Pork with ginger and honey

Best prepared the day before and left overnight to marinate, this is a quick, easy, and flavoursome dish with all the subtle yin-yang contrasts for which Chinese recipes are renowned and with ingredients that are readily available, the ginger and the honey being the signature tastes.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 lb / 500g lean pork
• 2 teaspoons of fresh root ginger, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 2 tablespoons of Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of malt vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons of groundnut oil
• 2 tablespoons of water
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour
• 2 teaspoons of Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 green bell pepper
• 3 spring onions (scallions)
• a squeeze of fresh lime juice
• salt and pepper

Method

Thinly slice the pork.

Place the pork in a bowl and sift in the corn flour. Add the ginger, honey, dark soy sauce, rice wine, five-spice powder and sesame oil. Give it a good mix up, then cover and leave it to marinate for at least 30 minutes or, preferably, overnight in a fridge.

When ready to continue:

Core and deseed the green pepper and cut into cubes.

Cut the spring onions (scallions) into 2-inch / 5cm lengths.

Heat half the groundnut oil in a wok over a high heat until it starts to smoke.

Drain the pork and add half of it to the wok. Stir fry for 2 minutes making sure as much of the meat as possible is spread out touching the wok and not piling up in the middle.

Remove the pork using a slotted spoon.

Wipe the wok clean with kitchen paper and then repeat the process with the second batch of oil and pork.

This time, instead of removing the second batch, return the first batch to the wok and mix both together.

Add the green bell pepper, spring onions (scallions), light soy sauce, vinegar, and water and stir-fry for a further 3 minutes, spreading out the meat as much as possible.

Make sure the meat has coloured and the peppers have softened before adding salt and freshly ground pepper to your taste, and finally a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

You can cut the lime into wedges to serve with the meat.

Tips

If you haven’t over-squeezed the lime, you can cut it into wedges to serve with the dish. This dish is best served with rice but you can also try it with noodles for a change.

Trivia

The five spices of Chinese five spice are the five mostly commonly used in Asian and even Arabic cuisine. Precise mixes vary, but the most common are star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and fennel seeds. Variants can substitute the star anise with ginger root, nutmeg, cardamom, galangal, liquorice, or Mandarin orange. In South China, the variety of cinnamon known as Saigon or Vietnamese cinnamon (Cinnamomum loureiroi) is most commonly used, giving five-spice powder in that area a distinctive flavour.