I’m quickly falling in love with Hakanoa Hand-made Ginger Syrup. “Made from filtered water, organic fairtrade raw sugar, fresh ginger, organic dried ginger, organic sultanas and fresh lemon juice,” this syrup ticks all the boxes ethically and best of all, it is delicious. More info on this product can be found on their website hakanoa-handmade.co.nz. I’ve used it to make sangria as well as ginger flavoured milk. Don’t know it until you’ve tried it. It is amazing.

Best of all, I like to use it as a marinade in meat dishes and my favourite meat and cut has got to be the delicious pork belly. Free range pork belly should be available where ever you find free range pork. Maybe you are bored of pork belly these days. No problem. Hopefully the world gets tired of pork belly and it will return back to being a cheap cut of meat. More for me!

If you still have room in your life for another pork belly recipe, try my Hakanoa Braised Pork Belly recipe.

The addition of cornflour makes the final sauce thick and shiny. Carrot is perfect with this gingery sauce, but you could experiment with other vegetables, such as parsnip or pumpkin. I found no need to add more salt or sugar, but please taste at the end and figure it out for yourself.

Hakanoa Braised Pork Belly

Serves 4

 Ingredients
1kg pork belly (free range)
1/2 cup Hakanoa hand-made ginger syrup
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine
2 tablespoon cornflour
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 carrot
8 cloves garlic
2 cups water

Preparation 

1. Cut pork belly into bite sized cubes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and add cornflour, soy sauce, rice wine and Hakanoa hand-made ginger syrup. Marinade for half an hour or more.
2. Peel and chop carrots to 3 cm slices. Peel and roughly chop garlic.
3. Heat cooking oil in a large, heavy pot, carefully add the marinaded pork, carrots and garlic. Fry at high heat for several minutes until browned.
4. Add water and cover with lid*.
5. Simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
6. Remove lid and turn the heat up and reduce sauce for 5-10 minutes until the sauce is thick, shiny and sticky. It should be quite dark, but make sure it doesn’t burn.
7. Serve with steamed broccoli and rice.

* This can be cooked in a slow cooker.