Pork Belly

Foie Gras, Fatty Char Siew, Marrow and now Pork Belly. All the things I would gladly shorten my life for with every bite. And because this was only a recent enlightenment, when I tried Anderson Ho's recipe for a Oolong Tea Steeped Quail Egg and Pork Belly quite a while ago, I erroneously substituted the Pork Belly. As if that was not enough, I FOOLISHLY chose chicken breasts which do not take well to braising. At all. Sadly, I had to commit such a sin while preparing for a party.

But the sauce that resulted from the braising was amazing and was even better the next day with some duck. So after having been hit hard by the previous failure, I was determined to follow the recipe more closely this time and bought a generous portion of pork belly.

But like I have commented before, his recipes omit many crucial steps that you would only realise after trying it out. For example, he says to add all the braising liquid ingredients into a pot to simmer. One of the ingredients is Oolong tea leaves. As you can imagine, if you were to add this to the braising liquid directly, the tea leaves would cling to your pork belly and be everywhere in the sauce. So I recommend placing them, together with your spices, in a muslin bag for easier retrieval later on.

Also, I'm not sure how he manages to create such perfect looking slices of pork belly. But if presentation is as important to you as it is to me, I would make the pork belly the night before, then refrigerate the meat overnight. Slicing it when cold is alot easier, and made even more effortless with a Kasumi knife. It really was like slicing through butter. You could then return the pork belly to some heated thickened sauce and serve. Such advance preparation also makes creating a dinner party a little more stress free, unlike creating a pasta dish that has to be served as soon as it has reached al dente stage.

This really is an easy recipe that everyone should try. It just takes a little time but requires little effort. The result is amazingly satisfying and worth every moment away from your beloved computer or television. Who wouldn't want to have some fork tender pork belly with those heavenly layers of pork fat?

Oolong Tea Steeped Pork Belly

Adapted from Menu Degustation

4 servings

Ingredients

20g Oolong tea leaves

15ml dark soy sauce

100ml light soy sauce

3 cinnamon sticks

2 cloves

3 star anise

1.5 litres chicken stock

1 inch knob of ginger (optional)

1/4 cup rice wine (optional)

25g rock sugar

200g pork belly, cleaned, plucked, and rubbed with five spice powder, salt and black pepper

Cornstarch, dissolved in water

Method

Wrap Oolong tea leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves and star anise in a piece of muslin and secure it close. Add it to chicken stock, soy sauces, ginger and rice wine in a pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

Sear pork belly on all sides on high heat then simmer in the braising liquid for an hour or until tender (I braised it for 2 over hours and it was fine).

One ready, remove pork belly and slice.

Bring braising liquid to boil until it has thickened into almost a syrup, while adjusting for taste with sugar and salt. Add cornstarch solution if necessary.

Serve pork belly with sauce and garnish with crispy shallots and coriander.