Chinese roast pork, adapted from Pablo’s recipe…
Chinese roast pork
Ingredients (2-4 persons)
500g pork belly, 1 tablespoon fine salt, 1/2 tablespoon five-spice powder and 1 tablespoon coarse salt.
Methods (Preparation time: 55-65 minutes)
You might want to consider drying it with kitchen towel or put it under a fan etc… just make sure it is dry.
2. Rub the fine salt and five-spice powder on the meat.
3. Pre-heat the oven for 5 minutes at 180°C. Put the pork belly into the oven with skin facing up; lay the coarse salt on top of the skin.
Roast the pork for 20 minutes.
4. Take out the pork and remove the coarse salt. Use a sharp instrument (knife or fork etc.) to poke the surface of the skin… poke it thoroughly (the whole surface). This is crucial to make the crispy skin.
5. Put the pork back into the oven and roast for another 20-25 minutes.
Verdict
Not bad. The taste was good… it could be better if I add some other ingredients like pepper and wine, but I like this recipe for the fact that it’s so simple to prepare.
The only failure is that the skin was not crispy enough. My main mistake was not making sure the skin was dry enough before roasting it (step 1).
I tried to amend it by increasing the cooking time, but I was afraid that the meat would be too dry at the end.
It’s still a decent dish nonetheless.
Extra note
Remember to put the pork on a rack, with a tray underneath to catch dripping oil. It’s a pretty standard practice when roasting meat (chicken, lamb, whatever) which will save us plenty of cleaning time after the cooking.
