Baked/Roasted Pork Belly (Asian Style)

It's been a stressful week so please allow me to quickly update the blog here without my usual mumbling and whining (which might be a good thing for y'all).

Baked/roasted pork belly Asian style -

Ingredients?

• 1lb of pork belly
• Some bak choy

Marinade:

• 1/2 cup of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of black bean soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/8 cup of rice cooking wine
• 4 garlic cloves
• 3 dried chilies
• 2 star anise
• 1 stalk of scallion
• 1 small stick of cinnamon (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorn
• 1/4 teaspoon of black sesame oil

How?

Put the Sichuan peppercorn and dried chilies into a pan and toast them slightly, just like toasting pine nuts.

Peel the garlic cloves and discard the scallion stem. Mix all the marinade ingredients together.

Pour the marinade into a pot and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for about 2 minutes.

Wait till the marinade cools down then pour it all over the pork belly to start the marinating process. If you can't find a perfect sized container, Ziploc always comes in handy.

Remember to turn it around half way through to ensure the other side gets marinate evenly as well. Leave it in the fridge for at least 6 hours, overnight preferably.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a baking pan or make one with tin foil. Transfer the pork belly and the marinade into the container. Only the juice gets to stay, you can discard the solid ingredients such as garlic cloves and scallion. If your pork belly comes with skin on one side, make sure the skin side or the fattier side is on the top.

Into the oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Lastly, turn up the temperature to high heat or boil. Let the heat sear the top of the meat for 3 to 5 minutes. This will create a thin and slightly burned layer, which adds much more flavor to the pork.

Let it cool down for about 10 minutes before cutting into 1/2 inch slices.

Blanch the bak choy and use it to garnish the plate. After all, we need some veggies to cut off the fat right?

Drizzle the remaining juice all over the pork slices before serving. The pork is not spicy at all. Instead, you can feel a gentle numbing sensation because of the Sichuan peppercorn.

This pork belly recipe will be perfect for ramen or you can serve it with steamed white rice.