ABC Roast Pork

With Chinese New Year approaching, prices for meat items like Pork, Chicken and Seafood are soaring high. The prices for most pork items has gone up too. It has been a traditional practice for my family and my in laws to buy roast meats like Roast Duck, Chicken and Pork, Suckling Pig and other foods as prayer offerings to the ancestors before the Chinese New Year.

With the convenience of ready roasts, many families are shying away from home cooking and some prefer to buy them than to slave over hot oven roasting meats.

In recent years too, some families also prefer to book a table at a Chinese restaurant for the ultimate reunion dinner and spend precious time with their family members.

For some of you who would like to try out roast pork (Siew Yoke) at home be it for Chinese New Year or any other occasions, I have a recipe from Ah Boy, who makes a mean Roast Pork. He is a fan of Siew Yoke and has done this at home many times. This time I cajoled him to roast one while I take some pictures for my blog. Thus, I'm gonna call this recipe ABC Roast Pork because it stands for Ah Boy Can Roast Pork.

It's pretty simple, anyone can make it, wherever you are as long as you have the basic ingredients.


Recipe
2 tsp English Mustard
A pinch of Five Spice Powder
1 and half tsp Salt and more if desired
6-7 cloves of Garlic, bruised

1 kg Pork Belly (Wide Cut)

Total roasting time about 40 minutes

Heat oven to medium high. Some oven temperature may vary. Go for 165 deg C (average roast) to 180 deg C (final 10 mins). Turn on heating elements on top and bottom. If you are unsure about your oven, look for a medium / high temp, set to in between. Then again, trust yourself during roasting. If the belly looks like it's gonna burn, bring the temp down, and cover the top with aluminium foil at the top part to prevent burnt pork skin, yet allow the pork to cook further till it's done. Never eat pork that is raw.


Preparing the Meat











Clean the Belly in water, make sure you use a tweezer to remove any remaining hair on the skin.
In a large saucepan, enough for the belly to fit it, blanch the pork belly in the hot boiling water briefly. Remove from the water, dry it with a towel or kitchen towel and place it on a shallow roasting pan.

Using a knife, score the top part of the skin 2-3 centimeters deep at about 2 cm apart (see picture)


Marination











Rub 1 tsp of Salt on the skin of the belly. I know some people like it a little salty so it is up to you how much more salt you want to have.

Turn to lay the skin side down and rub the 4 sides and underside with mustard, half teaspoon of salt and five spice powder.

Rub the bruised garlic last and leave the garlic bulbs on top.


Roasting











Roast the meat (skin side down first) for 15 - 20 minutes. At the end of 15 minutes, the meat will be not be browned yet except for some corners. Bring the roast out.

Prepare a small rack small enough to stand inside the oven baking tray. Turn the pork belly skin side up on it for a second roast. The rack is to ensure that the roast will be evenly roasted top and bottom.

As I do not have a smaller roasting rack, I lay it on two hollow round aluminum egg mould.

Continue roasting for another 10 minutes and rotate the tray 180 deg so that you get an even shade of golden brown for the skin top. After another 10 minutes of roasting, the roast pork should be ready.

Scrape out any burnt parts of the skin. Let it cool before carving it.