Pork belly

Possibly one of the greatest cuts of meat there is out there, pork belly is so versatile, satisfying, guilty, comforting and all around delicious. You can stew it, roast it, grill it, render its fat out, use it as a center piece of a composed dish, as a slab for a family dinner, see it in the form of bacon.


I got about a pound of pork belly cut into two long strips with a bone in one of them (nothing wrong with that) that looked fantastic. Pinkish skin with white layers of marble fat intersected with meat. The utilization of the meat would be wide, but crackling was the first priorities.

The Cantonese style of siew yok is perhaps the best. A top layer of golden brown crackling that pops and crackles in your mouth like no other, fat rendered out leaving behind a layer of ivory fat that imbues the meat below with a godly realm of porky delights.

Easiest way i know how to prepare it: get your slab and stab the skin all over so that when it roasts, the fat is able to render out (ensuring crispy skin). Make sure though, that you don't pierce the meat since that means a loss of juices which will make you and I sad. If you washed your piece of meat since it was dropped on the floor or somehow you thought it was offensive, make sure its thoroughly dried with some paper towels. Salt and pepper that bad boy, spice it if you can be bothered (5 spice power is the traditional route) and then whack it inside the oven, skin side up at about 450F for 20 or so mins. Come back later, lower the the heat to 400 and let it cook for another 30. Check at the 15 min mark. The skin should be bursting with crackling here and there and ideally, shatteringily crispy. If its a little tough, and you know your meat is drying out, you can try to sear it on the stove top skin side down. I hear that a lot of times, the skin is actually burnt so what they do is just scrape it off - makes sense i guess. Either way, even if the skin isn't crackling (and what a shame if it isn't!), theres still that belly meat. Oh god, i just ate it for dinner not too long ago and just thinking about it makes me want more... With all that fat you have very little chance of your meat drying out and that precious fat, oh so luscious and marble-y smooth, it just bastes the entire piece of meat for you.  I should have taken a photo but i got impatient from the waiting. Sorry. Serve with whatever you like - for me it was noodles with a little bit of this and that. Who cares, its the pork thats the star.

Another way to go and a somewhat more comforting and i guess, easier route is to stew it. This isn't really chinese considering what i put into it but like a lot of my food its a mish mash of this and that. To about half a pound of pork belly, my strip was cut in half and quickly blanched since it was starting to smell... old and gives it a 'cleaner' flavor i think. Placed in a large bowl and marinaded with a nice large hunk of minced garlic, about 4 thbps of shing shao rice wine, 2 thbsp of light and dark soy sauce and a thbps of sesame oil. Let it sit for as long as you can, the more the better. Oh and cracked black pepper (freshly grounded or else a child is crying somewhere). I did it for just the amount of time to write a 1/4 of a paper and put rice into the rice cooker. To a pot, place about 2 cups or so of water, and everything in the bowl into the pot. Add 2 kaffir lime leaves for that confusing citrus note at the back of your head, a thbsp of tamarind that will get people asking what that sour component is, and another thbsp of honey or palm sugar or just regular sugar. Make sure theres enough liquid to just cover the pork. Let it come to the boil and then let it simmer for about an hour or so. By then the liquid should have reduced to a nice saucy entity which you should taste and adjust for sweetness, saltiness and sourness. So add more soy or sugar or tamarind. The meat at this point should be pretty tender. The skin will likely be somewhat gelatinous which i think is awesome (im gonna try to cut the skin out and pan-fry it, see what happens next time) and of course that fat! That fat is going to taste of all the delicious stuff you imbued it with plus the magicial porkiness of pig fat. GARRRRGH. Serve over white rice with steamed/boiled (whatever is easy) vegetables - i had brocolli, cabbage and some lettuce.

Fuck that was a good dinner.