Chinese pork & mushroom curry

The Chinese use a lot of pork in their cooking, and we have made a delicious curry using our Auntie Ang’s Chinese spice blend with dried mushrooms. These are available online or in Asian supermarkets, and although the brown, round ones are the best, feel free to use dried shitake or even ordinary fresh button mushrooms. serves 4-6

• 700g lean pork, cut into bite-sized strips

• 1 carton Auntie Ang’s Chinese curry blend

• 2 tbsp each of rice wine (or dry sherry) and soy sauce

• 300ml secret sauce

• 20g dried chinese mushrooms soaked for an hour in 300ml hot (not boiling) water

  OR 150g fresh mushrooms, sliced

• 250g potatoes (any variety) cut into bite-sized pieces and par-boiled

• 2 tbsp oil

1. Mix the spices with the rice wine and soy sauce and use to marinate the meat. Leave for a few hours or overnight in the fridge.

2. If using dried mushrooms, squeeze out the liquid (put to one side) and chop half of them into very small pieces and the remainder in half. Simply chop fresh mushrooms in half.

3. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the pieces of pork until coloured all over.

4. Add the ‘secret sauce’, mushrooms and mushroom liquid. If using fresh ones simply add 200ml water.

5. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 1.5-2 hours, or until the meat is tender. Add more water if it looks too dry for your taste.

6. Add the potatoes and finish cooking them in the liquid for about 15 minutes.

7. Sprinkle with a little coriander and serve with rice.