Recipe: Pork Hock with Lychees & Snake Beans
Sticky Pork Hock with Lychees, Snake Beans, Green Mango Ginger & Chilli
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 x 1.5kg pork hock
- 1 It chicken stock
- 500ml coconut water
- 75gm brown sugar
- 100ml soy sauce
- 6 cloves garlic
- 30gm ginger, sliced
- 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised
- 4 kaffir lime leaves
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 4 cardamom pods
- 2 star anise
- 500ml vegetable oil
- 200gm lychees, peeled, halved and seeded
- 1 green mango, peeled and shredded
- 200gm snake beans, finely sliced
- 1 tbs ginger, julienned
- 1 large red chilli, julienned
- ½ cup coriander leaves
- ½ cup Thai basil
- 2 eschallots, julienned
- 50ml soy sauce
- 30ml rice vinegar
- 10ml sesame oil
Method
Place the pork hock in a large saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Drain and rinse and return to the saucepan. Add the chicken stock, coconut water, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaves and spices, and bring back to the boil (add extra water if necessary to cover the hock}.
Simmer for approximately 4 hours or until the meat is easily falling off the bone. Remove the hock from the liquid and allow to cool slightly. Reduce cooking liquid to a thick syrupy glaze (about 300ml}, strain and refrigerate. Gently remove the skin from the hock, trying to keep it as intact as possible. Roughly shred the meat and pack it (about 2.5cm thick}, into a tray lined with baking paper. Cover with the skin and another piece of baking paper and press with another tray and some heavy cans or bottles, refrigerated, overnight.
The next day, cut into 2.5cm cubes. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok to l 80°C, and deep-fry the hock in batches until well coloured all over. Transfer to paper towel to drain off any excess oil. Transfer to a serving dish. Heat the reduced sauce in a small saucepan and pour over the pork. Mix together the lychees, mango, snake beans, ginger, chilli, herbs and eschallots and dress with the soy, vinegar and sesame oil. Arrange on top of the pork hock and serve immediately.
