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chinese braised pork with plums

If you like Chinese crispy duck pancakes, you'll love this pork dish - serve with Asian greens and rice to soak up the rich plum sauce

Ingredients

    • 1 ¼kg pork belly, skinned and trimmed of excess fat
    • 2 tbsp sunflower oil
    • 1 onion, roughly chopped
    • bunch spring onions, greens and whites separated
    • 50g ginger, peeled and chopped
    • 2 garlic cloves
    • small bunch coriander, leaves and stalks separated
    • 1 tbsp Chinese five-spice powder
    • 5 whole star anise
    • 1 cinnamon stick
    • 85g dark brown muscovado sugar
    • 4 tbsp each light and dark soy sauce
    • 4 tbsp hoisin sauce
    • 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
    • 2 stem ginger balls from a jar, diced, plus 2 tbsp syrup
    • 1 chicken (or pork) stock cube
    • 450g plums, quartered and stoned
    • jasmine rice and Asian greens, to serve

Directions

  1. Bring a very large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the pork belly and boil for 15 mins until cooked. Cool to room temperature, then cut into 4cm chunks and make sure they’re dry.
  2. Heat some of the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish and brown the pork in batches. Once browned, set aside. Put the onion, spring onion whites, ginger, garlic and coriander stalks in a blender and whizz to a paste.
  3. After browning the pork, wipe out the dish, add the paste with a splash of water and gently heat until softened. Stir in the five-spice powder, star anise, cinnamon and 1 tsp ground pepper. Fry for 1 min, then add the sugar, soy sauces, hoisin sauce, vinegar and ginger syrup. Return the pork, plus any juices, then crumble in the stock cube and add enough water to just cover. Stir in a third of the plums and bring to a gentle simmer while you heat oven to 160C/140C fan/ gas 3. Cover the dish and bake for 2 1⁄2 hrs.
  4. Lift the pork into an ovenproof dish, cover with foil and keep warm in a low oven. Put the sauce back on the hob and boil until reduced by about half. Add the remaining plums and cook for a few mins more, then return the pork. Finely slice the spring onion greens and scatter over with the coriander leaves. Serve with jasmine rice and stir-fried greens.