Chances are you’ve probably eaten at REDS, which seems to have become Leeds’ go-to place for an American feast. Problem is it’s often so busy you could probably make your own version in the time it takes to get a table. So why not do just that? Go all out on the pulled pork flat feast with tender meat, crispy crackling, a sweet and spicy apple slaw, and a kicking BBQ sauce that makes the best ever smoky beans.

Main ingredients

2kg pork shoulder

½ tsp wholegrain mustard

Pinch salt

300ml bottle of cider (Savannah Dry is good)

For the slaw

2 carrots

1 small red cabbage

1 small chilli

1 small apple

100ml cider vinegar

50ml soy sauce

2 ½ tbsp mayo

For the BBQ Sauce and Beans

500g carton of tomato pasata

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp brown sugar

½ tsp cayenne pepper

1 square of dark chocolate

1 tin of red kidney beans

1 tin of haricot beans

– Preheat the oven to 120c/fan100/½ gas-mark.

– Gently wash the pork shoulder and release it of any string it may be wrapped in. Dry with kitchen paper and put in a large roasting tin with the fat facing up then slash the top with a sharp knife.

– Rub on the mustard and salt. Pour in the cider, then cover with a couple of sheets of tin foil. Roast for about four hours in the oven. You don’t need to do anything with the pork in this time, just leave it there to get tender.

– In the meantime make the slaw. Peel and grate the carrots, shred the cabbage, cut the chilli into small strips and then peel and finely cut the apple into strips around the core. Mix together in a bowl then pour over the cider vinegar and soy. Finally, spoon in the mayo and stir. Cover with cling film and leave to sit in the fridge so that the flavours develop.

– When the pork is reaching the end, make the BBQ sauce. Put the pasata in a saucepan with the paprika, sugar and cayenne pepper then gently bring to boil. Season with salt and pepper and when it has thickened slightly add the chocolate and allow it to melt in. Pour about ¾ of the sauce into a different container to later mix with the pork and then add the beans to the pan. Cook for about 10 minutes until the beans are heated through and the sauce is thick around them.

– About 10 minutes before the end of cooking, preheat a grill. Once the pork is cooked, remove from the oven and pull off the fat which covers the shoulder. Put on a separate baking tray, dry with some kitchen paper then put under the grill for about 10 minutes, turning once in between, so that you get a crispy crackling to serve with the delicate pork.

– To serve, take a fork to the pork and pull. Mix in some of the reserved BBQ sauce and serve with any bread of choice for a pulled pork sandwich (tiger buns work well). Break up the crackling to go with the pork, serve up the beans and apple slaw and tuck into a feast which could rival that of REDS any day.

Wil Law