Crispy Oven-Baked Roasted Pork (Siew Yoke) 脆皮烧肉

Mum has cut down on red meat for almost a decade. While fighting Cancer, she has taken out pork from her diet.

Lately, she has mentioned to me that she has not tasted “siew yoke” for quite awhile and missed the taste.
Thought I should make some for her. Making my own, I could at least control the amount of salt used (so that it will not be so salty).

Mum loves it. The skin was very crispy while the meat was still juicy. It is also not as salty as those that we buy.


 

This is really a very easy recipe. Only 4 ingredients needed with a ratio of 1:1:1:1 (1kg pork : 1 tbsp salt : 1 tbsp pepper : 1 tbsp 5 spice powder.


The Crispy Oven Baked Roasted Pork (Recipe source: Angel, of Cook.Bake.Love )

Ingredients: -
1 kg pork belly (take the whole slab - do not cut into thin strip)
1 tbsp salt (I used fine Sea salt)
1 tbsp of the white pepper
1 tbsp at five-spice powder

Method:
1) Clean the pork belly and pat dry with the kitchen paper towel
2) Score the meat about 2cm apart both vertically and horizontally (do not score, the skin).
3) Prick all over the skin with a sharp skewer (I used the tip of a small Knife). Prick as much holes as possible This the step is very essential to ensure crackling on the skin.
4) Rub the skin and meat with salt all over.
5) Mix the white Pepper and five-spice powder and rub into the meat including the scored areas (do not rub on the skin ).
6) Keep the pork belly in  the fridge uncovered (skin side up), for a few hours. This is to dry up the skin so that it will become crispy after baking.
7) Take out pork belly 30 mins to 1 hour before baking to thaw in room temperature. Put the pork belly on a grill with skin side up (remember to place a tray lined with aluminium foil below to catch the oil).
8) Bake in preheated the oven, upper the rack at 200C for 50 mins , Adjust to 220C and continue to bake for another 10 mins. Check the skin, if there is still spot that is not crackling, switch to upper fire (so that the meat won't be over baked), bake for another 10 mins at 220C. Repeat this step (check every 10 mins), turn the position of pork belly if necessary, until there are  cracklings all over. If there is certain spot where the crackling is not so well done after prolonged baking, try to wipe away the oil and rub some salt on the skin before baking. Scrape away the charred part with a tong or knife before serving.
8) Rest the pork before cutting it into bit size pieces.

Making roast pork is easy. All you need is patience. However, the challenge is always the aftermath ie the cleaning up (as the oven will be coated with oil from the pork.