Among the cheaper pieces of pork you can buy is collar, which, as the name suggests, comes from the neck.
It's used for a number of different cuts such as spare ribs, chops, boneless steaks, diced pork, and mince. The meat is slightly fatty and therefore doesn't dry out when cooked for a long time, so it's particularly good for long, gentle cooking in dishes such as casseroles and stews.
Braised pork collar with chilli, ginger and pineapple
Serves 6
50ml sesame oil
2kg pork collar
1 onion
2 carrots
1 celery stick
10g tomato puree
100ml soya sauce
50ml fish sauce
2l chicken stock
100g fresh chopped ginger
1 garlic bulb, halved
1 small red chilli
1 pineapple
Set the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.
Season the pork collar generously with salt. Place a large pot over a medium heat then, once the pot is hot, add the sesame oil. Add the pork collar to the hot oil and cook on all sides until the pork is an even dark brown colour, then remove it from the pan and set aside.
Lower the heat of the pan. Peel and roughly chop the onion, carrots and celery and add them to the pan, cooking gently until soft and translucent before adding the tomato puree. Cook gently for 2 minutes then add the soya sauce, fish sauce, chicken stock, ginger and garlic to the pan. Bring the stock to the boil then add the pork and cover the pan with a tight fitting lid. Place the pot in the oven and cook for 3 hours.
Remove the pork from the oven and test its tenderness by inserting a small knife to see if it penetrates easily. If not yet tender, return the pork to the oven for a further 30 minutes.
Once cooked, remover the pork collar from the stock and put it to one side to cool slightly.
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan, place it over a high heat and boil until it reduced by half, skimming the stock from time to time to remove any fats from the surface.
When the stock has reduced, flake the pork collar into small pieces, add them to the hot stock then place the pan to one side.
Peel the pineapple and cut it into 3cm cubes. Heat a large saute pan until very hot then place the pineapple in the pan and roast until the edges turn golden brown. Slice the chilli finely and add it to the pineapple then take the pan off the heat.
Mix the pineapple and chilli through the pork collar then serve.
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