Ma ho

Galloping horses

By: Charmaine Solomon
From: The Complete Asian Cookbook
Serves: 8
Photographer: Alan Benson

This savoury pork mixture is used as a filling or topping for fresh fruit. The contrasting flavours are deliciously tantalising. Minced chicken may be substituted if pork is not on the menu.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
5	garlic cloves
4	fresh coriander roots
2 tablespoons	lard or oil
250g	pork loin, both lean and fat, trimmed and finely chopped
50g	roasted peanuts, coarsely ground
1 1/2 tablespoons	fish sauce
1/8 teaspoon	freshly ground black pepper
80g	palm sugar, grated
1	fresh red chilli, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons	fresh coriander leaves, chopped
	mandarins, pineapple slices or rambutans, to serve

Method

Crush the garlic and coriander roots using a mortar and pestle. Heat the lard in a wok or large heavy-based frying pan over low heat. Add the garlic mixture and cook until it turns golden. Add the pork, peanuts, fish sauce, pepper, palm sugar, chilli and coriander leaves and continue to stir-fry until the mixture is well cooked, dark brown in colour and quite dry.
To prepare the fruit, peel the mandarins, removing the white pith, then separate into segments and cut each segment open down the back. Lay them flat on a serving dish. Peel the pineapple, removing the eyes and core and cut into bite-sized pieces. Peel the rambutans and remove the seeds.
Pile the pork mixture on top of the mandarin segments or pineapple pieces, or into the hollow of the rambutans. Serve with rice, or on their own as a starter.