Roast Char Sui Pork with Asparagus and Egg Fried Rice

I haven't done any Chinese cooking in a while but Mum and I were tempted by a new bright pink cookbook, The Sweet Mandarin Cookbook, so I had to give one of their recipes a go! I also like this recipe because the ingredients used to make the sauce are ones I would normally use in Chinese cooking anyway so didn't involve me spending ridiculous amounts on one-off exotic ingredients. This pork dish uses the pork tenderloin (basically the fillet) which is actually very good value for money compared to beef and chicken fillets.  Buying from a good butcher will ensure the pork is from high welfare farms and trimmed properly so that it isn't too fatty. For four people I used two medium sized tenderloins, approx 300-400g each.

The trick to this recipe is leaving the meat to marinade, and the rice to cool, over night, however I tried doing both in the afternoon before eating that evening and it was still delicious. The original recipe uses hoisin sauce and dark soy sauce which aren't gluten free, however some supermarkets sell a Tamari soy sauce which is a good gluten free replacement for both.

Ingredients serves 4
2 medium sized pork tenderloins (from high welfare farms)
3 cloves garlic crushed (2 for the pork, 1 for the rice)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons Tamari soy sauce
2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
2 teaspoons sesame oil (I used sesame seeds instead)

enough rice for 4 people
3 eggs beaten
3 spring onions finely chopped

1 large bunch of asparagus


The night before/afternoon: start by placing your pork tenderloins in a large dish. In a saucepan mix the brown sugar, honey, soy sauce, rice wine, paprika, five spice and sesame oil over a high heat until the mixture starts to boil. Leave to cool.

Massage the tenderloins with 2 cloves of crushed garlic and pour over the cooled marinade, again rubbing into the meat. Wrap the dish with foil and leave in the fridge until you want to start cooking.
Add the rice to boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Drain and leave to cool before placing in the fridge. Cooling the rice down helps to create that fried rice texture when you later cook it.

The evening you want to eat: preheat the oven to 200C. Remove the pork from the fridge and place in a roasting dish, pouring on any excess marinade. Cook for 20 minutes before removing from the oven, turning and basting in the excess juices. At this heat I would keep an eye throughout because there is so much sugar in the sauce. If it looks like it is beginning to burn up, add 200ml of boiling water to the pan, it will help make a sauce at the end too. Cook for a further 20 minutes.

In the meantime you can make your egg fried rice. In a wok, heat some sunflower oil on a high heat. Add your beaten eggs and scramble. Add your chopping spring onion and crushed garlic, continuously stirring so that it doesn't burn. After a couple of minutes add your rice, turn down the heat, and mix in well to break down any clumps where the rice has stuck together. Cook for about 10 minutes to get the heat through the rice, and add a dash of soy sauce for flavour.

In another saucepan bring your asparagus just to the boil. Quickly drain, and about 5 minutes before you are ready to remove the pork, fry in a griddle pan with a splash of shaoxing rice wine for flavour.

Remove the pork from the oven and slice diagonally. Arrange neatly on top of the asparagus, and serve with a big bowl of egg fried rice. The juices from the pork can be boiled down to make a sauce.

Pork and Pak Choi Noodles

I am so excited to get the blog up and running again... I have had a crazy month and have missed cooking properly so much! I cook stir-fry a lot, as it is so quick and easy, but is usually made using whatever I have left in the fridge and not that healthy. For a change I thought I would use lots of veg and pack it full of Chinese flavour... I have used pork steaks as it is a leaner cut and is relatively cheap. It is also terribly easy to slice thinly for extra quick cooking- I think that really is the key to Chinese cooking, preparing everything and slicing thin for a super quick and easy meal. If you fancy something different, sliced rump steak would work really nicely with the oyster sauce.

 Ingredients

Pork Steaks (One each!) | The above veg made a big meal, but I just managed to polish it off, so adjust accordingly. Include bean sprouts, sliced pak choi, sliced red pepper, sliced mushroom and the "holy trinity" of Chinese cooking (as Gok Wan says!): sliced garlic, spring onion and ginger. | Oyster sauce | Soy sauce | 1 tbsp sesame oil | 1 tbsp sunflower oil | Medium egg noodles |

1. Prepare your vegetables. | 2. Slice your pork thinly and drizzle in soy sauce. | 3. Heat the sesame and sunflower oil in a pan and when hot fry the ginger and mushroom till slightly coloured. |

4. Add the rest of your vegetables, stirring regularly so nothing sticks to the bottom. | 5. Prepare your noodles by boiling in a pan to packet instructions. |

6. In a separate pan start frying your pork on a high heat. It will go a lovely golden brown and cook quickly. 

7. Add your drained noodles to the vegetables with a good dollop of oyster sauce. You want enough to give a lovely silky consistency, but not so much that it is all you can taste, you will be able to judge for yourself. 

 8. Serve your vegetable noodles onto hot plates and add pork pieces on top! If you like a little heat, I would add fresh chopped chilli when cooking the ginger and mushrooms.

Gok Wan's Chinese Belly Pork

Eager to follow the success of Gok Wan's easy recipe for Peking duck, I thought I'd try his recipe for belly pork. Bored of slow-cooking recipes that leave me with flavourless pork, this recipe only took 2.5 hours and made some of the most tender pork I have ever eaten. The main cooking is done by simmering the pork in a large pan for nearly two hours with garlic cloves, ginger, spring onions, a teaspoon of chinese five spice, shaoxing wine and enough water to cover the meat. The thought of boiling meat can be a turn off but the smells that fill the kitchen are divine and it makes the meat surprisingly tender.

 After this initial cooking, you then place the meat in a baking tray and brush with a glaze of soy sauce and honey, and place in an oven (preheated to 215C) for 20-30 minutes until golden and caramelised. Serve with chinese greens and rice to balance out the sticky rich flavour of the meat. NB. Gok uses star anise but for me chinese five spice works just as well and is often more readily available. You could use this cooking method for cooking belly pork in all styles of cuisine, for example we sell some delicious Cottage Delight barbecue sauces that would work well in place of the soy sauce and honey glaze. For the full original recipe click here.