Simply Cooking: Roast Pork Belly

You may wonder why Roast Pork Belly is included in the "Simply Cooking" series. Well here are the reasons:

1. I usually make this when I'm feeling lazy
2. No cutting required before cooking. The cutting happens after you're done cooking
3. Dishes? What dishes? You may need to clean the oven but it really depends how you place the pork in the oven!
4. You can freeze this and have it with noodles, have it as a side dish or just on its own as a post-dinner snack (I don't advocate this "post-dinner snack" thing by the way)

It's not difficult to make. Only time-consuming because you have to wait for the pork to be roasted. Anyway, to the recipe!


Slightly charred

Recipe: Roast Pork Belly

Ingredients:

-1 kilo of pork belly (Make sure you get organic pork or else, be prepared to face gaminess! You want to get really high quality pork because you are mostly relying on the taste of the pork itself for this dish)
-3-4 tablespoon of salt
-A pinch of five spice
-A pinch of pepper


Instructions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, place pork belly into boiling water. Lower heat. Let it slowly simmer for 10-15 minutes (The larger it is, the longer you need to leave it in the water!). This step allows you to poke the pork skin without using much strength. Also, it's a good way to keep the pork in shape when you roast it.

2. Meanwhile, in a large baking dish, wrap it with layer of aluminum foil. I use two layers.

3. Remove pork from water, pat dry with several napkins. You want it to be really dry! Place pork into the baking dish, skin facing up.

4. Poke the pork skin with a fork. You do not need to exert much strength because you don't want to be pierci! ng the m eat! Keep poking until you are satisfied - this is a good way to de-stress. Pretend that the slab of meat is someone you dislike or something you loathe!

5. After you are done poking, rub in the salt, pepper and five spice. Use your hands please. Feel how the pork is like! You're the cook! You must know what you're cooking!

6. After rubbing the salt in (give it a good old massage), cling wrap the baking dish and pop it into the fridge for one to two days.

7. Heat up the oven to 180 degrees. Place pork in the oven at the middle rack. Cook for 30 minutes. Then, increase heat to Grill/Broil function for 15 minutes. It will send the pork crackling in no time!

I use a convection oven by the way. If you use a gas oven or something, you might want to transfer it to the top rack.

8. After you're done baking, remove pork from oven and let it rest. Don't get impatient and start cutting the pork now. Cut it after 30 minutes.



The first time I made roast pork, I used pork ribs. Bad idea cos' it can't stand up properly...


I hope you guys enjoy this simple recipe.