Slow-Cooked Pork with Star Anise & Bok Choy

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork shoulder, bone-in
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 300 g jasmine rice, rinsed, to serve
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 cm piece fresh ginger, sliced
• 1 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
• 3 spring onions, green tops only, sliced
• 2 tbsp honey
• 3 star anise
• 4 tbsp tamari
• 3 heads bok choy, halved
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C/fan 130°C. Pat the pork dry and season generously with salt and pepper — water means steam, and steam means no browning, even in a braise the dry surface gives you better colour from the start.
2. Sit the pork in a heavy casserole and add the star anise, cinnamon stick, tamari, honey, rice vinegar and sliced ginger. Pour in enough water to come halfway up the pork, around 300 ml.
3. Cover tightly and braise for 3 hours, until the meat is yielding and pulls away from the bone with no resistance. You're looking for collagen-soft, not stringy — if a fork meets any springback, give it another 20 minutes.
4. Lift the pork out onto a board and rest loosely under foil. Strain the braising liquid into a saucepan, skim the worst of the fat from the surface, then simmer hard for about 10 minutes until it reduces to a glossy, syrupy sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Taste it now — most of the salt comes from the tamari, but a final pinch and another splash of rice vinegar ties the sweet, salt and sour together.
5. Shred the pork roughly with two forks, keeping some chunkier pieces for texture, then toss through a few spoonfuls of the reduced sauce so it doesn't dry out.
6. Cook the jasmine rice according to the packet instructions in well-salted water and fluff with a fork.
7. Heat the garlic-infused oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat — keep it moving, don't let the garlic-flavoured oil scorch and turn bitter. Lay the bok choy cut-side down in a single layer, don't crowd the pan or it will steam instead of sear, and cook for 2 minutes until the bases are golden. Add a splash of water, let it steam for a further 2 minutes until the stems are just tender and the leaves wilted, then season with a pinch of salt.
8. Pile the rice into bowls, top with the shredded pork and the seared bok choy alongside, spoon over the glossy reduced sauce, and finish with a scatter of spring onion tops and toasted sesame seeds. Taste a forkful — adjust now, not at the table.