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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Crispy Roasted Pork Belly (脆皮燒肉)

Roast Pork
Roast Pork
Chinese Roast Pork
Chinese Roast Pork


The key to a classic Chinese roast with golden brown, blistered and crunchy crackling lies in the dryness of the skin and also a searing hot oven to begin with to get the crackling going.

There are many theories about crackling - brushing the skin with vinegar, scalding the skin, scoring the skin before oiling and rubbing salt, etc etc.  I followed these theories before but the results were not consistent.  Sometimes I would get very crispy crackling but other times I got some hard and unblistered crackling ... until a friend who kindly shared her recipe with me. 
  
To get the perfect crackling - 
  • I left my marinated pork to dry out uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. 
  • Then I rubbed a generous amount of oil all over the skin before scattering enough salt to cover the entire surface.  The oil will start to heat up in the extremely hot oven (230 deg C) and the salt will begin to draw out the moisture and the skin itself will start to crack, puff and bubble like little blisters.
  • After 20 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 200 deg C.  The rule of thumb is to allow 25 minutes per 500g of pork.  

Roast Pork


Ingredients:
2 slabs of pork belly (1.5kg)
oil
salt

Marinade:
2 pieces of red fermented beancurd (nam yue) - mashed
1 tsp pepper
2 tbsp chinese cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp five-spiced powder
2 tsp sugar
  • Wash the pork and pat dry with kitchen towel.
  • In a small bowl, combine the marinade ingredients and mix well.  
  • Turn the pork skin-side down on a rack and using the tip of a knife, prick all over the pork.
  • Rub the marinade evenly all over, including the sides (but not the skin).  
  • Place the pork, skin-side up in a tray or a container and wipe the skin thoroughly with paper towel.  Leave the pork in the refrigerator, uncovered overnight.  
  • Bring the pork to room temperature before roasting (at least 2 hours).
  • The skin will dry out after refrigerated overnight.  If not, give it a little blow-dry with hair dryer. (The drier the skin, the better the cackling when roasted).
  • Preheat oven to 230 deg C.
  • Place pork, skin-side up on a rack set over a roasting pan.  
  • Drizzle oil all over the skin of the pork, then sprinkle enough salt to fully cover the entire skin.  
  • Put the pork into the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
  • Then reduce the oven to 200 deg C and continue roasting for another 50 - 55 mins.
  • Remove meat from the oven and allow to rest for 10 - 15 mins before cutting.  Brush away excess salt.  

For easier cleaning after roasting, I prefer to use my Turbo Oven which is similar to the fan-forced convection oven.

George Foreman Turbo Oven


21 comments:

  1. Thank you thank you for sharing this valuable tips to us!! I have made roast pork before and dreaded to make all because of cleaning up the oven later on. I wanted to get this turbo oven too.....just because for roasting pork and easy cleaning up.

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  2. Wah, the skin really look super duper crispy!! Yum Yum ar...

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  3. That CRUST looks to die for, Veronica.

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  4. Great photography! May I ask what type of salt do you use for this recipe. Thank you!

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  5. I could see how crispy these roasted pork are!!! Imagine the "cracking" sound as you take a bite on them ^^

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  6. Good Lord, Veronica! Your siew yoke is to die for! You have given very clear instructions and good tips. Well, I shall try this one day!

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  7. HI Veronica, how are you? I have stopped blogging for 3 months & now only come back in order to support this month's LTU, hehe! I like your crispy roasted pork very very much! And I must tell you that when I was back to my mum's hometown earlier this year for CNY, my cousin also used this type of oven to roast her cork belly & they turned out so crispy & remained crispy until afternoon, really amazing!

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  8. Look at that incredibly blistered skin! Wow! :o

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  9. That is a gorgeous looking piece of Siew yok! I haven't make Siew yok for a while and your post just ignited my interest in that!

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  10. this looks fantastic.!.i hv never tried doing it at home cos i read that it will mess up the oven quite a bit but i know one day i will attempt it. Thx for sharing the tips given , this looks really really tempting to me!!

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  11. Hi Veronica,
    Thank you so much for the tips!
    I am going to roasted a gorgeous looking Siew Yok like yours :D
    mui

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  12. O.......oh! what a yummylicious with super crispy skin roasted pork you have!
    Bookmarked it, will try it out one day. Thank you:)

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  13. I want to ask if the sea salt i change with vinegar + a little bit of water , can it crackling

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    Replies
    1. I have seen others blanch the pork with vinegar and water but I haven't done that before. So I can't answer your question.

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  14. I see that you did not perform any scoring or poke the skin of the pork. I do that see that steps in other recipe. Is that not necessary for yours? 😊

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    Replies
    1. You are right, I didn't score or prick the skin at all.

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  15. hi, when do you take out the salt? thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Before you cut, lightly tap the meat to remove excess salt.

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  16. how much salt do you scatter on top?

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