Home-made Crispy Roast Pork

We have always been a “porky-loving” family. And Roast Pork (siew yook) is one of our top favourites - every restaurant/makan place we go, if there is roast pork, we never fail to order it.

So, having been inspired by some great roast pork recipes and try-outs by some floggers - namely Camemberu and Precious Pea, I decided to give this a try last weekend. I followed Camemberu’s recipe as it was less complicated.

I used the simple marinade recommended, mainly:

Salt

Pepper

5-spice powder

I rubbed all the above onto the 1kg slab of pork belly and then let the pork sit in the fridge for a few hours. Precious Pea’s version had hers kept in the fridge for 3 days!

Before roasting I stabbed the pork skin as much as possible - so much so that the fork I used had bent! If you have a skewer, that would be a better tool. Warning: Poking raw pork skin is really hard work!!

I also heeded Camemberu’s advice to put some vegetables under the roasting pan, so I cut up some potatoes and carrots…

The juice and fats from the roasting pork dripped onto them and they were absolutely yummy!

I roasted the pork in 250 deg. Celcius for about an hour. After about 30 minutes, I could see the skin has already “risen” to give that crispy effect.

The sides were more "burned" than the centre. This being my first attempt, I now know that perhaps I should lower the temperature a bit and let the meat roast a bit longer so that the centre part will also "rise" well.

When I sliced the meat off, I could feel the crispiness as the knife went through it...

(sorry for the kinda yellowish pics - this was done at night and obviously my kitchen lights are not meant for good photography, hehe!)

For the next attempt, I think I should try some of the other tips given... like keeping the meat longer in the fridge and also putting a layer of salt on top of the skin before roasting.

Anyway, even though the skin was not 100% "risen", we polished off the siew yook with no hesitation, haha!

Warning: When you roast this at home, make sure all your windows and doors are open as the wonderful fragrance of roasting pork will permeate every nook and corner of your house for hours! I could still smell it later that night up in my bedroom!!!