Servings: 6 people
Ingredients
Sticky Pork:
- 1 - 1½ kg pork shoulder
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup soy sauce
- 2 small cinnamon sticks (or 1 large)
- 5 star anise
- 1 tbsp cardamom pods
- 50 grams fresh ginger
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp salt
Pickles:
- 1 ½ cucumbers
- 1 red onion (large)
- 200 ml apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup sugar
Ingredients to serve:
- 12 tortilla's
- to taste coriander (a good handful of leaves)
- 1 fresh chilli
- ½ ice berg lettuce
Instructions
Turn oven on to 165℃ bake.
Sticky Pork:
- Place sugar and soy sauce into a large 'stove to oven' dish, and stir until dissolved.
- Roughly cut the ginger, and add this with the cinnamon, star anise, cardamom pods, garlic cloves (unpeeled and whole) and salt, to the sugar and soy.
- Add the pork shoulder and bring to the boil.
- Cut grease proof paper to fit the dish, and place onto the meat. Cover with a lid, or tightly with foil. Place in oven and cook for 3 hours. *
Pickles:
- Place the apple cider vinegar and sugar into a pot and heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Set aside.
- Cut ends off the cucumber then cut length ways. Use a spoon to remove the seeds from the middle.
- Cut cucumber into thin 'moons' on the diagonal. Place in a bowl.Thinly slice the onion and place into a separate bowl.
- Pour the pickling juice over the cucumber and onion - ½ over each, cover and place in fridge.
Preparation to Serve:
- Wash and thinly slice the lettuce leaves.Finely slice the chilli (discarding seeds if you want to remove some of the 'heat').Remove stalks from coriander.
- When the pork is ready, remove from the oven and lift the pork shoulder from the dish, shred (discarding any fat or skin) and keep warm.
- Strain the sauce discarding the spices, then place sauce back into the dish and boil until it becomes thick and sticky (approx 10 minutes). Stir regularly especially at the end to prevent it sticking and burning. Place the shredded pork back into the sauce.Strain the pickles from the juice.Heat the tortilla's either in the microwave (leave in the bag but remove the moisture sachet and microwave in 30 second bursts) or in foil in the oven.
To Serve: Place pork into tortilla's with lettuce, pickles, chilli and coriander!
Notes
Cooks Notes:
*Alternatively you can cook on the stove top on low for 1½ - 2 hours or in the slow cooker on low for 7 - 7 1/2 hours (for a 1.2 kg piece of pork). Follow steps 1 & 2, then pour this over the pork shoulder in the slow cooker and set on low to cook. Other steps remain the same.
If you are doubling the recipe to feed a crowd, or freeze, only do 1 1/2 x the sauce recipe, not double.
*This is fantastic for cooking ahead -
- On the stove top or oven, reducing the cook time for both to 2 1/2 hours, this allowing 1/2 hour for a gentle slow reheat to keep it tender and moist.
- If using the slow cooker and wish to reheat, either heat in the microwave in short bursts, or gently on the stove top being careful it doesn't catch and burn.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!