Chinese Pork can be anything from pork mince, pork belly, chops or fillets. It almost always has ginger, garlic and five spice in the ingredient list.

We all know Chinese Pork with the typical sweet and sour sauce, but Chinese pork with a rich, red, decadent plum sauce, now there is a different story. The recipe happened by accident, like so many good recipes sometimes “just happen”. I had a cooking class on Saturday and I was left with plum sauce from the dessert and a few slices of roasted pork belly. Suppertime the family was hungry and we decide to add the plum sauce to the pork in a pan with some soy and honey and voila, a Chinese Pork feast was had by all. It was so delicious, that I decided to make it again yesterday when a good friend Colyn Serfontein from the blog Man-kos came to visit. This man can cook, meat and bread his forté, but every now and then he satisfies the sweet tooth. Well, my “it-just-happened” recipe got the thumbs up from Colyn, so I am happy to share it with you too!

Chinese Pork with Plum sauce

serves 4 – 6

Ingredients

1 kg pork belly strips

salt and pepper

15-20 ml five spice powder

olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

For the sauce

750 g dark red plums – stones removed and halved

100 ml sugar

a few pieces of lemon peel

2 star anise

thumb size piece ginger – grated

125 ml water

30 – 45 ml soy sauce

15 ml honey

juice of 1 lemon

Method

Heat a big pan on the stove and add the olive oil. season the pork strips with salt, pepper and five spice and fry in the pan until cooked. If the pork strips is thick and on the tough side, add a little water to the pan and cover with the lid or cover with some foil and cook until soft. In the meantime, add the ingredients for the sauce in a separate pot and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat once it starts boiling and allow the sauce to cook for about 15 – 20 minutes or until it has a syruppy consistency. Pour into your blender or use the stick blender and make a pureé. Now add the plum sauce to the cooked pork strips in the pan and let the magic happen. the pork strips will have this delicious red coating and as you cook it, it becomes sticky and tangy. Add the soy, lemon juice and honey and cook until the pork strips is glossy and sticky. Serve on fragrant Jasmin Rice with some steamed baby bok choy on the side.

Tomorrow  morning  just after 9 o’clock, I will be making these in the RSG studios, tune in if you have a chance!

I will also in weeks to come take you into the kitchens of other bloggers, chefs and interesting South Africans this year. So buckle up, it is going to be an awesome ride. Tune in 100-104FM or listen online here!

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