Soft moist pork belly with a crispy crackling served on steamed rice with asian inspired caramel sauce, delicious with steamed pak choi, this dish is super tasty, make the sauce as hot as you like by adding as much chilli as you desire, guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. Adapted from a recipe by Donna Hay in her book Basics to Brilliance, here I have written the way I cook pork belly but the rest of the recipe including the sauce is Donna's recipe, if you are interested in purchasing this book, please click on link.
Note:
When buying your piece of pork belly, ask your butcher to remove the rib bones but to give them to you, you can use them as a trivet to roast the Pork on, with the added benefit of some nice juicy pork ribs to nibble on. When you get your piece of pork home, remove all packaging and place on a baking tray in your fridge, uncovered, to dry the skin, this will ensure you get a nice crispy crackling.
This can be made to serve as many people as you like, depending on the size of the piece of pork belly you buy, just double or triple the amount of caramel sauce. I like to roast a full pork belly for an initial meal for 4-6 people and then use the remainder for a delicious stir fry the next day.
Ingredients:
1 Piece of pork belly, minimum 2kg, skin scored, rib bones removed, but keep for trivet for roasting pork
Salt
Chilli caramel sauce: (serves 4)
225g granulated sugar
4 tbsps fish sauce
4 tbsps water
1" piece of finely grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 long fresh red chilli finely sliced (or to taste)
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
To Serve:
Steamed Basmati rice
Steamed Pak choi
Method:
Set oven to 260˚C or highest setting, Aga roasting oven
Remove pork from fridge, ensure skin is thoroughly dry, if you have been unable to leave it in the fridge unwrapped overnight, dry with kitchen paper and leave to stand for 30 mins to ensure it is dry, place on baking sheet directly on top of pork ribs, these will act as a trivet to stop the pork meat from becoming over cooked.
Rub skin well with sea salt and roast for 40-50 mins, turning the tray half way through, until skin is golden and crunchy, keeping an eye on it to ensure the skin does not burn.
After 40-50 mins, turn oven down to 150˚C (Aga simmering oven) and cook for a further 3-4 hours, by which time the meat will be soft and juicy. Remove from oven and set aside in a warm place to rest for 20 mins, do no cover or your crispy crackling will go soft.
Piece of belly pork (minimum 2kg), sea salt |
Meanwhile, make the caramel sauce, put sugar in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat, swirl pan as sugar starts to melt (do not stir) to ensure the sugar dissolves and to ensure it caramelises evenly, cook for 8-10 mins until caramel turns a golden brown. Take pan off heat and carefully add fish sauce and water, (adding it carefully ensures it won't spit and burn you).
Return the pan to the heat and stir until the caramel has dissolved into the liquid, add ginger, garlic and chilli and simmer for 6 mins or until thick and syrupy.
Remove from heat, add vinegar and stir to combine. Set aside until ready to use.
225g granulated sugar, 4 tbsps fish sauce, 4 tbsps water, 1" piece of finely grated fresh ginger, 3 cloves garlic, crushed, 1/2 long fresh red chilli finely sliced (or to taste), 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar |
About 20 mins before ready to serve, put rice in saucepan, add water and a pinch of salt, place on high heat and bring to boil. When boiling turn heat right down as low as possible, cover with lid and simmer for 12 mins (Aga place in simmering oven covered with lid for 10 mins). When time is up, remove lid, check rice is cooked to your liking and place a tea towel over top of pan and leave for a further 10 mins, by which time the rice will be light and fluffy.
Basmati rice 1/2 cup per person, water 1 cup per person, small pinch of salt per person |
Halve pak choi lengthways and place in a steamer over simmering water for 5-10 mins until tender, place pak choi on serving plate and drizzle with caramel sauce.
1 pak choi per person, halved lengthways |
To serve, put rice into individual serving bowls, cut pork into 3" squares and place 2 squares per person on top of rice, drizzle liberally with sauce and serve. Serve extra sauce in a jug for everyone to help themselves.
There will be plenty of rice, pork and sauce left for seconds, enjoy!
Notes on where to source ingredients:
Pork available from all good butchers, I get mine from O'Mahony's Butchers, The English Market (see sourcing)
Fish sauce & rice wine vinegar available from Mr Bells (see sourcing) or all good supermarkets.
Pak choi widely available
If you are interested in buying this wonderful book from one of my favourite cookery writers, please click on link. The book is a fabulous it contains some of Donna's favourite tried and tested recipes for basic recipes like Crispy Pork Belly, Her Nan's Sponge Cakes, Brownies and her no-fail meringue recipe, each recipe is followed by variations on the basic recipe to give you many combinations from one simple recipe, I highly recommend it.
Thank you, Jacqui
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