Mum gave us a bag of oranges the other day. I’m not a fan of fruit. No sir. So I immediately started brainstorming what I could cook these oranges with.

I had a large pork shank in the freezer, waiting for it’s time to shine so I summoned it on a cold winter evening. I started this a few minutes after 5pm and it took close to 3 hours to make. So it’s not the one if you want to eat fast. But if you have a few things to do and can wait for an amazing dinner, this could be the one. We had a big can of Guinness on the side of this. The sauce is sweet, flavoursome and very rich. Make it for someone you love.

This would be a great recipe to translate to a slow cooker if you have one.

Pork Shank with Incredible Sauce

Serves 2 with leftovers for lunch. 

Or serves 2 with a food coma for dessert.

Ingredients

1 large pork shank
3 oranges
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
teriyaki (or soy) sauce *
black vinegar *
3 carrots
1 kumara (sweet potato)
2 small or 1 large onion
1 piece of ginger

* I don’t measure liquids. I eyeball the pours/splashes/glugs going by my personal preferences. If I had to give it a guess, I guess about a quarter of a cup each? Give the sauce a taste towards the end. Adjust according to your own preferences.

Preparation

1.  Find a big heavy pot with a lid. I use a dutch oven kinda thing.
2.  Put the pork shank into the pot and top with water. Boil for a few minutes, drain water and rinse.
3.  Put pork and pot back on the stove on low and add teriyaki sauce, brown sugar and black vinegar.
4.  Peel and slice ginger. Add to pot.
5.  Cut oranges in half and get that juice out. I use my low tech plastic lemon juicer. Does the trick. My oranges magically didn’t have pips but if yours do, leave them out of it. Add juice to the pot and 1 of the orange halves.
6.  Add enough water to almost cover the pork shank. Cover and simmer for 2 hours. Turning the pork shank once.
7.  In the meantime, peel and chop the carrots and kumara into large chunks. Save carrot peelings for your nearest bunny friend.
8.  Peel and roughly chop onions. Ok, the vegetables shouldn’t take you 2 hours to prep, so sit back and relax for a while. Watch the news or No Reservations on Youtube. You might even fit in a movie while you wait.
9.  After 2 hours of pork simmering, add the vegetables. Top with water if required so that there is enough liquid for the vegetables to cook in. Simmer for a further half an hour.
10.  Carefully remove the pork and place on a chopping board.
11.  Remove the half orange. Discard.
12.  Plate the vegetables leaving all the sauce behind.
13.  Turn up the heat on the stove, leave uncovered and let that sauce reduce, reduce, reduce. Babysit it though as you don’t want the sauce to burn. You are after a very thick, gravy consistency.
14.  While you are babysitting the sauce, remove the skin from the pork shank. Discard.
15.  Remove all the meat from the bone. I use a combination of tongs, a fork, a small knife and a large knife. But you could use your hands if you don’t mind the searing pain of hot meat.
16.  Top the vegetables with the meat and pour the sauce on top.