This is a sweet and spicy hassle-free dish that everyone will love and is perfect for popping in the centre of the dinner table for people to just help themselves.
The radish and cucumber salad makes a great accompaniment, offering a clean and sharp contrast to the pork.
Serves 6
Cooking Time: 6 hours (plus 24-48 for marinating)
Ingredients
For the pork
1.9kg shoulder of pork, boned
125ml soy sauce
125ml runny honey`
125ml hoisin sauce
125ml dry sherry
2 tsp Chinese five-spice
3cm piece ginger, peeled and grated to a purée
For the radish and cucumber salad
3 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tsp caster sugar
2cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
1 large garlic clove, very finely chopped
1 cold cucumber, peeled in stripes and cut in half along its length
300g radishes (a mixture of colours if possible), cut into quarters or eighths
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
Method
1. Remove the skin from the pork (or ask your butcher to do it) and discard. Leave the fat on. Mix together all the ingredients to make a marinade and put this in a large resealable bag along with the pork. Marinate in the fridge for between 24-48 hours.
2. Bring the pork to room temperature for an hour before you are going to cook it. Pre-heat the oven to 140°C/fan oven 120°C/mark 1.
3. Place the pork in a roasting tin in which it will fit snugly (if there is a lot of room around it, the juices and the marinade will just run off and burn) and pour the marinade into a bowl. Set aside the bowl of marinade.
4. Cook the pork for 4.5-5 hours, or until the meat is soft and melting.
5. After 4.5-5 hours, ladle some of the marinade over the pork and return to the oven. Keep adding more of the marinade and basting the pork every 10 minutes for the next hour, turning it over every time you do this. The pork should end up dark and glossy. If the joint starts to get too dark on the outside, cover it with foil.
6. While the pork is cooking for its final hour, you can make the salad.
7. Begin by making the dressing. Mix the vinegar, sugar, ginger and garlic together along with a pinch of salt.
8. Scoop the seeds out of the cucumber and cut into 4cm thick pieces. Bash these with a rolling pin. Then put the cucumber in a bowl along with the dressing and chill for 20 minutes.
9. Add the radishes and sesame oil, and toss the salad. Scatter the sesame seeds on top.
Serve the pork and salad with boiled rice.
