Crisp pork belly with caramel vinegar

 Source: The Age. Tuesday January 29, 2008

Ingredients

Serves 6

Pork Belly

• 1.5kg pork belly
• 2 tbsp sea salt
• olive oil
• freshly ground black pepper

Caramel vinegar

• 1/2 cup (115 g) brown sugar
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) red wine vinegar
• 2 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup (250 ml) chicken stock
• juice of 1 orange
• 4 wide strips of orange peel
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Serve with steamed rice & asian greens (bok-choy for example).

Method

Pork Belly

Score the skin of the pork belly in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife. Rub the sea salt into the pork skin and set aside for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220C. Wipe the salt off the pork skin with kitchen paper and dry well. Drizzle a large roasting tin with oil. Put the pork belly in the tin skin-side down, drizzle with a little more oil and season with salt and pepper.

Roast for 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 190C and roast for another 1 1/2 hours. Carefully turn the pork over and roast for another 20 minutes, or until the skin is crisp.

Caramel vinegar

Put the sugar, vinegar, star anise and cinnamon in a small saucepan and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes, or until syrupy.

Stir in the chicken stock and simmer for another 5 minutes, or until slightly reduced. Add the orange juice and peel, reduce the heat to low and simmer gently until thick and syrupy. Season to taste.

Remove the pork from the oven, cover loosely (or it will not be crispy) with foil and set aside to rest for at least 15 minutes. Slice the pork and drizzle with the caramel vinegar. Serve with steamed rice, a steamed Asian green vegetable and some freshly chopped red chilli.