Crispy Roast Pork Belly (Siew Yuk)

Moist inside, crispy skin 

  This recipe is adapted from Bily Law, my favourite Australian Masterchef finalist 2011. By the way,  he is originally from my hometown too :)
  You may also like to check out his 2 cookbooks, Man Food and Have you eaten.

       Recipe from : A table for two (Billy Law)
    Ingredients
    3 kg pork belly (with skin on)
    1 bag rock salt

score the skin,  blanch and cook a little in the boiled water

pat dry using paper towel, marinade the flesh, leave it overnight in the fridge

after 30 minutes in the oven, remove out and sprinkle salt on top of the pork belly.
 preheated oven 250C, continue roasting for another 30 minutes, 

Highest shelf in the oven, "grill" on.
Oops, I should have removed the hot water pan by now.

Scoring it in vertical lines 2 -3 cm apart does make it easy when chopped

  Method

  1.  Clean the pork belly, scrape the skin with a knife to get rid of any hair. Pat dry all over with kitchen towel.  

  2.  Score the skin in vertical lines about 2-3 cm apart.  Boil some hot water, pour the hot water over the skin and let it blanch and cook a little (  I just cooked it in pot for a short moment).

  3.  Pat dry the pork completely, especially the scored lines on the skin.

  4.  Rub marinade ( your choice ) evenly into the meat.  DO NOT rub on the skin. Clean it with a paper towel if there's any marinade get on the skin.

  5.  Put the pork belly in baking tray, wrap with cling wrap, leave in the fridge to marinade at least 2 hour or overnight.

  6.  Pre-heat oven to 220C, pat dry the skin again to get rid any moisture.  Roast the pork belly for 30 minutes until the skin turns brown.

  7.  Remove form the oven,  sprinkle rock salt all over the skin and try rub some into the scored lines.

( Don't worry the amount of salt used here, it can be brushed off later).

  8.  Put it back in the oven and roast for another 30 minutes.  At this point, the skin will be crispy and with very small bubbles blistering the skin.

  9.  Turn the oven to 250C, move the pork belly to the highest tray in the oven, as close to the top heat element as possible.  "Grill" it for another 20-30 minutes at every 10 minute interval.  Keep checking it until the skin is evenly blistered and make sureit is not burned and blackened.

 10. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes before chopping it up with cleaver.  

  Note: For my pork belly, I had a pan filled with hot water placed on the bottom of the oven. When "grill on" at the last stage, I removed the hot water.  Also, I used sea salt, five spice powder and white pepper powder to marinade the flesh.