FLOWER POT KITCHEN: POPPA WAN'S TWICE SLOW COOKED SOY HONEY GLAZED PORK

5 Jan 2016

POPPA WAN'S TWICE SLOW COOKED SOY HONEY GLAZED PORK

GORGEOUS GLORIOUS MAGNIFICENT

Make extra that's almost all I can say, you must cook this, succulent melt in your mouth infused pork with flavours that burst like a firework that will have you pulling those Oh My faces and making all sorts of noises that maybe should be kept private behind closed doors !!!

Prep Time 5 minutes / Slow Oven Cooking Time 2 hours / 2nd Roasting Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4-6)

1 -1.5kg whole belly pork or loin

500ml Shaoxing wine

3 star anise

3 inch piece ginger rough sliced

3 gloves garlic crushed

5 spring onions chopped

3 tbsp light soy sauce

For the glaze

4 tbsp honey

2 tbsp light soy sauce

To garnish

2 spring onions and 1 red chilli diagonally sliced

In a deep roasting tin that you will be able to cover the pork with liquid, place the pork in the roasting tin, add all the other ingredients and top up with water to just cover the pork, cover with parchment paper and then tin foil, pop in a pre-heated oven of 150 degrees for approx 2 hours or until the pork is so tender you could just pull it apart with the touch of a fork, but don't!

Remove the roasting tray from the oven and leave on the side for the pork to cool in the poaching liquid. Once cooled you can at this point put the pork in the fridge for later or another day.

Once cool enough to handle, take the pork out and gently slice off the skin and discard. then slice the loin or belly keeping the slices together as almost still one piece. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees, line a baking sheet with baking paper and using a spatula lift the pork slices as one piece on to the centre of the baking tray, mix the honey and soy sauce together and drizzle over the pork, pop in the oven for 20 minutes to set the gorgeous sweet sticky soy and honey caramelising glaze. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for a couple of minutes before serving.

I like to serve this with rice or noodles tossed through some grated ginger, garlic, sliced chilli, spring onions and a dash of light soy sauce and sesame oil. Also works great with a flat bread as a kebab !!!

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.