Macadamia Nut and Shredded Pork Salad

Ingredients

Recipe by Pam Brook from Brookfarm, as highlighted in The Farm Community Cookbook by Tom and Emma Lane.

"Pam and Martin Brook, inspired by a passion for quality, healthy food, transformed a rundown dairy in the Byron Bay hinterland into a working macadamia farm. When macadamia prices suffered a downturn in the 1990s, they decided to add value to their harvest. The result was Brookfarm, an award-winning, family-owned business that is now one of Australia's leading producers of premium-quality macadamia products." - Tom and Emma Lane.

2 pork tenderloins
125 ml rice vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbs raw (Demerara) sugar
1 red onion, finely sliced
250 g Chinese cabbage (wombok), finely sliced
1 large carrot, peeled and finely grated
2 Tbs lemon myrtle–infused macadamia oil
2 Tbs roughly chopped raw macadamia nuts
1 Tbs macadamia oil
1 Tbs Vietnamese hot mint, chopped (if not available use 1/2 Tbs mint and 1/2 Tbs tablespoon rocket [arugula] chopped into thin strips)
1 Tbs crisp fried shallots
Prawn crackers, to serve

Dipping Sauce:

3 Tbs fish sauce
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 tsp raw (Demerara) sugar
1 fresh red chilli, seeded and finely sliced

Method

Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Simmer the pork tenderloins until just cooked through. Drain the pork and set aside to cool.

In a bowl, combine the vinegar, salt, pepper and raw sugar, and marinate the sliced red onion in this mixture for 30 minutes.

Combine the cabbage and carrot in a large bowl. Pull the cooked pork into fine shreds with your fingers and combine with the cabbage and carrot. Add the onion, its marinade and the lemon myrtle macadamia oil and toss well. Transfer to a serving platter.

Fry the macadamia nuts over low heat in the macadamia oil, stirring gently until just brown. Remove from the heat and rain on a paper towel.

Dipping Sauce:

Combine all the ingredients in a small serving bowl. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Garnish the salad with the fried macadamias, hot mint and crispy fried shallots.

Serve accompanied by the dipping sauce and prawn crackers.

Credits: This is an edited extract from The Farm Community by Tom and Emma Lane published by Hardie Grant Books $39.99 and is available where all good books are sold.

Photo Credits: © Alan Benson.