pan and pour over enough leftover roasting juices, gravy, stock or water to cover it by about 2cm. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes, until the meat is fork tender. Towards the end of the cooking, take off the lid and allow the liquid to reduce to a thick sauce. Shred the meat as above, then mix with a tablespoon of optional barbecue sauce. Season, then serve in a slider bun or halved hotdog bun and topped with the optional slaw.
Finely slice the gherkin, fennel and pear (or apple), dress with the gherkin brine and the finely chopped parsley stem, then season to taste.
