This is all the rage at the moment and it’s surprisingly easy to do. I like to serve it in the brioche burger buns available in Aldi. It’s great for lunchboxes too!

For the marinade

4 tablespoons hoisin sauce – readily available in the Chinese section of your local supermarket

1-2 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped

1 cm of fresh ginger peeled and chopped finely

1 star anise – available in the Spice aisle of Tesco, Supervalue and even Tiger in Mahon Point or Mr. Bell’s in the Old English Market.

4 teaspoons muscovado sugar

½ teaspoon Chinese five spice powder

2 tablespoons honey

800 grams – 1 kilogram of pork neck  (available in Sheehan’s Butchers)

You can prepare this the night before:  place the marinade into a freezer bag and add the pork neck and place in the fridge. Then in the morning dump everything into the slow cooker and cook on low for 8-10 hours. I normally place everything into the slow  cooker set a timer for it to come on at 6am.

Once the pork is ready shred it with a fork and serve.  If you want to serve it with a sauce, decant the juices into a saucepan and thicken with a slurry of cornflour and water.

For a gluten free option replace the hoisin sauce with a GF soy sauce and use GF rolls

Adapted from Gok Wan’s Honey glazed Char Siu Pork

Star Anise is a small dried star-shaped fruit with one seed in each arm. It has an aniseed flavour and is used unripe in Asian cookery.