Crispy Skin Pork

[copious]

I posted this on my blog but figured it would go down well with the OCAU faithful. Every man deserves a regular dosage of pork crackling It tastes awesome , especially the crackling (if done right). http://www.eatshowandtell.com/2008/0...spy-skin-pork/

Ingredients

• 1 kg Pork belly
• Bowl of boiling water (to assist in the crackling process)
• Olive oil
• Sea salt or table salt

The Marinade

• 2 cloves garlic , chrushed
• 3 tbspn sugar
• 2 tbspn soy sauce
• 2 tbspn char siu sauce
• 1 teaspon 5 spice powder
• Pepper to taste

1. With a knife, score the skin of the pork so that it is evenly distributed
2. Put the pork in a strainer and poor the boiling water carefully onto the skin of the pork
3. Pat the pork dry, especially the skin and let it cool while you make the marinade below
4. Add all the marinade ingredients into a mortar and pestle and grind carefully until it turns into a paste like substance. If you dont have a mortar and pestle, feel free to use anything which is suitable for mixing all the ingredients into a marinade.
5. Gently rub the marinade onto the pork (note : don’t marinate the skin of the pork , only the meat, as this will carimalise under the grill) and ensure the skin of the pork stays upright
6. Allow to dry for atleast 3 hours in room temperature. I actually let mine dry outside in the sun covered so no flies could get in. The more it dries, the more crispier the skin can get.
7. Once done, put it in a pre heat oven (180 degrees) for 30 - 45 minutes depending on the size of your pork belly.
8. Once the pork is golden brown on the outside, take it out of the oven.
9. Brush the skin on top of the pork sparingly with olive oil and then sprinkle a small amount of sea salt on top
10. Put the pork under the grill / broiler and grill it until you can hear crackling sounds. Alternatively, grill until it crackles to your liking. It took about 5 minutes.

[jamiemao]

omg i read ur blog all the time. helped me alot of times in picking out restaurants.

[evilgnome]

I use the exact same method for pork crackling and it always comes up perfect. Every time I make it they come rushing once they hear the "crackle" sound when Im slicing it up.

[scon]

Yum... When I make this I rub 5-Spice and salt into the crackling just before putting it in the oven. So tasty! Great piccies too!

[sormuijai]

We do something similar, except when we marinate the meat, we put the meat on a tray, uncovered in the fridge for a day or 2. This really dries out the skin when you're cooking.

Also, i crank the oven temp high up, like 250 when I shove the pork in. Once the pork is in for about 20mins, i prick the skin all over then turn it down to normal temperature. The initial blast of heat dries the skin up a bit more. Once the pork is cooked, turn the grill on to make the crackling.

[Kindros]

Theres only ever one problem with crispy skinned pork...there is never enough craklin'

Looks way yum, could really go that on a roll with some drippings.

[Lespom]

Oh Yeah, got to try this, just love the crackle on pork.
Instead of salt, I use Master Foods Steak Spice to rub on the skin of roast pork (got a taste of pepper, garlic, paprika and celery to it, I'll have to read the label on day just to find out what nasties are in it).

[copious]

Thanks guys. Cheers for the alternative ways of doing this dish as well, will give them a go.

Roast pork is one of those dishes where trial and error is the way to go

[sha]

That is a great crackling recipe.

Totally off topic Copious but how good is Mr Chow's. I am slightly biased as I am friends with the owners niece.

[dc0079]

My mum soak the skin in vinegar and then wash it after, create bigger "air pocket" on the skin, but judging from the pic, hot water might be as good if not better than the vinegar recipe.

[username_taken]

a little off topic, but your blog layout is fantastic mate. I actually downloaded and messed around with the theme after seeing it, but it feels like a ton of work to maintain it with uploading the images, resizing, setting the Image variable in each post etc. Good on you for sticking with it though, looks great.

[Renza]

i usually boil the skin of the pork in vinegar the night before, then dry it off. works great everytime.

[copious]

Originally Posted by sha

That is a great crackling recipe.

Totally off topic Copious but how good is Mr Chow's. I am slightly biased as I am friends with the owners niece.

Mr Chow's was pretty good! Exceeded my expectations for a Chinese restaurant in that end of the city tbh. The smoked duck was quite nice

Originally Posted by username_taken

a little off topic, but your blog layout is fantastic mate. I actually downloaded and messed around with the theme after seeing it, but it feels like a ton of work to maintain it with uploading the images, resizing, setting the Image variable in each post etc. Good on you for sticking with it though, looks great.

Thanks mate. I'm a big fan of the original author of the layout he makes very clean and content/image centric layouts which is ideal for a food blog since most of it is judged on photography on first sight!

Initially it was a pain maintaining it because it uses custom fields for images and also different sizes, but I just preset my settings in Irfanview and it's relatively easy to resize on the fly.

Thanks for the comments it's encouraging as there as so many good food blogs out there, we are just a needle in the haystack lol.

[MR CHILLED]

Now that looks absolutely gorgeous.....there is nothing like a perfectly done pork roast.

Pork would definitely be my fav, with a bit of fat crackling to go with it.

[sjobeck]

Originally Posted by Renza

i usually boil the skin of the pork in vinegar the night before, then dry it off. works great everytime.

How the hell do you boil the skin in vinegar without cooking the meat?