A dark rich pork braise with plums.

Best served with rice to mop up the sauce and steamed greens such as bok choi to cleanse the palete between bites, because, believe me you will want to savour every single bite.

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Ok, So I’m that fool that goes camping and instantly wants whatever I cannot have.
Namely Chinese take away.

I know, I know, I hate me too…now that I’ve mentioned it, its all you want isn’t it. But I can guarantee that the only thing better than a chinese take away, is the smell of a Chinese meal cooking in your campervan!
You get to savour every single moment and trust me, your mouth will water the entire time it is cooking and if there are other campers nearby, they’re gonna come a-sniffing.

This one can be a bit of a faff (link to translation) and you have to leave it alone for a while but its well worth it. You must make it with love and it will repay you tenfold. Don’t love it and it will bite you in your ass and you will still have to wash the pan!

You can replace the pork with whatever you wish but I implore that you try it with the pork first. The inspiration for this recipe came from some idiot who was suggesting how I should use up left over belly pork. Like there is ever leftover belly pork…anyway, I have been using the less fatty cut of pork ribs, bones removed.

You can buy this in any supermarket (though I do recommend a butcher if you can find one) either in one piece or cut into slices. It has the perfect amount of fat to render down the pork but not so much that you get an oil forming on top from too much.

The rich dark sauce resembles cooling, blackening lava as it reduces seductively in your pan and the heady intoxicating smell of five spice and heavenly, heavenly hoisin will most certainly lead to severely burning your mouth. Due of course, to the overwhelming need to have it in your mouth the very second it is ready…so be warned.

Approach with caution.

You can adjust the amount of Hoisin sauce that you add to this recipe depending on your preference, if you like a rich, sweet sauce add 4 tbsp, if you like more of a hot, dry spicy sauce stick with 3 tbsp.

This is also a great meal to prepare at home pre-roadtrip if you prefer. Follow the instructions and I’ll let you know at which stage to bag up your goodies and refrigerate until you pack your cool box/ camper fridge.

Then whilst away you can whip out this miraculous concoction and wow everyone with ease. Make sure to proceed with the next steps about 40 minutes to an hour before you are due to be ravenously hungry.

Recipe

Serves 2

300g of pork rib without the bones
1 tbsp Sunflower oil
1/2 a medium onion
3-5 spring onions, whatever you have. Use the whites and save a few greens for dressing.
A thumb sized chunk of ginger
2 garlic cloves
A handful of coriander, put a few leaves aside for dressing.
2 tsp Chinese Five Spice
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp brown sugar, any kind will do
4 tbsp soy sauce, preferably dark this will make your final meal darker than pictured.
3 / 4 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 chicken stock cube
2 plums

Directions

1. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the pork, either in one chunk or slices, however it comes. If in pieces let it boil for around 7 minutes, if in one piece boil for 15 minutes.

2. Pour away the water and allow pork to cool to room temperature.

3. While the pork cools loosely chop the garlic, ginger, spring onions, and onion half and add to blender. Or finely chop if you don’t have access to a blender right now. Also chop the stalks off the coriander and bung them in too. I don’t mean pluck the leaves off carefully, I mean literally cut the bunch in half, putting the stalky end in and saving the leafy end til later.
Pulse to a chunky paste and leave the lid on that shit or it WILL make you blind for the next step and may result in loosing a limb.

4. Cut pork into large cubes and dry using kitchen towel.

5. Heat 1tbsp sunflower oil in a frying pan and brown the pork on all sides. Do this in batches if you need too. don’t crowd the pan or the meat will begin to steam. Have a spatter guard handy just in case…and to save cleaning the walls afterwards.
Once browned set aside in a medium sized pan.

6. Put the eye-melting onion paste into the frying pan you used to brown the pork on a low heat and cook until soft, about 2-3 minutes. Have a piece of bread or banana on the roof of your mouth while you are doing this and open ALL the windows to retain vision.

7. Once softened add five spice and ground pepper. Stir to mix in and then add sugar, soy sauce, hoisin and vinegar and stir until it simmers.

              |it is at this stage you would pack the meat and cooled marinade if you were planning ahead|

8. Pour the bubbling sauce over the pork in awaiting pan, stir to mix well and make sure to get every last drop of sauce out of the frying pan. Add enough water to the pan to cover the meat and crumble in the stock cube.
Turn on the heat, stir and bring to the boil.

9. Chop your plums in half and then into thick slices, I normally cut one plum into 6.
Set one sliced plum aside and add the slices from the other to the pan which should be beginning to boil.
Once it does, reduce to a simmer, as low as you can get it, put a lid on it and leave it for around 40 minutes. Check to see that it is not sticking to the bottom every now and then.

| this is when you cook your rice and prepare your greens |

10. After 40 minutes to one hour the pork should be soft and juicy. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pork and set aside in the dish you are going to serve it in and keep warm using the pan lid. Add the remaining plum slices, turn up the heat under the sauce and reduce to a thick indulgent syrup. The consistency is up to you but I like mine to coat the back of a spoon.

Pour the sauce over the pork, if you’re feeling accomplished and proud, which you should be after cooking this, sprinkle with chopped spring onion greens and coriander and serve with your rice and fresh Asian greens dressed with a little sot sauce.

Prepare to be dazzled.

Pair with a glass of chilled, but not ice cold Riesling* for a real flavour sensation.

Your feedback on these recipes can help everyone that enjoys this site, including yourself.

Tell me how you coped in your tiny campervan kitchen? What went right? what went wrong? Share the good, the bad and the ugly and help me improve the recipes, improve the step by step directions and bulk up the hints and tips for great cooking in a campervan.

I would love this to become a community, us camping foodies need to work together to displace the myth that a campervan kitchen can’t produce great food!

So, get cooking! Xx

*only ever buy Riesling with an ABV of over 12.5% or it will be insanely sweet, unless of course, you like that kind of thing.