Soy sauce and red wine give this dish its color. Star anise is a star-shaped pod native to China. It infuses a sweet, licorice flavor to the dish, but can be omitted. Serve pork with steamed broccoli, bok choy, or asparagus.
This is a wonderful, fragrant dish that has become a part of our regular dinner rotation. I've made one improvement to the dish. The recipe suggests serving with steamed broccoli. When I did this the first time I noticed that our plates had a pile of rice, pork and broccoli. After that, I have started adding the broccoli to the pot the last 5-7 minutes of cooking. It adds flavor to the broccoli and balance to the presentation. Also, I couldn't find star anise but instead use anise seed (about 2 teaspoons). This spice is key to the dish.
