Chinese Crispy Pork Belly (Siu Yuk) and Char Siu Pork
Ingredients:
Crispy Pork Belly (Siu Yuk)
1 kg Pork belly with skin
2 tbsp five spice powder
Large pinch of white pepper
Approx. 200g Salt + 200g salt (400g in total)
Char Siu
30g treacle
20g brown sugar
50g honey
65g hoisin sauce
20g of dark soy sauce
10g five spice powder
1 tbsp oil
40g oyster sauce
1 kg pork shoulder (with a good bit of fat marbled) – sliced into thinner slightly more uniform pieces lengthways, make sure the rind and top layer of fat is removed
2 tsp of red food colouring
Vegetables
1 bunch of Chinese tenderstem ‘gai lan’/ or a green vegetable like pak choi
Water
Oil
Oyster sauce
Steamed basmati rice to serve
Method:
DAY BEFORE
1. Prep the Siu Yuk – pat dry the pork belly on all sides, then with a skewer/toothpick/sharp knife pierce the skin (BE CAREFUL – do not pierce into the flesh, ONLY the skin needs pricked). As many times as you can.
2. Place on a grill tray so the flesh is not touching the bottom of the tin, now place a thick layer of salt on the skin (this may seem excessive, but it draws out the moisture in the skin to give you the crispiest pork belly ever). Leave the pork exposed like this and put into the bottom shelf of your fridge or the meat drawer so it does not contaminate anything. Leave overnight in fridge.
3. Prep for the Char siu – place a bowl on top of a set of scales and then the sandwich bag, then measure all the ingredients directly into the bag for the char siu marinade. Then wing in the pork shoulder pieces and swish the marinade around the pork. Put the bag flat on a baking tray so the maximum amount of marinade is surrounding the meat. Put in fridge overnight.
NEXT DAY
1. Preheat oven 150c.
2. Take the siu yuk out of the fridge and scrape off ALL the salt on the pork skin. Pat dry with kitchen roll again all over. Then flip the pork skin side down on the chopping board and massage the five spice and white pepper on all sides of the flesh, try to avoid covering the skin at all with this rub.
3. Get a tray ready to fit the pork belly parcel in. Using the heavy tin foil make a case for the pork belly, it should fully encase the bottom and sides of the pork belly and about an inch up past the sides, make sure it is a very tight neat fit around the slab of meat. Pierce the skin again (Don’t pierce though to the flesh). Then pour more salt on top to cover the top and to the edges so it is like a seal. The steam will make the pork belly steam from underneath and the fat will reduce down and become melt in your mouth.
4. Put the tray into the oven and let it roast for 2 hours (siu yuk).
5. Take out the marinated raw char siu pieces from the fridge and place all pieces of pork into a long oven proof dish along with the marinade from the bag to be poured on top. Secure a piece of tinfoil tightly around the edges and bake for 1 hour (char siu) on the other shelf of the oven from the siu yuk.
BREAK
6. Take out the roasted char siu and leave covered and wait till the siu yuk is ready. If you forget about it and leave it in for cooking for longer it will be fine, it will just be a lot more melt in your mouth in texture, but still delicious.
BREAK
7. Turn on the grill to the fullest setting.
8. Take the siu yuk out of the oven. Turn the oven up to 250c.
9. For the siu yuk carefully remove the pork from the tin foil, these juices are delicious that have been collected in the tin foil, don’t throw it out as it can be used to flavour other dishes.
10. Flake off ALL the salt and using a pastry brush and piece of kitchen roll to make sure ALL salt grains have been removed. Then pat dry again with kitchen roll (only on the skin). Now, place the piece of siu yuk on a smaller baking tin and place back into the hotter oven. It will take about 15-20 min for the skin to puff up.
11. Place each piece of char siu on the grill tray, using a pastry brush liberally baste the leftover sticky marinade over the char siu, now grill for 3-5 min and using tongs flip the char siu and repeat on the other side. The char siu should now have the characteristic burnt/charred bits to it. Baste one last time on both sides. Leave this to rest.
12. Half fill your wok with water and add about 1 tbsp of vegetable oil. Bring to a boil and place the stems in first and then using tongs or chopsticks submerge (you may need to cook in 2 batches).
13. Cook for a couple of minutes until tender, however, if you don’t like your vegetables crunchy, then cook for another couple of minutes longer.
14. Using tongs or chopsticks extract the green vegetable and shake off any excess water and place on a serving dish. You may have to tip the plate over the wok to drain off any excess water that may have dripped onto the plate.
15. Drizzle a couple tbsp of oyster sauce evenly over the be Chinese green vegetables and serve with the rested char siu and siu yuk and basmati rice.
