The World Cup is here! This means we don’t have a lot of time to cook 🙂 But we had lots of bones left from our Thanksgiving dinner. So, a rich broth slow-cooked over night, plus a quick fried five-spiced pork (recipe below) in the morning and poached vegetable, and voila, we had a nice lunch while cheering for France against Denmark. We won. 2-1.

Fried five-spiced pork

(Adapted from Vanh Khuyen Le)

2 lbs pork butt or shoulder (cut into piece about 1/2″ thick)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp five-spice powder
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbs canola oil
2 tsp sugar

1. In a small bowl, mix salt + garlic powder + five-spice powder + pepper.
2. Massage the spices over pork.
3. Add soy sauce to the pork and mix well.
4. Set aside for 10′-15′.
5. In a non-stick skillet, heat canola oil under high heat.
6. Sear the marinated pork on both sides.
7. Cover and cook for 5-10′ (depending on how thick the pork pieces are).
8. Uncover and flip the pork.
9. Cover and cook for another 5′.
10. Uncover and sprinkle 2 tsp sugar.
11. Cook until the meat juice evaporates and the pork is nicely caramelized.
12. Serve hot with egg noodle soup (as we do here) or steamed rice, or baguettes, or buns. The options are endless.