Anyway, it's been awhile since I cooked up some nice Asian pork dish, but I was craving the juicy flavours of piggyoinkers, so I decided to google some recipes and create the perfect roast pork ever! I've tried slow roasting pork belly strips in the oven before, but it didn't turn out just as I wanted so this time I thought, just go for it, roast is one of the simplest dishes so even if it does have a slim possibility to mess up, chances are, it wouldn't!
I tried Jamie Oliver's pork belly recipe and it turned out perfect. I didn't quite do it just how Jamie described (I'm not one who likes to take "measured" steps in cooking, I prefer to be instinctive, more of a challenge) and decided to give it an Asian spin while keeping the Western herb flavouring, and it was the best home roasted pork belly I've ever had! Didn't quite take many pictures of the before, but I do hope you enjoy my after pictures!
Liz's Perfect Roast Pork Recipe - Adapted from Jamie Oliver's Recipe
Serves two very hungry tummies or leftovers can be kept overnight to bring into office
Prep Time: 10mins, Cooking Time: 2.5hours
Half a kg of Pork Belly - needs to have a good layer of fat in between the skin and flesh but not TOO much if you're attempting to be slightly angelic (face it, pork belly anything is prob not the healthiest of dinner choices though!)
Salt and Pepper to season
Five Spice Powder
Fresh Thyme
Organic Potatoes
Garlic
First and most importantly, one must crank up the oven and preheat to at least 220degrees. I'm using a Celsius temp measurement, not a Fahrenheit, fyi.
Mine was set at 250degrees preheat, and it was roaring hot by the time my meat was seasoned.
To season the meat, score the skin with a sharpened knife in criss-crosses, not too deep that you split the flesh, just enough that you're able to separate the incisions to massage the seasoning in. I learnt that having a knife sharpener is very important because my knife wasn't in the best shape and that made it a tiny bit difficult to score the skin. Also, another trick that I'd like to mention is to have the pork meat more chilled than thawed. Makes the process a lot easier and less frustrating as the skin can be quite tough to slice through.
In another bowl, mix together 3 parts salt, one part white pepper and one part five spice powder and toss it around. When the seasoning sort of looks all a greyish colour, start pulling apart the tears in the skin and rub the seasoning into the grooves.
Relish this part and enjoy the massaging. It's an odd relaxing calmness when you're massaging the seasoning into the flesh. I suppose, if you're like me and thinking about the "after" while you're at the "before", the anticipation really starts building up here. I also dusted some seasoning on the underside of the belly slab and then placed the piece skin side up into a roasting pan. Reduce heat and roast at 220degrees for half an hour. If you're a nosy parker like me, you'll probably be peeking in through the oven window and you'll notice the skin starting to puff up and look like pork crackling (you know, the snack kind you can get in American supermarkets).
Turn the heat down to 180degrees and roast for another hour. After this, your tummy is very likely to be rumbling pretty loudly and your kitchen is starting to have that beautiful roasted meat aroma wafting through the air. Quickly, take it out of the oven, give the golden skin a light baste with the fat that has oozed to the bottom of the pan and remove to a separate plate. Arrange your potatoes (i sliced mine) and garlic slices with the thyme on the bottom of the roasting pan, and rest the pork belly on top of all of this. Place back into the oven set at 180degrees still, and let roast for a final hour. By this time, the aromas will be almost orgasmic and I guarantee that if you weren't hungry before, you'd pretty much be drooling when you lift your pan out of the oven and lustfully gaze upon this sweet piece of pork.
I let my pork belly and potatoes rest while I made a side serve of simple aglio e olio pasta (an extremely basic olive oil and dried chili pasta) and kept my roast tray covered with some foil to seal in the juices. I've really tried to go healthy, so we had some really yummy wholemeal pasta from South Melbourne market. It's really the best, and the texture is firm and al dente every time we cook it. Yuuuuuum!
And so yes, there you have it! A super simple and really hearty satisfying dish for when you're craving some roast.
Until my next post! X
