roasted pork belly
a true favourite in my household, it took me just two times to perfect this. the trick is to marinate it overnight so that the meat is flavourful. ensuring the skin is pricked with tiny holes also enables it to have that restaurant like crispy golden puffy skin. i also make sure that the slab of meat isn’t too thick and the height is even (around 1.5″ max).
ingredients:
- 1kg pork belly with skin on
- 2 tbsp shoaxing wine
- 2 tsp chinese five spice powder
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- rock salt (depending on surface area of pork belly)
instructions:
prepping the pork belly
- to get the crackling bubbles you see on the skin, the skin needs to be pricked
- use a metal skewer or a tiny knife to poke the skin numerous times, making sure that it does not pierce into the flesh
- flip the pork belly to the underside and rub the flesh with the shaoxing wine
- rub the flesh with the five spice powder, making sure it does not touch the skin
- turn the pork belly skin side up and place on container or plate uncovered in the fridge overnight
cooking the pork belly
- preheat the oven to 180c
- remove the pork belly from the fridge and place onto a large aluminium foil
- fold up the sides of the foil to enclose it like a fitted tray – this is to hold the rock salt in
- transfer the pork into a baking tray, making sure the skin is dry
- brush the skin with vinegar and spread the rock salt on the skin evenly, making sure every surface of the skin is covered
- transfer the pork into the oven and roast for 60 minutes
- depending on your oven, i usually check at the halfway mark to rotate the meat so that it’s even
- remove pork belly from the oven
- switch to grill mode on medium high and make sure the meat is at least 10″ from the heat source
- remove salt from the meat and discard the foil so that the only the meat is on the baking tray
- transfer the tray back to the oven for 15-25 minutes
- make sure to rotate the tray once again until skin is puffed and golden
- i use a cleaver to chop the pork belly into small cubes
