Roast pork belly

How to slow roast pork belly chinese style (siu yuk,  脆皮烧肉). You have notice on blog post on  Amaranth stir fry that I have serve it with some meat. That is one of my many family recipes. An all time favourite all time. Great for special occasions. There are many ways of cooking and roasting pork belly.

This recipe uses the Cantonese chinese style (siu yuk,  脆皮烧肉) of making the skin (crackling) nice and crispy. In which what makes roast pork belly taste so good for you. It is so unhealthy for you as it’s full of pork fat. But it tastes so good though. What they say you only live once.

There are plenty of ways as well on how make the skin crispy as well. I found that the more time one has give to prepare the skin for roasting the crispier it becomes. However, this is not always feasible as we are working mums not house wife with plenty of time in our hands. I have also learn to make roast pork belly at home as living in London it is not exactly available on my door step. I still would have to travel to Chinatown even worse if you live in countryside where the closest roast pork belly is a 4 hours round trip drive away. Anyway enough said and let’s crack on with cooking.

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Recipe for Roast pork belly chinese style.

Makes for about 3-4 people. takes about 1 hour.

1.5 kg of pork belly joint with skin left on (the supermarkets in the UK usually sells around 500 – 700 grms of cut and prepared blocks of pork belly which will be enough as a side dish. Otherwise it be a trip to the local butchers to buy the amount that you like). If the skin is scored it is fine to use. I normally buy pork belly as part of my weekly grocery shopping at Waitrose.

One tablespoon salt (i use coarse sea salt)

1 teaspoon chinese five spice powder

1 teaspoon szechuan peppercorns (finely grounded using pestle and mortar)

Method

First of all score the skin, this is one of the important steps in making the skin crackle nicely. Then with metal meat fork poke into the meat till it holds the meat. Blanch it with boiling hot water. I use freshly boiled water from kettle. Just pour it over the skin only by the sink while holding the metal skewer in another hand. Repeat this for another 3 times. Or till the skin starts to curl up at the sides. Pat dry with a kitchen towel.

In a small pan heat the ground Szechuan peppercorns, Chinese five spice powder and salt together. Heat them together till flavours are release. Where there is aromatic smell is in the air.

Once it’s cool down a bit rub the mixture all over the skin. The salt content helps to make the crackling by drawing the fluid in the meat out. This is the basic recipe for making pork crackling and the rest are just flavourings.

If time permitting once the water is drawn out pay dry with kitchen towel. And leave it to dry out in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Some recipes recommend to leave in the fridge overnight. It just helps to dry out the skin. I didn’t find putting in the fridge overnight necessary. It also makes the meat more salty as well.

Normally I would just make sure that skin is dry as possible. Making sure at the same time lots of fluid from the skin is drawn out. After that I put pork belly in the oven to roast on the top shelf of the oven. Setting the temperature at 180 deg Celsius for hour. Cooking the meat on a metal rack. Resting the metal on a baking tray of water. This technique helps to catch fluid from the meat. At the same time keeping the meat moist. A bit of vinegar applied with a pastry brush helps to create a nice colour glaze. This is optional.

Depending on how big the meat is the time of cooking varies. I would say per 500gms takes at least 40 mins. It also depends how thick the cut of pork belly is as well.

For the skin to be nice and crackle turn up the heat to 220 degrees for 15 – 20 mins. There should be a lovely crackling do check after 10 mins as every oven is different. This so as not to end up burning the skin

Serve with some greens like my quick blanch Pak choy recipe, Pak Choi salad or red vegetables like my amaranth stir fry recipe and some rice. Enjoy do let me know how you get with yours by leaving a comment below.