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Thursday, April 9, 2015

Crispy Roast Pork Belly (Hong Kong Style)

Where I live, it's pretty difficult to get good Chinese food.  So imagine how awful it feels when I have a sudden craving for HK style BBQ and am unable to satisfy my desires without having to drive >100 miles!!!  The only solution was obvious: make it myself.


Now I used to be very daunted by the very prospect of having to make BBQ items, especially things that classically require a rotisserie oven or high heat commercial grade broiler.  After doing some research on the web, I found that people all around have figured out ways to make crispy pork belly at home in a conventional oven.  The recipe I am about to share is an amalgam of various techniques I read from fellow home cooks.

Ingredients:
- a slab of pork belly (~2 lbs); WITH skin on, of course
- 2 tsp five spice
- 2 Tbs Shiao Xing rice wine
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp powdered white pepper
- 1 Tbs white vinegar
- 1 cup coarse salt
- a sharp, thick needle

Instructions:

1) Thoroughly clean and dry your slab of pork belly
2) Rub five spice, fine salt, sugar, and white pepper on the meat side of the pork belly.
3) Then rub in the rice wine.
4) Allow the pork belly to marinate in these spices overnight, skin side up
5) The following day, pat dry the skin side again.  Start poking holes ALL OVER the skin (only to the thickness of the skin, without going into the flesh)
6) Brush the white vinegar over the top of the perforated skin.  This helps to dry out the pork skin as you cook it, allowing it to become crispy.
7) Using foil, create a foil tray for the pork belly, making sure that the side "walls" of this foil tray are flushed up against the sides of the pork belly.
8) Apply coarse salt over the top of the pork belly. This salt is not intended for seasoning your food, but rather to create a salt crust over the skin.  The purpose of the salt is to soak up moisture from the pork skin as you cook it.
9) Bake in the oven at 395F for 50 minutes.
10) Remove from the oven, and remove the salt crust.


11) Place the pork back in the oven, skin side up, and BROIL on high for 10-15 minutes, or until the skin is golden brown and CRISPY.


12) Serve with Hoisin (Seafood) Sauce!!

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