Crackling roast pork belly

Ingredientsserves 6

Equipment

• An oven. This dish cannot really be made without one; an air fryer is the flat's answer.
• A rack over a deep tray
• Something to prick with: a 鬆肉針, a bundle of skewers banded together, or a clean needle in a cork

How the time splits

1. 25 minBlanch, prick the rind, rub the marinadehands on
2. 24 hrUncovered in the fridge, dryinghands off
3. 10 minPack the salt crusthands off
4. 40 minFirst roast, under the salthands off
5. 20 minHigh heat for the crackling — stand at the ovenhands on
6. 15 minRest before cuttinghands off

Method

1. Scrape the rind clean of any bristle, blanch the whole slab in boiling water for fifteen minutes, cool it under cold water and dry it hard.
2. Prick the rind all over, densely and shallowly, through the skin but not into the meat. This step decides the dish: more holes, better crackling.
3. Score the meat side in a grid and rub the marinade into the meat only, keeping it off the rind. Wrap the sides and base in foil with the rind bare, stand it on a rack and leave it uncovered in the fridge for a full day. Tap it: the skin should sound hard and dry.
4. Wipe the rind dry, brush it with the vinegar if you are using it, and pack a thick layer of coarse salt over the whole skin until none of it shows.
5. Roast at 185°C fan for thirty to forty minutes. Take the tray out and break the salt crust off in one piece; discard it.
6. Raise the oven to 205°C, or switch to the top grill, and roast another ten to twenty-five minutes until the rind has blistered all over. Stand at the oven for this part: it goes from blistered to burnt in two minutes.
7. Rest fifteen minutes. Lay it skin down on the board and cut it into strips with a heavy knife, then into cubes.

Take care

• Pork. The fat spits during the second roast: use a deep tray and do not open the oven door into your face. Rest it before cutting — the fat is very hot.

The story

The 燒臘舖 sells it by the 斤 and Hong Kong families did not make it at home, because the flat had no oven. It is a dish the diaspora learned after leaving: every Australian kitchen has an oven, so this one finally became possible. It is also one of the 三牲, set out whole and uncut with the skin up on the altar table beside the white-cut chicken. The real work is not the hour in the oven but the night before — the pricking and the drying both happen before the heat, and whether the skin goes hard or crisp is decided by then.

Same kind

Braised shiitake in oyster sauceConpoy and whole garlic, steamed and turned outDongpo pork, belly braised in Shaoxing wine

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.