Cooking with Haircut: Chinese Spiced Pork Casserole

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Location
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It's been a bit of time since I've done a cooking thread so thought I'd address that with this dish.
It's a slow roasted pork casserole with chinese spices.
It was my first time cooking it and, as is usually my style, I just threw in a load of things that seemed as though they would work.
Turned out pretty nice so thought I'd post it up here.

Firstly the ingredients.

700g of pork shoulder
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 medium onions, or 1 large onion.
1 red chilli
1 piece of ginger about an inch cube
2 cloves of garlic
400ml water
1 tsp corn flour
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 star anise
1/2 tsp sichuan peppercorns
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
4 cloves
1 piece of cinnamon stick about 2 inches long.
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp chinese shaohsing wine (or can use sherry if you don't have this)
2 tbsp honey

(Serves 4)

Firstly dice up the pork into cubes
pork1.jpg


Then add 1 tbsp of oil to an oven proof dish on a medium/high heat on the hob.
Add the pork to this and brown (it's best to do this a few pieces at a time otherwise the pork just stews and we want to get the caramalised brown colour)

While the pork is cooking finely dice the onion, chilli, ginger and garlic.
pork2.jpg


When all the pork has been browned then add the other tablespoon of oil to the dish and add the onions, chilli, ginger and garlic.

Cook for 5 minutes, or until the onion starts to brown.
Now add the browned meat back to the dish and add 400ml of water and the corn flour, cayenne pepper, star anise, peppercorns, caraway seeds, cloves and cinnamon at this point.
Stir until all mixed in, then turn the heat down and simmer gently for 15 minutes.
At this point pre-heat your oven to around 160 degrees C.

After the 15 minutes has gone by add the soy sauce, shaohsing wine and honey stir them all in and place the lid on your dish and put it in the oven.
pork3.jpg


Leave in the over for around 2 hours and after this time the meat will be incredibly tender and aromatic.

I've served it with some boiled rice and steamed mange tout here and garnished with sliced spring onions and pickled ginger.

pork4.jpg
 
looks very nice, is that le cruset casserole dish i see?

It is indeed a Le Creuset.

And seek, it did get that dirty from that meal. That's what browning meat, cooking onions and then simmering for 15 minutes does!
The dish itself was originally my Gran's and then got passed down to me. It's probably at least as old as I am so maybe it doesn't look brand new, but I'm sure it's got at least as long left again.

I'm thinking of treating myself to another piece of Le Creuset soon, probably one of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creuset-Cas.../B0000DIO0U/ref=pd_ts_kh_18?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen
 
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