Marinated Crispy Pork with Sichuan Peppercorn

Before moving to London, I visited what I think is the best Thai restaurant in Geneva: Soi. One of the dishes I got was Moo Klook Foon - a crispy marinated pork dish that has made an imprint in my brain, I still can’t stop thinking about it. If anyone has the opportunity of going to this restaurant, I would highly recommend it - it stands out in Geneva’s restaurant scene as you can’t find anything similar to it; a thai street food restaurant.

This dish is inspired by the textures and concept of that dish, but uses the taiwanese ‘fried chicken breading’ method which makes for very interestingly textured crunchy bits. I wanted to use sichuan peppercorns for their numbing sensation and used the classic flavour pairing of ginger, garlic and soy as a marinade. This ensemble makes for succulent and flavourful pork, a crunchy coating, with a very slight numbing spice from the peppercorns.

Ingredients

1/4 tsp ground sichuan peppercorns, and more for garnish

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated finely

2 cloves of garlic, smashed

2 tbsp tamari or regular soy sauce

1/2 tbsp rice vinegar

530 pork steak, cut into 1-2cm strips

3/4 cup (89g) tapioca flour

1 cup or a handful of fresh italian or thai basil leaves, completely dry

Neutral oil, salt

Method

1. In a bowl, add the ground sichuan, ginger, garlic, tamari and rice vinegar. Mix to evenly disperse the ingredients. Add the pork steak strips into the bowl, season with salt, and stir to coat the pork in the marinade. Cover and let marinate for a minimum of 2 hours up to overnight - the longer it marinates, the juicier and more flavourful it gets.

2. After marinating, remove the pork from the fridge and let the meat come up to room temperature. Prepare a pot filled 1/2 way with neutral oil.

3. Add the tapioca flour to the pork and mix using your hands until little beads form on the meat - this is what becomes crispy when fried. In the meantime, heat the oil up on medium high heat to 175°C.

4. When the oil is ready (You can test if the oil is ready by adding a piece of flour from the pork - if it sizzles and floats up, its ready) add the pieces of pork into the oil, and fry until the coating turns golden and the meat is fully cooked, remove and place onto a wire rack or paper lined plate - as the pieces are quite thin, this doesn’t take very long. You will also need to fry in batches as to not overcrowd the pot and drop the temperature of the oil.

5. Once all the pork has been fried, sprinkle some salt and ground sichuan to your liking. Toss the pork and seasoning together, making sure it has been evenly dispersed. In the pot of oil, drop in the thoroughly dried fresh basil leaves, fry until crisp, 10-20 seconds - they will pop and sizzle, so be careful. Remove the basil leaves and let rest on some kitchen paper, the leaves will crisp as they cool.

6. Plate the fried pork and basil and eat whilst still hot.