Spiced pork bonbons, with the hint of star anise. Delicious served as canapes or for adding a touch of elegance to your Sunday roast!
The Christmas party season is upon us, the time of year when we like to think about drinks parties. What better to serve with drinks than a few canapes. Tasty mouthfuls of food, that ideally can be prepared ahead of time and heated up when your guests arrive.
Our spiced pork bonbons are a perfect drinks party canape, especially when served on top of a parsnip puree. Lightly spiced pulled pork marries really well with the sweet creaminess of a parsnip puree.
We also like to serve these to add a touch of elegance to a roast dinner. In fact we served these alongside our pork main course at our recent Lost in Food Supperclub. They added a nice spicy crunch to the plate.
If you are planning a party and looking for further ideas for canapes why not try our Spanish Croquettes with Chorizo & Chicken or our Lamb Curry Puffs. Both great prep ahead recipes for feeding a crowd.
spiced pork bonbon
A delicious and delicately spiced pulled pork coated in a crispy panko crumb. Makes a perfect canapé or an ideal element to raise your Sunday roast dinner. Serve with pureed parsnip for added elegance.
Ingredients
- 1-1.5 kg pork shoulder
- 1 star anise
- 2 bay leaves fresh if you can
- 2 onions sliced
- handful fresh thyme
- tsp black peppercorns
- salt to season
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 140 degrees, 130 Fan.
-
Slice your onions thickly and lay in the bottom of a roasting tin with a lid. Unroll the pork and cut any string away that may be attached.
-
Season the pork all over with sea salt and lay on top of the bed of onions. Toss in the thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns and star anise. Add a about 1cm of water to the bottom of the pan and cover with the lid.
-
Place in a preheated oven and allow to slowly cook for 3-4 hours. Check occasionally. You want the pork to pull apart easily. This happens when the internal temperature reaches 94-96 degrees.
-
Once at the pulled stage, remove pork to another dish and pull apart using 2 forks. Save the juice from the pan and strain into a small saucepan and allow to reduce to intensify the flavours. Reduce by about 1/3.
-
Slowly add some or all of this reduction back into the pork mixing it well through. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if needed. At this stage you can allow the pork to cool and freeze either all together or in batches until needed.
-
If making the bon bons straight away then allow the pork to cool completely. Once cool, place into the refrigerator until cold and able to shape into balls.
-
Once cold, shape the pork into small balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and place back in fridge to keep cold.
-
Preheat oil to approximately 180-190 degrees while you prepare the bon bons.
-
In 3 small bowls prepare your flour, egg and panko breadcrumbs. Season the flour with salt & pepper and whisk the egg. One by one, take each pork ball and cover in flour, then egg, then panko.
-
Once the oil is at the correct temperature, slowly shallow fry the bonbons, careful not to overfill the pan or you will reduce the oil temperature causing the bonbons to become greasy. Turn over as needed. Once golden remove with a slotted spoon to a paper lined tray. They can be served now or kept warm for a short while in a low oven till needed.
Recipe Notes
You can take freeze this recipe at various stages depending on how you plan to serve them. You can freeze the pork mixture once cooled in a batches, freeze once rolled into pork balls before coating or alternatively you can freeze once they are coated, ready for frying. In each case allow to defrost safely in the fridge overnight and only freeze cooked meat once.
1
Leave a Reply