Head Chef Jenny Flynn at Faithlegg joined Maria McCann on The Saturday Café for the September episode of Food at Faithlegg. Jenny had a recipe for Crispy Pork with a Plum Hot & Sweet Dipping Sauce!

Crispy Pork with a Plum Hot & Sweet Dipping Sauce

Pork belly is a great choice for this. The heat and sweetness of the dipping sauce help to cut through the richness and break down the fat of the pork belly. You could also use pork shoulder.

It’s a really easy and fun sauce to make, and the best part is that it’s made using a by-product of the plum compote.

You will need:

  • 1kg of plums or damsons
  • 500g caster sugar
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic
  • 1small chilli, finely diced
  • 100ml light soy sauce
  • 100ml brown rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar

Method:

  1. Put whole plums into a large pan, add sugar and a cup of water just to cover the base of the heavy-based pan.
  2. Simmer for 15-20mins until plums are tender, and strain 500ml of the sugary syrup.
  3. The syrup is what you will use to make your dipping sauce
  4. Add the chilli garlic vinegar and soy sauce to the plum syrup
  5. Stir well, bring to the boil, and boil rapidly over a high heat for about 5mins
  6. While still hot, strain
  7. To finish the plum compote, you can work through the mixture when cool enough to handle to remove the stones and tough skin,
  8. Return to the pan and boil for 5 mins, stirring to bring it to a thick, pulpy compote, on its way to a jam. You can use this for breakfast with yoghurt or as a spread with brown bread.

Pork Belly Brine (for approximately 2 kg pork belly)

  • 2 litres water
  • 120g sea salt
  • 80g brown sugar
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tbsp black peppercorns
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 250ml dry cider Viking cider

Method:

  1. Bring half the water to a simmer with the salt, sugar and aromatics until dissolved.
  2. Add the remaining cold water and cider and chill completely.
  3. Score the skin of the pork belly
  4. Submerge the pork belly in the cold brine for 12–18 hours.
  5. Remove, pat dry and leave uncovered in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to dry the skin; this helps achieve excellent crackling.

Cooking the Pork

  1. Slowly roast the pork 100°C for 4 hours until tender.
  2. Press when it comes out of the oven
  3. When cold, cut into bite-size pieces, dust with corn flour and salt.
  4. Heat oil in a pan and put the pork in
  5. Allow to crisp up
  6. Drizzle with the plum sauce

Enjoy!

Jenny Flynn