Slow-Roast Hoisin Pork Shoulder with Radish and Cucumber Salad
Absolutely amazing tender pork that literally pulls apart with a fork.
Ingredients
- 1.9kg boneless pork shoulder
- 125ml soy sauce
- 125ml runny honey
- 2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
- 125ml hoisin sauce
- 125ml amontillado sherry
- 3cm piece fresh root ginger peeled and finely grated
For the radish and cucumber salad:
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 tsp caster sugar
- a pinch of fine sea salt
- 2cm piece fresh root ginger peeled and finely grated
- 1 large garlic clove very finely chopped
- 1 cucumber chilled
- 300g radishes (a mixture of colours if possible), quartered, or cut into eighths if they’re big
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds (a mixture of white and black if you like)
Instructions
- Remove the skin from the pork – or ask your butcher to do it for you – and discard. Leave the fat on.
- Mix together all the other ingredients for the pork in a small bowl to make a marinade. Put this in a large plastic food bag, if possible, or a roasting tin, with the pork. Marinate in the fridge for 24 to 48 hours.
- Bring the pork to room temperature by removing it from the fridge for at least 1 hour before you are going to cook it.
- Preheat the oven to 130C fan/gas mark 1.
- Put the pork into 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 medium saucepan. Roast the pork for 4.5 to 5 hours, or until the meat is soft and melting. Bring the marinade to the boil, then remove it from the heat (it’s very important to reheat the marinade to boiling point, so it’s safe for you to use it to baste the part-cooked pork).
- Now, ladle some of the marinade over the pork and return it to the oven. Keep adding more of the marinade and basting the pork every 10 minutes for the next hour. Turn 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.
To make the salad:
- Mix the vinegar, sugar, salt, ginger and garlic together. Peel the cucumber in stripes. Halve it along it’s length and scoop out the seeds, then cut it into 4cm lengths. Bash these with a mallet or a rolling pin. Put the cucumber into a serving bowl with the dressing and place in the fridge for 20 minutes. When you’re ready to eat, add the radishes and the sesame oil and toss everything together. Scatter the sesame seeds on top.
To serve:
- Serve the pork with boiled rice, or in soft white bread rolls or brioche buns with the radish and cucumber salad. We enjoyed ours the first night with basmati rice garnished with spring onions and then the next day for lunch in brioche buns with salad leaves. Another night we enjoyed some in tortilla wraps with salad leaves, cucumber sticks and sliced spring onions and the rest of the radishes. I’ve also frozen a small amount for topping a pizza another time!!
Notes
- Enjoy this slow-roast hoisin pork shoulder with radish and cucumber salad with rice, in soft white or brioche buns, in wraps or to top a pizza...it's delicious!