Ingredients
- <ul> <li>good splash olive oil</li> <li>1kg pork shoulder, cut into 2cm chunks</li> <li>1-2 tbsp honey (if you have stem ginger in syrup, you can add a tablespoon instead of the honey)</li> <li>1 tbsp Chinese five spice powder</li> <li>1 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns</li> <li>2 tbsp soy sauce</li> <li>approx 500ml water</li> <li>Another squeeze of honey or maple syrup and soy sauce</li> <li>3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed</li> <li>To serve Mixed leaves, beansprouts, radishes, spring onions, sprinkle of sesame seeds</li> </ul>
Set the oven to 170 degrees/gas 3. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan that can go in the oven. If you don’t have one that is oven proof, don’t worry; you can just transfer the seared pork to a casserole dish.
Fry the pork in the very hot oil until starting to brown and char. If your pan isn’t big enough, you may need to do this in two batches. When you’re starting to get somewhere with the colour, add the honey, which will move things along. Then add the spices and peppercorns as well as the soy sauce. After a few more minutes of cooking, things should be a nice dark brown colour. Carefully add the water, which should de-glaze the pan, and cover with foil.
Cook the pork in the oven for about an hour. I found that most of the water remained and that very little had cooked off, but if you find all the water evaporating, keep the pork topped up with some more water.
Put the pan back on the hob and simmer until the sauce reduces right down. At this stage you should taste the pork and make sure it’s quite tender and tasty. Mine needed a bit more help, so I added another squeeze of honey, some garlic and another splash of soy sauce. The heat will cook off any liquid and once you have a sticky enough and very tasty dish, then leave it to settle for a few minutes while you serve up your salad or rice or vegetables. This was fine re-heated the next day.
