Roast Pork Belly

I guess every household will have a good banana cake recipe. Personally, I think having a good roast meat, specifically roast pork recipe is essential too :9 It's like a little pride and joy of every Chinese mama. Imagining the dinner scene, when she chops it up and serves it to her family and guests. That very first crunch is heard when one pops a piece in their mouth, followed by that wide grind of satisfaction. Priceless...:) And seriously, this ain't a complicated recipe, more of a test of patience if you ask me. Patience of letting the marinate slowly flavor that hunk of meat. Patience of letting that skin dry out. Yup, you hear me right, dry out. The drier the better. Yes, once majority of the moisture is gone, that pork skin crisp up real well in the oven. Don't believe me? Check this out:

Yeah I really don't have to say much...the picture should do all that talking...haha :D

Well then, what are we waiting for...lets get on with it! Let's see what we need ya?

 

Ingredients for Roast Pork (serves 4 pax)

2kg fresh pork belly
2 tsp seasalt   (I used Pink Himalayan salt which I find it really good)
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp 5 spice powder
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (optional)
1 tsp sugar 

 

Obviously a nice piece of lean pork belly is preferred....well at least it is for my case. By all means, if you like them fats, go get it ya? :D And as you can see, only the basic seasoning is required. Good quality salt, pepper and 5 spice. Actually, a tbsp of Chinese ShaoXing wine is used as well, I feel it removes some of that "porky" smell. But if you prefer not, it's okay too.

• First you get a pot of water boiling. Enough water to submerge that piece of pork belly completely in. Once the water boils, dunk the meat in. Off the fire. (Note : I did once without parboiling and it still turned out super tender and juicy. It all depends if you are comfortable having raw meat in your fridge)

• Leave the meat in the water for a good 5 minutes and then remove and drain on some paper towels. This step helps remove some of that porky smell as well.
• Next you use a needle or for my case, I used the tweezers for pulling the pork hair to poke the skin. This step will definitely help let the marinate penetrate through the skin and flavor the meat better.
  
  

• Next you flip the meat over and score the meat side with a sharp knife. This is again a step that will allow the meat to be well marinated.
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• Next you add in that 1 tbsp of Shaoxing wine and rub it in well. Let the meat sit for a good 10 minutes.
  
• In the meantime, make your marinate rub. In a small bowl, add in the salt, pepper, sugar (optional) and five spice. Mix well.
  

• At this point, drain away the extra wine and dab the meat as dry as you can. Then rub the dry rub in with your hand.
  

• Place the pork well on a sheet of  thick aluminum foil, skin side up. Again dab the skin as dry as possible.
  

•  Now place the pork belly in the fridge for a good 8hours at least...uncovered. Yes you read me right, 8 hours at least, or up to 2 days, uncovered in the fridge. For what? To dry...to let that skin all dried up.
• Okay, speed up to 2 days later. Remove the pork belly out of the fridge. It looks dry. Good. Preheat your oven to 200C.
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• Once the oven is preheated, pop that pork belly in and roast for a good 30 minutes. Then up the temperature to 230C and roast for a good 15 minutes till that skin starts to pop and crackle. :)
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And isn't that a pretty sight. :) That bubbly crackly skin is about one of the "prettiest" thing you will want your pork belly to take on, I'm serious. Because you know the more bubbly and crackle it looks, the more crispy that bad boy is. Yum.

And we can't possibly forget about the inside could we? And here we have it!

Juicy, tender with a crisp top. Perfect. I know you really want a piece of that. But do remember to let the meat have a good 15 mins rest first before chopping it up. That will preserve the juices inside.

You can very well just munch them all up just like that. Or you can cook some noodles and serve them over...like what I did.

And here you have it. A plate of delicious roast pork noodles. Seriously can't ask for anything more...well perhaps some green chilli might make it more awesome haha!


Okay guys, enough reading. Time for some cooking. Hope this will knock your socks off, like it did for me every time I make them. :9

Have an aweseome day /night!