Chairman Mao's red braised pork revisited
When I made Chairman Mao's red braised pork a couple of weeks ago, none of the children was at home. When Lucius came home that evening, he went straight to bed with a temperature. So I ate it alone, two nights in a row. I thought it good enough to do again. I thought they'd all like it. So I made it last night. You should have heard the whingeing.
To be honest, it wasn't what I was expecting. What were you expecting? Well, something with a bright red thick sauce, and chunks of raw peppers and onions. You mean takeaway? Yeah, let's order. & so on & so on & so on.
It was quite hot, even though I doubled the quantities but halved the chilli. So next time I make this - and I will, later this week - I'm going to leave out the chilli altogether, thicken the sauce with a little cornflour, add a few vegetables a la Chinese takeaway. And make an egg fried rice to go with it.
PS if you make this, don't panic when you add the pork - it seems as if there's no sauce at all, but there is, as the sugar melts down. It's delicious. Just don't be tempted to add red food colouring.
PPS I made it with lean pork, much nicer. And I left out the boiling stage, with no discernable difference to the finished dish.
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6 comments:
Joanna, I'm definately doing this dish at the weekend. Its just me and Cerys as Helen is partying in Leeds with the girls. So me and the little one are going to have a Chinese night in with The Incredibles - again. Fantastic. And yes, it will work with my peppers.
Can I sub the Shaoxin wine with sherry?
Cheers
David
I love the recipe Joanna and think that I may try this like David for an inhouse chinese takeaway - whats the opposite of a takeaway - a stayathome?
It was lovely to share your pride in your daughters achievement.
Congratulations.
Charlotte
Great Big Vegetable Challenge
I love the recipe Joanna and think that I may try this like David for an inhouse chinese takeaway - whats the opposite of a takeaway - a stayathome?
It was lovely to share your pride in your daughters achievement.
Congratulations.
Charlotte
Great Big Vegetable Challenge
Thanks Charlotte - you'll be there in no time at all, and then we'll be confidently expecting to hear all about student Freddie cooking delicious veggies for everyone after a night at the pub! Kind words.
David, I am sure that sherry would work just as well, I think that the star anise is what gives it such a distinctly Chinese flavour - I hadn't realised before I made this how much it's part of the Chinese flavour (perhaps it's in their 5-spice mixture?)
And the Incredibles - one of the great films of all time
Joanna
Whoops, Charlotte, just realised, different daughter, different achievement ... I've been boasting about both of them recently (the elder, you will probably have gathered, has just graduated)
Must curb my tendency to be embarrassingly boastful about my children (on the other hand, if I can't boast about them on my blog, which they probably don't read much, where can I??)
Joanna
Wow, I can't wait to try this. We've been exploring upscale Chinese joints here in NYC recently, and I can't seem to get enough. The best here, though, is still a lowly dumpling place in Chinatown whose menu is not in English and whose customers are almost exclusively Chinese.
Thanks for suggesting such an inspirational recipe!
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