Chinese five spice pork and roast vanilla pear salad

Serves:

Ingredients

Chinese five spice pork

• 500g pork fillet
• 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
• ½ tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp peanut oil (or other vegetable oil)

Roasted vanilla pear salad

• 2 firm pears, peeled, quartered and cored
• 1 orange, juiced
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp Chinese five spice powder
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 head butter lettuce (or any soft leaf lettuce), washed and dried

Method

Rub pork fillet with spice powder and oils and set aside for 15 minutes to marinate.

While pork is marinating, heat oven to 200°C or 180°C fan-forced.

Mix pears with juice, brown sugar, vanilla and Chinese five spice powder.

Place in a 20cm square baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a knife can be inserted into the pear easily, turning once or twice during cooking.

Cool slightly and remove from the pan.

You should have a lovely syrupy sauce in the bottom of the pan. To this, add the rice wine vinegar and soy sauce, whisking until it is incorporated. This will be your dressing.

After the pears have been cooking for 15 minutes, you can start to cook the pork. Heat a large frying pan to medium-high and add the pork.

Brown on all sides for a couple of minutes before placing frying pan into the oven to cook for 12-15 minutes, until fillet is cooked through.

Remove from oven and allow to rest on a board for 5 minutes before slicing.

Slice each pear quarter in 2 or 3 slices and mix with the lettuce. Divide among 4 plates and top with pork fillet slices. Drizzle over a little of the dressing.

Notes

• I’ve used beurre bosc pears as they hold their shape well during cooking, but use whatever you’ve got. Just make sure they are firm so they don’t fall apart during cooking.
• Roasting the pears gives a lovely intense flavour, but if you just don’t have the time and really need to eat this, cut the pears into smaller segments, mix with the other ingredients and poach them in a large, shallow frying pan.
• Recipe written by Jay Rogers

Serving Suggestions

Note