Recipe of the week: Macadamia nut and shredded pork salad

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.

 

Serves 6 • 125ml rice vinegar
• 2 pork tenderloins*
• ½tsp salt
• ½tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 3tbs raw (demerara) sugar
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 250g Chinese cabbage (wombok), finely sliced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and finely grated
• 2tbs lemon myrtle-infused macadamia oil*
• 2tbs raw macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
• 1tbs macadamia oil
• 1tbs Vietnamese hot mint, chopped (if not available, use ½tbs mint and ½tbs rocket chopped into thin strips)
• 1tbs crisp fried shallots*
• Prawn crackers, to serve

 

Dipping sauce
• 3tbs fish sauce
• Juice of ½ lime
• ½tsp raw (demerara) sugar
• 1 fresh red chilli, seeded and finely sliced

 

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 cooled 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 drain on paper towel.

 

To make the 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 crisp fried shallots. Serve accompanied by the dipping sauce and prawn crackers.

 

*Food miles notes: We prefer Bangalow Sweet pork; you can also substitute chicken. We use Brookfarm lemon myrtle-infused macadamia oil, but any other macadamia oil will also work. You can find crisp fried shallots in Asian grocery stores.

 

Recipe taken from The Farm Community by Emma and Tom Lane.

 

Photography by Alan Benson