Roasted pork belly

My recipe was originally published on The Food Pornographer

For this recipe, I purchased two pieces of corn fed pork belly from Wing Hong Butcher in Northbridge that weighed about 4 kg (raw weight) in total.

Marinade

• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 star anise
• 8 cloves
• half an onion
• 4 sticks cinnamon
• 1/2 cup gula melaka or brown sugar
• 3/4 cup light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup vinegar (I used some pear cider vinegar)
• A splash of mushroom soy
• 2 tb sugar

At least one day before you plan to eat the pork

Part one: marinade

1. Blitz the onion and garlic in a food processor until pureed. Stir in sauces and sugars.
2. Place the mixture in a shallow baking dish large enough to hold the pork. Add the whole spices.
3. Pierce the pork all over the flesh side with a small knife to allow the flavours to penetrate. Place pork flesh side down into marinade. Try to avoid getting the marinade on the skin side.
4. Allow to marinade for at least six to eight hours.

Part two: slow cooking

1. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celsius.
2. Remove the baking dish from the fridge, and cover well with foil.
3. Do not uncover during cooking. Check after 45 minutes to ensure there’s plenty of liquid in the dish – add a little water if it’s looking dry.
4. Bake for a total 90 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.
5. Place paper towel on top of the skin, weigh it down (I used two 2.5kg weights from J’s weights set over a baking tray!) and leave the pork in the fridge overnight.

The day of cooking and feasting

Part three: roasting

1. Remove the weights and paper towel, rub a little vegetable oil and salt into the skin.
2. Allow the pork to come to closer to room temperature as you preheat the oven preheat to 250 degrees celsius.
3. Place the pork on a rack in a baking tray, and cook it in the oven for approximately 40 minutes until the skin begins to crisp up. It should start to bubble. If you feel you need more time to achieve better skin, go ahead. Different ovens may need more or less time.
4. Once you feel satisfied with crispness of the skin, turn the oven down to 160 degrees celsius and cook the pork for an additional 45 minutes.
5. Rest the pork for an hour before serving. Slice it up using a sharp knife or cleaver and serve. Thank me later.

I started chopping the pork using one of Mum’s knives before realising I would need something heftier… My brother stepped in a gave the cleaver a tone before I got back to work.

Thanks to J for the photos – my hands were full