Roast Pork Belly – First Attempt

Last Sunday, hubby and I got up early and we went to market to have our breakfast. Then, we continued to shop for ingredients for the roast pork belly and Hokkien Mee that we planned to make.

Roast pork belly recipe that I got online:
1.7 KG Slab of Pork Belly
2 – 1/2 TBSP Coarse Salt
1/2 to 3/4 TSP 5 Spice Powder
3 TBSP Natural White Vinegar

As our pork belly weighed 1KG plus only, we didn’t follow the recipe exactly.

5 spice  powder, coarse salt and vinegar

Our slab of pork belly with a pink mark and a nipple (i think )

First, we cleaned the pork belly and removed the hairs (if there’s still any). Then, used a paper towel to pat it dry.

Pricking with a fork

The skin was so thick that the fork could hardly go through the skin. So I passed this important job to hubby. It will be easier if we have a metal skewer.The fork isn’t sharp enough.

Pork belly nicely pricked

Hubby did a great job pricking the pork belly But his hand was awfully tired after that.

Smearing vinegar to the skin

The pork belly is best marinated overnight with the vinegar but we couldn’t wait any longer to try roasting our own pork belly. So we smeared the pork belly with vinegar and then put the pork belly into the fridge with the skin-side up so the skin will dry. We continued preparing ingredients for our Hokkien Mee. After some time, we took out the pork belly and smeared the skin with the vinegar again. Knowing that the purpose of putting the vinegar is to help the skin crackles, we put a lot by repeating the steps. Smear with vinegar, then put the pork belly to fridge and wait for it to dry, and then the steps repeat. Haha! We did that for 3 or 4 times, I couldn’t remember.

Preheat oven to 200 degree celsius. Then, we rubbed the pork belly with a TBSP of coarse salt.

We rubbed half TSP of 5 spice powder but we think we should put more 5 spice powder next time. This depends on individual preference. After finished rubbing the coarse salt and 5 spice powder on the meat side, turned over the pork belly and rubbed the remaining coarse salt to the pork skin.

The marinated pork belly is placed on the wire rack of a preheated oven. The recipe asks to place a tray filled with water under the wire rack to catch the drips and the water prevents the drips from smoking up our oven. We did accordingly but our oven was too hot that the water dried out and there was really smoke. So we added more water.

A big lump!

I think our oven was too hot. We will try roasting with lower temperature next time.

The skin looks so crispy

Hubby cut a small strip to try and I could hear the skin crackled!

Looks crispy and tender

These were for us to try. Couldn’t wait but still we wanted to take pictures first to keep as memory – our very 1st roast pork belly

Our roast pork belly was successful and taste so good that we decided to share with my grandma who stays at the same block as us. So, hubby cut a nice strip for grandma All I got was grandma’s praises