I have been making roast pork Cantonese style from time to time (check the posts here) and I have settled into a method which I have found to be easy and consistent. My aim is to have the meat cook just right and juicy while the skin is crisped. There are various ways of roasting pork belly and of course, a regular oven can be used.
My mother-in-law bought an Anova Precision Oven recently. This oven suited this method to the tee. I won't need to use vacuum bags and I can do everything from start to finish in the oven. I will share here my cooking notes. Down the line, I will be experimenting different ways of using this oven to cook, for example, using the SV probe and so on.
The steps in a nutshell -
The steps in a nutshell -
blanch
poke holes
add marinate
sous-vide cooking (72˚C , 5 hours)
grilling (200˚C, 10 minutes)
Blanching removes impurities and make it easier for the skin to be poked. The SV stage serves to purpose: cook the pork and dry out the skin. The Anova oven allows for cooking in stages. This means I can set the grilling stage to start immediately after the SV stage. But the oven does not stop after the timer goes to zero. So, I prefer to initiate the grilling stage manually and be around to watch over it.
Let the meat cool off, slice and enjoy. If you did it right, the meat should look intact (not breaking apart). I normally slice of the underside meat which is firmer. Use the sliced meat to cook with veg for another disk. Your roast pork pieces should be flat at the bottom and able to stand upright, making for a nice presentation.
This roasted pork should be eaten at room temperature. It keeps well. If eating it one or two days later, just grill it again to warm it up or to crisp u the skin.
Ingredients
Slab of pork belly, skin on of course, 2 kg
3 tbsp of table salt
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of white pepper
1 tsp of five-spiced powder
1. Blanch the slab of pork in boiling water for 10 minutes.
2. Using fork, poke holes. I slant the fork at an angle so that I don't accidentally poke all the way through. If this happens, water will ooze out of the meat during the grilling process, making skin crisping harder.
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| Move the fork into the skin at an angle |
3. Lay a foil on the tray. Put the pork skin side down and rub the marinate into the meat.
4. Put the slab of pork, skin side up, on the tray and fold up the foils. Place tray at the lowest rack. You can set the oven using the app or on the panel. Set: Sous Vide On, 72˚C, No steam, Heating from rear, Timer: 5 hours (see below).
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| Sous Vide Stage |
4. Then grill at 200˚C for about ten minutes. Use a spoon or chopstick to tap the skin. Some burned black spots are okay as you can scrap them off later with a knife.
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| Grilling Stage |
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| After the grilling stage |
This roasted pork should be eaten at room temperature. It keeps well. If eating it one or two days later, just grill it again to warm it up or to crisp u the skin.
You can also stay fry it with garlic using the recipe here.
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| You can use the roast pork to stir fry in garlic and black sauce. |
