WOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! This was good.
On Monday I promised to share the recipe for the crispy pork belly that went down so well with the smoky eggplant and chilli relish. Those of you who read that post might be surprised that the relish is not included in the title. My dinner guest, Katy, may beg to differ (she was rather taken by the relish), but I think the recipe has enough going for it as a standalone dish. Of course the relish made it all the more special, but it would have been pretty damn fine without it.
The recipe for the pork is another from Stephanie Alexander’s trusty tome, The Cook’s Companion. I had made crispy roast pork belly in the past, but was looking for an Asian twist. Alexander’s method is much the same as my own, except that she boils the pork belly for two minutes before marinating and salting it. I am not sure why this helps, but it seems to work wonders for the crackling, which was the crispiest I have ever achieved. As my colleague Thomasin said when I told her about it, “If I'm going to eat fatty pork (which is one of life's greatest pleasures), I want a nice crisp skin on it.” Agreed.
For once my extremely hot oven was a blessing, since the pork is cooked at a very high temperature. I didn’t think it needed the full hour though; it was starting to look done after 45 minutes. The crackling could probably have been even crispier in parts, but I like my pork only just cooked through. The result was perfectly moist, tender meat with silky ribbons of meltingly soft fat and crispy skin. Yum!
It seems I was onto a good thing with the pak choi and rice because Alexander makes a similar serving suggestion. She also recommends serving the dish “warm or at room temperature as an entree with a dish of hoisin sauce for dipping”. This got me thinking about a potential canapé for my parents’ Christmas eve party: thick fingers of the pork with a range of dipping options: smoky eggplant relish, grilled Chiang Mai relish, soy and ginger dressing and a Thai-style nam pla dressing. (We are not very traditional in my household).
Serves four as a main course with some pork leftover for later seconds.
Stephanie Alexander’s Chinese crisp-roasted pork
Ingredients
1 x 1kg piece fresh belly pork, boned but not skinned
2 x cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
3 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon five-spice powder
Method
Ask your butcher to score pork skin at 1 cm intervals, or do it yourself using a very sharp knife and cutting right through the skin. Blanch meat in a large saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes, then lift out, rinse under cold water and dry well with kitchen paper. Combine garlic and soy sauce and rub all over meat side of pork. Combine salt and five-spice powder and rub all over skin. Refrigerate uncovered, skin side up, for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 230C and line a baking dish with foil. Position a rack in baking dish and settle pork on rack, skin-side up. Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 200C and bake for 40 minutes or until skin crackles and crisps.
My soy and ginger dressing
Ingredients
2cm thumb fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, sliced into rounds
3 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp honey
2 tbsp mirin
1.5 tbsp light soy sauce, or to taste
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Method
Put all the ingredients in a jar, screw the lid on and shake. Easy!
For the rice
Bring 200g (1 cup) Jasmine rice and 2 cups water to a rolling boil over a high heat then turn the heat down to low, cover with a lid and cook for 20 minutes or until all the water has absorbed. Remove from the heat, uncover pan and let steam escape for a few minutes before fluffing with a fork. Alternatively, follow the instructions on your packet for microwave rice.
For the pak choi
You will need 400g pak choi. Separate the leaves of the pak choi, rinse with cold water and steam for 2 minutes or until the thickest part is just tender.
To serve
The pork should rest for 5 to 10 minutes before being cut into thick slices.
Pack the rice into four ramekins or small bowls and turn out onto each plate. Arrange a couple of pork slices on each mound of rice and drizzle with the dressing (there should be some pork leftover).
Distribute the pak choi evenly between the four plates.
Serve immediately.
To further quote my colleague, “Pork belly is one of the things that makes life worth living.” Fact.