Crispy Pork & Noodles with Hot & Sour Rhubarb

This is my favourite Saturday night dinner. Usually I’m not a big fan of fruit in savoury dishes but this works so incredibly well. The tanginess of the rhubarb with the five-spice and soy sauce is a wonderful combination. The garnishes of lime, chillies and coriander took me right back to the street food stalls of Bangkok. 

The pork is slow-roasted in the marinade until it's soft and tender, then fried to crisp it up. It’s served on a bed of noodles and topped with an abundance of garnishes that make it feel so fresh and taste so good. You can add more chillies at the end if you like it hot and spicy too.

I wish I could take credit for this delicious dish but this is an adaption of a Jamie Oliver recipe ‘My favourite hot and sour rhubarb and crispy pork with noodles’ from the Jamie at Home cookbook. Hopefully you will find my description easier to follow. I’ve cut the portion size down to feed 2 people.

This takes a bit of time to cook but it is well worth the wait. I’m sure once you’ve tried this flavour combination you will be serving it up as regularly as I do. So get organised early on a Saturday by preparing the marinade ahead of time, then pop it in the oven about 2 hours before dinner time and relax with a chilled beer while you treat your nose to the alluring aroma!

Serves 2

Time 2 hours 20 mins

Ingredients
500g Pork Belly

Groundnut or vegetable oil

200g medium egg noodles

2 spring onions

1 or 2 red chillies

½ punnet of cress

A generous handful of fresh coriander leaves

1 ½ limes

For the marinade
200g fresh rhubarb

2 tbsp runny honey

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 garlic cloves, peeled

2 red chillies, seeds and stalk removed

½ heaped tsp Chinese five-spice

2cm x 1cm piece of peeled fresh ginger

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. 

Cut the pork belly into 2cm chunks and place in a roasting tin. To prepare the marinade, put all the ingredients into a blender and pulse, but not too much, so it makes a thick paste but is not completely blitzed. Add 150ml water and mix, then pour over the pork in the roasting tray. Cover tightly with foil and place in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes until the meat is tender. 

While the pork is slowly cooking, prepare the garnishes. Slice 2 spring onions on the diagonal. Remove the stalk and seeds from 1 or 2 chillies depending on how hot you like it and thinly slice. Pick the coriander leaves. Halve one lime and quarter the other.

Once the pork is ready remove it from the oven. Heat some groundnut oil in a wok on a medium heat. Use tongs to remove the pieces of pork and add to the wok. If the remaining marinade is nice and thick set to one side but if it’s still a little runny then heat gently on the hob to thicken. Turn the heat up and fry off the pork pieces until they go crispy. Keep stirring it or the hot oil will spit. While the pork is cooking, drop the noodles into a pan of boiling water and cook for 4 minutes.

Drain the noodles and place onto a plate or shallow bowl. Top with the crispy pork and spoon over the marinade. Sprinkle the spring onions, cress, coriander and chillies over the top. Squeeze over the juice of 1 lime and add an extra wedge of lime to serve.
 

March 2021