Hot and Sour Rhubarb and Crispy Pork with Noodles

I am conscious that the forced rhubarb season will end soon so am cramming in all the rhubarb recipes I want to try. High on the list was Jamie Oliver's Hot and Sour Rhubarb and Crispy Pork with Noodles from Jamie at Home. This is a great book to have in London, as it is organised by the British seasons, so has really improved my knowledge of the seasonality of food here.

The recipe is an unusual one. Chunks of belly pork are slow cooked in a marinade of rhubarb, soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, chilli and five spice. After 1 1/2 hours, the pieces are removed from the marinade and 'wokked' until crispy. Served with noodles and fresh herbs, it promised to be something very different, which it was as well as being really tasty. At first we thought you couldn't taste the rhubarb, but the sauce was really tart, which was probably the rhubarb coming through. I really like that quite sour flavour, but if you're more of a sweet tooth, it might be a bit of a shock! Unfortunately, because of the soy, you lose the lovely pink rhubarb colour, but the fresh herbs gave the dish a lift and cut through the richness of the marinade and the pork.

We paired the dish with an unusual Argentinian white wine - a Gougenheim Valle Escondido Torrontes. Apparently Torrontes is a particular Argentinian wine. I really enjoyed this - it was light and fruity, similar to a Sauvignon Blanc, but not as sweet. The tartness went really well with the pork, again helping to cut through the fattiness.

Jamie's favourite hot and sour rhubarb and crispy pork with noodles
From Jamie at Home
Serves 4

1kg pork belly, boned, rind removed, cut into 3-4cm cubes (my lovely butcher did all this for me!)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
vegetable or peanut oil
375g medium egg noodles
4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2 punnets of cress
handful of fresh coriander, chopped
2 limes

For the marinade
400g rhubarb
4 tablespoons runny honey
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 fresh red chillies, halved and deseeded
1 heaped teaspoon five-spice
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

Preheat the oven to 180. Place the pork pieces in a roasting tray and put to one side. Chuck all the marinade ingredients into a food processor and pulse until you have a smooth paste, then pour this all over the pork, adding about 250ml water. Mix it all up, then tightly cover the tray with tinfoil and place in the preheated oven for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is tender, but not coloured.

Pick the pieces of pork out of the pan and put to one side. If the sauce needs thickening, simmer on a gentle heat for a bit until reduced to the consistency of ketchup. Season to taste, add a little extra soy sauce if need be, then remove from the heat and put to one side.

Put a pan of salted water on to boil. Heat a large pan or wok and pour in a good drizzle of peanut or vegetable oil. Add the pieces of pork to the wok and fry for a few minutes until crisp and golden (you might need to do this in batches). At the same time, drop the noodles into the boiling water and cook for a few minutes, then drain most of the water away. Divide the noodles onto four plates immediately while they are still moist.

To finish, spoon over a good amount of the rhubarb sauce. Divide the crispy pork on top and add a good sprinkling of spring onions, chilli, cress and coriander. Serve with half a lime each.