Roast Pork Belly

Recently I found a series of food magazines published in Malaysia in Popular bookstore. One of my favorites is Famous Cuisine. There are tons of great recipes in it and the best part is, the recipes are published in both Chinese and English! I was very excited to find a roast pork belly recipe, I never knew that we can actually prepare roast pork at home! Well, did I mention how much I love roast pork? If I don't have to watch my diet, I would've eat it as breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper... need I say more? ;-)

I tried to roast a slice of pork belly few weeks ago. First, I marinated a big slice of pork belly with five spices powder, reddish cheese, chopped garlic, salt and sugar before it was roasted in the oven. Halfway through, the pork belly was removed from oven and the skin was brushed with rice vinegar. The pork belly was then roasted for another 30 minutes and it was ready to be served.

I was thrilled with the results! The roast pork looked like the ones selling in food stalls with plenty of pop-up bubbles on the skin. The skin was very crispy and the taste was just right.

For those who are keen to try it out, recipe as follows:

Roast Pork Belly Recipe

Ingredients:
2 kg pork belly (with skin)
2 tbsp sea salt
2 tbsp rice vinegar

Marinade:
3 tbsp fine salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp MSG
2 pieces reddish cheese (南乳)
1/2 tbsp five spices powder
1 tbsp chopped garlic

Method:
1) Rinse pork belly and pat dry. Rub all over the skin with the coarse salt, then turn to the meat portion, score the inner portion of the meat.
2) Rub marinade mixture evenly into the meat. Marinate for about 30 mins.
3) Bake the marinated pork belly with skin upwards in pre-heated oven at 220C for 20 mins. Remove from oven. Prick over the surface of the skin.
4) Brush thepork skin with rice vinegar. Bake with skin side upwards at 250C for further 20-30 minutes, or until pop-up bubbles have formed the surface. Remove, cut into pieces and serve.

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Updated on 2 Jul 06:

A couple of readers asked me how reddish cheese looks like. As requested, here's the picture!