Recipe: Bill Granger’s Spiced, Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder with Spring Onion Pancakes and Asian Slaw

Spiced, slow-cooked pork shoulder with spring onion pancakes
Asian slaw
Spiced, slow-cooked pork shoulder with spring onion pancakes

Spiced, slow-cooked pork shoulder with spring onion pancakes ·Photo: Mikkel Vang

Not only is this roast hard to mess up, it produces textbook crackling and fall-apart meat delicately perfumed with soy sauce, star anise, cinnamon and ginger. The end result is so tender, you can cut it with a fork.

I love recipes that are a twist on the classic roast. It’s amazing how using a different marinade can give something familiar a whole new “wow” factor. This cut – pork shoulder – responds wonderfully to both the rich, sweet flavours and slow cooking. It should be so fall-apart tender that you won’t need a carving knife.

Bill Granger’s Spiced, Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder with Spring Onion Pancakes and Asian Slaw
Serves 6–8
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour and 40 minutes

Ingredients
Pork shoulder
2kg pork shoulder on the bone
1 tbsp freshly ground white pepper
2 tbsp light flavoured oil
2 tbsp sea salt
200ml light soy sauce
4 tbsp soft brown sugar
3 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
10 thin slices ginger
5 cloves garlic, lightly bruised with the flat of a knife
2 spring onions
hoisin sauce

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Spring onion pancakes
4 eggs
750ml (3 cups) milk
80g butter, melted
250g (1⅔ cups) plain flour
5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp light flavoured oil
4 spring onions, finely sliced

Asian slaw
1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
500g cabbage, thinly sliced
200g red cabbage, thinly sliced
2 yellow capsicums, thinly sliced
Handful mint leaves
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
100ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, crushed with the flat of a knife
4 tbsp smooth peanut butter

Method

Pork shoulder
Preheat the oven to 240°C. Score the pork rind every 1cm with a very sharp blade, taking care not to cut through to the meat. Place the pork in a deep roasting tray and rub the pepper, the oil and half the salt into the rind. Sprinkle with the remaining salt. Roast for 20 minutes or until the skin is crackled.

Remove from the oven and add the soy sauce, 200ml water, sugar, star anise, cinnamon sticks, ginger, garlic and spring onion to the tray. Reduce the temperature to 180°C and cook for a further 1 hour 40 minutes or until the pork is very tender. Slice and serve with the spring onion pancakes and hoisin sauce.

Spring onion pancakes
Place the eggs, milk and butter in a bowl and whisk until combined. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into another bowl. Make a well in the centre, gradually add the egg mixture and beat until smooth. Allow to rest for 1 hour (or overnight if possible).

Heat a greased non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add 2–3 tablespoons of the batter in a thin layer. Sprinkle 2 tsp of the spring onions over the pancake. Cook for 2 minutes or until golden brown underneath, then turn over and cook for a further 30 seconds. Remove and keep warm on a plate as you cook remaining mixture.

Asian slaw
Place the onion, both cabbages, the capsicum and the mint in a large serving bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vinegar, lemon juice, the oils, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, garlic and peanut butter. Pour over the vegetables and toss to combine.

This is an extract from Bill’s Everyday Asian, published by Harper Collins.

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