It's rare that I ever have leftover pulled pork in the fridge. Most of the time, I'm delivering pork to a customer or I'm hosting enough people at my own house to devour it all. So, when I found a zip-top bag full of the porcine goodness one early Saturday morning, I invented this sandwich (or "Sammich" as I like to say):
Imagine the yolk oozing into the pork juices, and the toasted baguette soaking it all in. Feel the crunch of the edge of the egg white and the crispy edges of the bark from the pulled pork as they mingle together in your mouth... yes, this; THIS was a good sammich!
You will need:
- A generous plug of pulled pork
- An egg (sunny-side up)
- Some good bread (Ciabatta, or French Baguette rolls work well)
This sammich is easy. Well; I mean, if you've already invested 8-12 hours
slow-smoking your pork shoulder, the rest is easy! Toast the inside of your sammich bread. My toaster has a "Bagel" setting that I use to toast only what will become the inside surface of the bread. Butter both sides when they come out of the toaster. Warm up your pork, and portion a hunk onto the bottom of the sammich. While the bottom of the sammich starts to absorb the pork fat, turn your attention to the egg.
Runny yolks freak some people out. This sammich is not for those people! While the FDA would like nothing better than to snatch this egg right out of your hand for merely THINKING about eating the yolk raw, I plan to take my chances. If you're super freaked-out, you an always buy pasteurized eggs or you could cook it a little more. I HIGHLY recommend a runny yolk though, as it's flavor really enhances the pork. The first step to the perfect sunny-side egg is a good egg pan.
Eggs are sneaky. if there's a burr or a hot-spot in your pan, the egg will find it, stick to it, and make your life difficult. This is why I have an "Egg Pan!" This is a high quality, heavy, anodized aluminum pan with a good non-stick surface and a tight fitting lid. When you buy this pan, you'll need to declare to your family, your household, your neighborhood, and your entire kingdom that this amazing piece of kitchen hardware is your "Egg Pan!" It will cook nothing but eggs, omelets, and possibly bacon. Nothing will touch it but silicon spatulas and wooden spoons!
Heat up your egg pan on high heat, and toss in just a small dab of butter. When the butter sizzles, slowly and carefully ease your egg(s) into the pan. Immediately reduce the head to medium. Be patient, resist the urge to slide the eggs around. Once the bottoms turn white, add about a teaspoon of water to the pan and put on the lid to trap the steam. The steam will cook the albumen (the gooey part of the egg right under the yolk). With some gentle prodding, you can "pop" the eggs loose and slide them around your pan. I like a crispy edge!
Slide the egg right out of the pan and onto your sammich. Don't worry if you break the yolk during the process, you'll break it anyway once you take your first bite. If you've done this correctly, the top bun will soak in some yolk while the bottom bun soaks in some pork fat, When you bite into the sammich, you'll feel some crunch from the toasted surface, the edge of the egg, and the bark on the pork. Your tongue will be coated with egg yolk and pork fat while your teeth pull that glorious pork apart and mix it all together! Mmm MMM, Sho' am good!
