THE ART OF FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER

This cross between a barbecue and a roast dinner is the perfect dish as the seasons change

The border between seasons is a funny old place to be this year. The produce in the grocery stores is beginning to shift, as it always does. The berries, broad beans and corn are on their way out; the plums and damsons are coming in. Meanwhile the weather can’t decide if it’s quite finished with August, or ready to move immediately into November.

In the midst of this week’s mini heatwave I was planning a barbecue for the weekend, but one glance at the forecast put paid to that. The trouble is, once you’ve started down the barbecue path it’s very hard to turn around. Now I’m craving all those great American accoutrements – cold, creamy coleslaw, French’s mustard, soft, sweet buns, burger pickles – so I have decided on a compromise of sorts. A huge pork shoulder, rubbed in salt and spices, cooked low and slow until it can be pulled off the bone with a spoon, tossed with a tangy barbecue sauce and piled into buns. A meal that could be cooked inside but eaten out: messily, joyfully feeding a crowd.

I find I like the idea of barbecue sauce more than I actually enjoy the real deal. It’s often too sweet when I want more of an umami tang. This incarnation, I think, hits the spot. A few plums are halved and cooked alongside the pork, soaking up the juices and bringing a nice tartness to the sauce, which you could blitz if you wanted a smoother, more traditional finish; I quite like it chunky and rustic. I’d serve this with a spicy coleslaw, buns, and a load of roasted (or barbecued) corn on the cob.