INGREDIENTS (serve 3 persons or 2 with some left over)
1 piece pork belly - about 6x6 inch (the size we bought from you).
1 bunch of bok choy - boil for 3 minutes.
2 stalks of coriander - pick out the leaves, wash and set aside for garnishing/fresh herb flavour.
Stock
1 large onion - remove skin, chopped.
1/2 bulb garlic - ie about 6 cloves - remove skin, lightly crushed, no need to chop.
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp light soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp malt vinegar
1 chilli - cut of stalk only.
About 1.5 litres water - or just enough water to cover all the pork belly throughout 3 hour slow cooking.
Meat marinate juice
2 tsp dark soy
2 tsp light soy
1 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp palm sugar (or raw sugar as substitute)
1 clove garlic chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
Sauce thickener
2 tsp corn starch
2 tbsp water to dilute the corn starch
PREP WORK
Wash the pork belly well, pat dry. Cut into 6 large pieces of equal size ie roughly 2x2 inch square.
Marinate the pork belly with the meat marinate sauce - for at least 30 minutes or overnight is fine too.
COOKING
Pour water into a cast iron pot/heavy stew pot (like a Le Creuset etc).
Put all stock ingredients into the water and heat till boiling.
Switch heat off and open lid - let stock cool off for about 10 minutes.
Gently place marinated pork pieces into the stock and simmer with pot lid on, on low heat for about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Pork does NOT need searing.
Check water level every hour, to make sure pork belly is just covered with stock. At very low heat, the stock should not dry up below pork belly level, if not, add a bit of water, or turn heat down further.
Stir once or twice to ensure pork is not stuck to pot.
SERVING
When ready to serve, skim off layer of oil/fat. (We keep the fat stored in a tupperware, refridgerated for use in cooking other dishes another day!)
Then heat up on low to medium heat.
Remove pork belly onto serving dish.
Mix sauce thickener into stock and stir in heat till it thickens slightly.
Pour sauce over the pork belly.
Garnish with coriander leaves on top of pork belly and boiled bok choy on the sides of the plate.
TIP: The slow cooking makes the pork belly really soft and melts in the mouth.
If you love lots of chilli, you can have as dipping sauce for the pork, soy with chopped chili.
You can add an extra tbsp more vinegar while boiling stock if you like the vinegarish taste. Can add more 1 tsp of sugar if you like it sweeter.
Bon Appetite!
