Eats/Reads

Meat:         3-4   pounds   boneless pork loin, or pork shoulder/pork butt Marinade: 1/2  cup   granulated white sugar ▢ 4  teaspoons   salt ▢ 1  teaspoon   five spice powder ▢ 1/2  teaspoon   white pepper ▢ 1 teaspoon   sesame oil ▢ 2  tablespoon   Shaoxing rice wine ▢ 4  tablespoon   soy sauce ▢ 2  tablespoon   hoisin sauce ▢ 4  teaspoons   molasses ▢ ▢ 3-6   cloves   finely minced  garlic For sauce:        2-4 tbsp honey        2 tbsp hot water Original recipe calls for red food colouring for that Chinese restaurant look. I never use that.  Mix all marinade ingredients in a big bowl or ziplock bag. Add meat, and cover  in plastic or seal tightly. Place in the fridge for several hours, even overnight.  For pork loin: Remove meat from marinade and let drain on a plate.  Preheat oven to 200C (f...

We've switched to a Delia recipe for crispier crackling and moister meat. Here are the basics... pork loin joint onion sea salt pepper Pre-heat the oven to 240C/475F. Score the skin of the pork. Peel and cut onion in half. Now place the pork in a tin, skin-side up, and wedge onion underneath it. Take about 1 tbsp of crushed salt crystals and sprinkle it evenly over the skin, pressing it in as much as you can. Place the pork on a high shelf in the oven and roast it for 25 minutes. Turn the heat down to 190C/375F, and calculate the total cooking time allowing 35 minutes to the pound. The way to tell if the meat is cooked is to insert a skewer in the thickest part and the juices that run out should be absolutely clear without any trace of pinkness. When the pork is cooked remove it from the oven and give it at least 30 minutes resting time before carving. Now you can make a gravy with the charred onion and fat left in the pan.

I was totally winging it with this one and it came out very tasty! I wanted to stew some meat because it makes for great family meals - very easy to eat for the family member who still doesn't have all her teeth. The rest was just a mix of what I remember from making other stews and Marcella Hazan tomato sauces (ie, LOTS of olive oil!). We ate it with pasta but it could also have been served over rice, with potatoes - or even with potatoes cooked in it. 2T veg oil 800g pork 1/2 cup olive oil 2 onions, chopped 2 medium carrots, sliced thin 1/2 courgette, sliced thin About 1/4-1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced thin 1/2 head garlic, chopped 2 splashes dry sherry 1 tsp oregano 1 enormous bay leaf 3 400ml/14 ox tins tomato 250ml/1 cup chicken stock 1 Tbsp flour (Would have added dried basil if I'd had it. Instead, chopped up some fresh basil and cilantro and used that as a garnish before serving) Heat veg oil in Dutch oven until very hot. Add cubed meat and brown on all sides. Set aside. Add...

The chicken katsu was so good, we decided to try pork katsu. 4 thin pork shoulder steaks, about 500g total Everything else the same as the chicken katsu I trimmed the fat from the pork steaks and whacked them thin with the flat of a big knife. The pork was perfect at 4 minutes a side. We doubled the hot chilis in the tonkatsu sauce, and SMCC thought it was spicy enough, but I could have had it much spicier. We did red cabbage as a side dish. We sliced a whole cabbage thin, steamed it until it was soft, tossed it in a little toasted sesame oil and served it with a little light soy sauce. Quite nice.