Chinese Roast Pork

Ingredients

1.3 kg (2.8 lbs) pork belly, skin on

1 tablespoon sea salt

1 tablespoon vinegar, for brushing

Marinade (mix well in a small bowl):

2 tsp five-spice powder

1 tablespoon sea salt (cooking salt)

¼ tsp white pepper

1 tsp sugar

2 cubes red fermented beancurd

1 tsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Rinse the pork under the tap and drip dry. Then, pat dry all over with a few paper towels.
2. Place on a chopping board, and poke holes all over the skin, as many as you possibly can. Use the tip of a sharp knife, or ideally, “The Pork-Skin-Pricking-Tool”.
3. Turn the pork over skin side down. Rub the marinade all over the meat, including the sides of the pork.  Avoid getting any on the skin.
4. Carefully turn the pork over onto a clean plate, skin side up. Check that the skin is dry, if not pat well with paper towel.  Rub 1 tablespoon salt all over the skin until evenly covered.  This will draw out the moisture.
5. Place the pork in the fridge, uncovered, for 2-4 hours.
6. When ready to roast the pork, preheat oven to 230C fan-forced.
7. Remove pork from the fridge. Use a paper towel to wipe off all the salt from the skin. Pat the skin dry. Place pork skin side up on a metal rack over a roasting tin. Fill the roasting tin with 1 inch of water. Place the roasting tin on the middle rack and roast for 30 minutes. Once the skin starts to crackle (about 30 minutes later), brush some vinegar over the skin and place the pork back in the oven. Continue to roast for 20 minutes until skin has fully crackled and is lightly golden. Watch it constantly to make sure the crackling doesn’t burn!
8. Once crackling is nicely coloured, turn the oven temperature down to 180C (switch the oven to conventional - I turned off the fan-forced mode at this stage). Continue to roast for a 60-80 minute so that the meat is tender.
9. Remove from oven and let pork rest and cool down for 30 minutes before chopping into bite-sized pieces.  You will need a sharp cleaver for this. Enjoy while meat is warm and crackling is super crispy.

Note: This will be perfectly complemented by a sweet and sour chilli dipping sauce. Recipe below:

Vinegar Chilli Sauce

1 long red chilli, chopped

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

½ tbsp sugar (or to taste)

Pinch of salt

To prepare the sauce, use a mortar and pestle to pound the chilli until fine, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Add more sugar/salt if necessary. Transfer to a small bowl and use as a dipping sauce.

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