Spicy Chinese Pork Belly
I made this for a new year get together with my daughter along with my Beef and Broccoli dish and the Spicy Asian Courgettes - Click the links to be taken to the recipe page.
We decided to make a Chinese fake away dinner which also included home made egg fried rice with onions and red pepper, and some paprika mushrooms, and it was all worth it, and with some left over for the next day too. I do love next day food.
This pork belly recipe is one that’s perfect to make ahead. In fact, because it needs to be eaten at room temperature, it works so well as a make ahead dish to go along with other dishes that need to be cooked a little closer to the time of eating.
Basically, it’s a case of shoving the belly pork in the oven and letting it cook away until the skin is crispy and the meat is juicy.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Serve with lots of cut spring onions
What You Need
Pork Belly
3kg Pork Belly - See Tip Box
3 tbsp Runny Honey
Malden Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
3 Large Spring Onions - Roots removed and chopped into rough pieces.
Put all the sauce ingredients into a saucepan.
Sauce
500g Dark Muscovado Sugar
200ml Dark Soy Sauce - See Tip Box
20ml Sesame Oil
150ml Rice Wine
50ml Ponzo Ouzo
6 Garlic Cloves - Minced
3 Heaped White Miso Paste
2 Heaped tsp Five Spice Powder
2 tbsp Runny Honey
2 tbsp Ground Red Chilli Peppers Paste - See Tip Box
Brush the honey over the top[ of the cooked skin making sure to get it in to those cuts.
How It’s Done
Pork Belly
Turn the oven to 350c and let it heat up.
While the oven is heating, use paper towels to thoroughly dry the pork belly skin
Using a very sharp knife and cut through the skin of the belly pork, making sure to cut right through the skin and through the fat.
When cutting, make sure the cuts are at an angle and are in sections of around two inch squares - See Tip Box
Dry the skin again with kitchen paper
Sprinkle the skin with the sea salt and grind fresh black pepper over the skin.
Place the prepared pork belly into a roasting tin and into the hot oven.
Cook the pork belly in the very hot oven for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 180c and let the pork belly cook for at least 3 hours.
After 3 hours, remove the pork belly from the oven and drizzle over 3 tbsp of the runny honey, brushing the honey all over the skin and in the cuts
Replace the pork back into the oven for 3 more minutes and then remove the pork belly and let it rest while yo make the sauce.
Follow the original cuts and cut the pork belly in to pieces
Sauce
Place all the sauce ingredients into a sauce pan
Mix everything together thoroughly.
Heat the sauce gently until it comes to a boil, making sure to occasionally stir, so the sauce doesn’t stick to the bottom of the saucepan.
Let the sauce boil for around two minutes so all the sugar melts and everything is melted into everything else.
Pour the hot sauce ingredients onto a bowl.
Pour the sauce into a large bowl.
Remove the rested belly pork from the roasting tin onto a chopping board.
Using a very sharp knife, follow the the already cut skin and cut through the skin, the fat and the meat of the belly pork cutting the belly pork into pieces.
If the belly pork has ribs (bones) attached, use the sharp knife to remove them before cutting the meat up. Separate the bones with a knife.
While the meat is still warm, place all the pieces of meat into the the sauce and use some tongs to mix the meat into the sauce.
Let the warm meat sit in the warm sauce for a couple of hours. Don't put the bowl in the fridge, it needs to cool completely in the sauce and come to room temperature..
Every thirty minutes or so, use tongs to mix the meat into the sauce so that all the pieces get a good coating.
When ready to serve the pork, use tongs to remove the pieces of belly pork onto a serving plate and sprinkle over the cut spring onions.
Pour the sauce into a serving jug and serve along side the pork belly.
If you want the sauce to be completely smooth, before serving, sieve the sauce through a fine sieve into the jug.
Put all the cut up pork into the bowl with the sauce and mix it up.
Tip Box
Size of Pork Belly - The size of the pork belly obviously depends on how many you are catering for, but this dish is delicious eaten at room temperature the next day. Also, the amount of sauce is perfect for the size of the belly pork in this recipe.
Ground Red Chilli Pepper Paste - I’m a bit in love with this paste so I have it to hand and use it in place of fresh chillies a lot. So, if you don’t have this paste, and I would recommend that if given the chance, you grab a jar, use fresh chillies instead. Make sure the chillies are grated so they are minced and not in any sizeable pieces.
Cutting through the skin - When cutting the pork belly before cooking, it makes it so much easier to cut after cooking, if the pork belly is cut right the way through the thick pork skin and into the flesh of the pork.
Soy Sauce - If you want other cut down on your salt intake, use a less salty soy sauce, but the recipe really needs to be a dark soy sauce.
