Being a selective meat eater, I am a die hard fan of roast pork! It is difficult to savor one with crispy crunchy skin and soft tender meat. When I saw my girlfriend posted photo of her delicious roast pork she made it herself, I was already salivating! Of course I get the recipe from her immediately and tried our hands on it. We were unsure if we are able to succeed, we DinoPapa watched over our pork belly while its in the oven roasting, fearing that it will become a bar of blacked gold if left unattended.
Almost an hour later, its done and the verdict is out. PASS PASS PASS!!! DinoPapa is so happy with it that he is grinning from ear to ear while biting into it. DinoEgg also had 2 pieces, he stuffed a big piece into his mouth making it difficult for him to chew. He is enjoying the meat even though it takes him a good 10mins for him to chew & swallow it down.
Ingredients
* 1 Pork belly 600 - 700g
* 1 teaspoon Five spice powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
Method
1. Fill a pot with water enough to cover the pork belly & bring it to boil.
2. Turn down to small fire to boil the pork belly for 10 - 15mins. Put the pork belly skin side first into the water to boil for a few minutes before turning it over.
3. Remove the pork belly, wipe off all the water using a kitchen towel.
4. Poke as many holes as possible on the skin, the holes must be close to each other as possible. Wipe off any water that comes out from the holes with kitchen towels.
5. Use a knife and lightly make a few cuts on the skin.
6. Turn the pork belly over and do the same but this time cut it deeper so that the marinate can seep into the meat making it tasty.
7. Rub the 1 teaspoon of salt all over the pork belly, including the skin.
8. Rub the 1 teaspoon of five spice powder all over the pork belly EXCEPT the skin. The skin will not turn out darker brown instead of golden brown if you put five spice powder on it.
9. Put the marinated pork belly, skin side up on a metal rack, place a plate under the rack and put into the fridge over night.
10. Remove the pork belly from the fridge. Use the kitchen towel to wipe off any water vapour.
11. Heat the oven to 200deg, place the pork belly on the middle metal rack, place a plate below to catch any dripping oil, using top & bottom heat, roast for 25mins.
12. Turn up the heat to 220deg, move the pork belly to the upper rack, roast for 35 - 50mins using top heat. Once bubbles formed on the skin or burst and the skin is golden brown you may remove it. Do not over roast it otherwise the skin will be charred, if you did, just scrape off any charred bits with a knife.
Notes
- Try to get a big square chuck of pork belly, do not get those long rectangle ones. This is because the pork belly will shrink A LOT in size after boiling and roasting.
- We use fork to poke the pork belly, you can use anything sharp (my girlfriend says she use big thick needles) or spend some money to buy the proper tools (sorry I do not know what is the name of that tool).
- We use fork to poke the pork belly, you can use anything sharp (my girlfriend says she use big thick needles) or spend some money to buy the proper tools (sorry I do not know what is the name of that tool).
- If there are not enough holes or the holes are not close to each other, it will be difficult for the water to evaporate while roasting thus making the skin to be tough instead of crispy.
- While waiting for the oven to heat up, you can try to poke some more holes on the skin. I tried with my fork but is unable to do it, maybe with a sharper tool or needle it is possible.
- Depending on the size of your pork belly, 1 teaspoon of salt is more then enough for a 600 - 700g piece. You do not need a lot of salt, just a thin layer will do otherwise your pork belly will be very salty.
- We put our pork belly on a rack with a baking tray below before putting it into the oven. Due to the added height, we put it on the bottom rack in the 1st part and middle rack for the 2nd part.
- Even though it says to roast on the top rack for 35 - 50mins, we roast it for 30mins and remove from oven as the skin starts to char.
I am going to make this again soon and share it with my family, I am sure my little brother will love it very much. We were too anxious to start roasting that we forgot to prepare the sauce! Mustard should goes well with it *Yum yum*
I am going to make this again soon and share it with my family, I am sure my little brother will love it very much. We were too anxious to start roasting that we forgot to prepare the sauce! Mustard should goes well with it *Yum yum*
Let us know when you decided to do this dish and share with us what sauce did you eat it with.
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Dang! The skin crackled very nicely!! Must try this soon too. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou will love this! Oh ya pls mind your jaw ok? Dun "over work" it again while chewing on the roast pork kekeke~
DeleteWow! Home made Pork Belly! I can't make this till I invest on an oven... hahaha... On the side note, I think most store bought 5 spice powder already contained salt, so there's no need to add much, can even omit if you like.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about the concoction of the five spice powder, mine was bought from the neighbourhood chinese medical hall. They packed it in small plastic n sealed it, no brand no need no nothing hahah~ If thats the case maybe can put lesser salt. Mine taste just right as I did not put a lot on it.
DeleteMy mum and me tried this before but ended up with blackened gold as you call it. But your detailed photos of the process are very helpful and give me a little boost to try again!
ReplyDeleteIts either oven too hot or roast for too long.
DeleteTry again, you will not regret it!