Chinese Style Roast Hand of Pork

Only a couple of weeks into the Everything But The Oink challenge and I seem to have developed a new tradition.  For the last two weeks I have been leaving the house early on Saturday morning to visit Leeds Kirkgate Market.  My sole intention, to buy pig bits.  Last week I had a particular cut in mind, liver for that evening's meal.  I was also after trotters but the market was a trotter free zone that day.

This week I decided to let the market be my guide.  I have learnt, especially when buying fish, that if I plan a meal too carefully the key ingredient is often unobtainable.  This was certainly the case with last weeks trotters.  There were pig's heads a plenty last week but none at all this week.  What I did find and buy was a pork hand joint.  Not to be confused with trotters, the hand is from the lower part of the shoulder and still has the bone attached.

You cook hand the same way as shoulder*, but as I had been very traditional with my Roast Shoulder of Pork, I decided to have a bit of fun. I mentioned my porky find on twitter and a barrage of advice was quickly tweeted in my direction.  Pulled pork was mentioned more than once** but I wanted to play around with the flavours more.

I had a couple of options rattling around my internal cookbook.  The first option was Caribbean.  I thought a Jerk style rub would be splendid over the flesh prior to cooking.  In the end though, I decided on a Chinese inspired roast.  The deciding factor was a Guardian article I found about cheap cuts of meat.

Matthew Fort suggests that dousing cider vinegar over the joint prior to roasting helps to cut through the fatty nature of the meat.  My mind quickly made the leap from cider vinegar to rice wine vinegar and the decision was made.  I seasoned the hand with szechuan pepper,  5 spice and a little salt, poured over the vinegar, some soy sauce and water and banged it in the oven.

In total, although the joint only required and hour and a half, I cooked it for around two and a half hours and let it rest for an additional hour.  The only real tip is to keep an eye on the liquid level.  I topped up the pan a couple of times with more water and in the process the sauce for the meal made itself.  I warmed the carved pork in the pan juices*** and served it with rice and steamed pak choi with oyster sauce and the whole meal was delicious, a far cry from roast pork with apple sauce.  We have easily enough pork left over for another meal later in the week too, which isn't always the case with small joints of meat.

Not everyone will be able to find and buy hand easily as it is so often boned and rolled into shoulder joints.  If you do happen across it, or you can ask specifically, give it a try.  I hope you're not disappointed.

*in fact all roasting cuts of pork can bee cooked the same way, 30 minutes per 450g plus 30 minutes does the trick.
**it is the go to meat meal of the moment.
***hence the almost beefy colour of the pork.