Roast Pork Belly

This is one of HY and my favourite pork dish. I have finally come to making time to create the roast. Got this recipe from Almost Bourdain's blog site and added Hua Diao wine for the extra fragrance. It turned out that making this dish delicious was the easiest. However, to make the skin beautifully crispy was a bit more difficult. Use Dijon mustard as dip sauce for a better taste.

Ingredients :

1 kg of pork belly ( I separated the pork belly into 2 halves for to prepare for my parents and my in-laws)

marinade for skin :
1.5 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon Hua Diao Wine
1 table spoon of rice wine vinegar

marinade for the bottom side (opposite of the skin side) ;
1.5 cubes of red fermented bean curd
o.5 tablespoon of five spice powder
0.5 tablespoon of chopped garlic
1.5 table spoon of salt
0.5 tablespoon of sugar


Method :

1) Turn the pork belly with the skin facing down, bottom side facing up. The leaner part of the meat should be facing up. Score the meat diagonally (Do not score the skin)

2) Mixed up the ingredients for the pork belly's bottom side marinade. this should become a paste.


3) Marinade the skin with the salt. Rub them all over the skin. Pour the hua diao wine and spread them uniformly.

4) Marinade the bottom side (with marinade prepared from step 2). Make sure the paste is spread evenly into the scoring.


5) Wrap the pork belly up into a cling wrap and leave it in the fridge for 1 day to marinade.


6) When ready to cook, pre heat the oven to 220 deg C. Place the pork belly onto the grill with the skin faced up. Make sure there's the tray below the grill to collect the oil that will be drained out during the roasting. Leave the pork belly to bake for 20 minutes.

7) Remove the pork belly from the oven and poke the surface of the skin with a fork. Poke as many holes as possible as this will release the melted fats from beneath the skin to provide a crispy surface. Pour 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar and hua diao wine and spread over the skin evenly and then return the pork belly into the oven.


8) Set the temperature to 250 deg C and bake for 30 minutes or until the skin is hardened.

9) Remove the pork belly and let it cool down for about 15 minutes before chopping it up.