Chinese roasted pork

Chinese roasted pork, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Chinese roasted pork is my favourite pork dish - It is simple but unbelievably tasty, with its crisp skin and juicy tender meat. I seriously don't mind eating it everyday. I can eat this at home and even when I eat out in Chinese restaurants, often twice a day!

I especially love the crisp, crunchy skin. It is not hard to achieve as long as the rind is completely dry before it goes into the hot oven. For this you need patience and time, which is not hard because you are just leaving the pork to dry out in the fridge when you can do whatever you like in the mean time.

Serve three or four with rice:

• A whole piece of pork belly (about 1kg)
• 1.5 teaspoon sugar
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• More salt
• Vegetable oil

1. Mix sugar, salt, five-spice powder and minced garlic. And rub this mixture into the meat side of the pork, the bottom and sides of the meat. Dry the rind with kitchen paper. Place the pork rind side up in a dish.

2. Now use a very sharp knife to score the rind in many small diamond shapes (two sets of parallel lines). Rub salt into the rind evenly, about 1 to 2 teaspoons. Place the dish of pork uncovered for at least 4-5 hours (or overnight) in the fridge to dry out the rind.

3. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Take out the pork from the fridge, bringing it to room temperature. With a pastry brush, brush the rind with some vegetable oil and place the pork on a rack and roast for 25 minutes.

4. After 25 minutes, turn the broiler of your oven on high and place the pork about 20cm below the heat element. Broil for about 20 minutes with the oven door slightly open. Check from time to time to make sure that the skin doesn't burn. Once the crackling has gone bubbly you need to watch carefully for burning.

5. Remove the pork from oven and leave it on its rack to rest for about 10 minutes. Cut the roasted pork into pieces shown in the picture above and serve with steamed rice.

Comments

[Joanna]

Hi Yongtze,
I'm a food editor from a London newspaper. I think your blog is pretty cool - can you let me know your email address so I can contact you. Thanks. Joanna

[anon]

leave it overnight and toss it in a wok with leeks, soy sauce and sugar....food of champions!

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