Sanctuary from The Mad World
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. - Orson Welles

For me, crispy pork is a holy grail. Unlike other western cities, the city we live in has no little dingy chinese shops where pork slabs and whole birds hang on meat hooks in window display. We normally go to New King in Amsterdam for such treat.

Now, no more. Thanks to Charmaine of Tasty Treats. Her accurate recipe brought a smile to our faces.

The crispy pork tastes sophisticated and restaurant-made due to the use of fermented beancurd which is apparently the key and not found in any other recipes. Her roasting method, save for the step-up in temperature at the second stage probably specific to my oven, is right-on. The vinegar worked well to puff up the skin.

For truly good result, use the best pork belly you can find. It should be fresh and firm. It should not be too thick or too fatty (one layer of fat is ideal). Then, the flavours are displayed in their full glory through the tender meat and crispy skin.

Ingredients:
Verbatim from Tasty Treat:

For the marinade:
1 cube fermented red beancurd (nam yue)
1/2 tbsp Chinese five spice powder
1/2 tbsp white pepper
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp rice wine

For the pork belly:
1 x 1kg piece pork belly
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
2 tbsp white vinegar

Directions:
1. Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a small bowl until well combined.

2. Using a sharp knife, score the skin of the pork belly all over (you can ask your butcher to do this for you). The more you score, the more fat will be released and the crispier your pork belly will be! Turn the pork belly over and make incisions in the meat about 1/2cm deep and about 2cm apart.

3. Rub the marinade into the pork flesh (make sure to rub into the incisions as well).

4. Place the meat skin-side up into a container. Pat the skin dry with kitchen paper, then rub in the coarse salt. Place, uncovered, into the fridge and leave to marinate overnight.

5. Take the meat out an hour before roasting (so about 2 hours before you want to serve). Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

6. Place the pork belly on a rack in the middle of the oven and roast for 20 minutes. Then, brush the skin with the white vinegar and switch the oven to the grill (broil) function. (The white vinegar is to help speed up the crackling process.). [VTN:I then turned up the heat to 250 degrees Celsius and place the baking sheet on the upper rack.]

7. Keep an eye on your pork belly as it cooks; it should take about 45 minutes. Now, the tip here is to let the skin char for ultra-crispy crackling (the logic is that this is how you know the skin is crisp all the way through and not chewy on the bottom).

8. So don’t worry if your pork belly is a bit charred – use a serrated knife to scrape away the blackened layer and reveal a golden-red layer of crisp pork skin. (Admittedly I think I went a bit far with the charring this time, so the skin was nice and crisp but a bit dry for my liking. Next time!)

9. Using a large knife, chop (don’t slice) the pork belly into bite-sized pieces. I do this by holding the knife over the skin, then hitting down hard on the back of the knife with the heel of my hand. A nice, clean chop – just listen to that crackling!