Roast - Pork Belly (siew bak) Part I

What i did two days ago..

Remember i wrote about my next biggest challenge was to roast pork belly a.k.a. siew bak / siew yok. Hubby asked mil to get us a piece of pork belly with skin on Monday morning. I googled high and low for the easiest recipe and even called an aunt of mine who owns the exact same turbo oven as i do.

I asked mil not to buy a big piece in case it turns out bad and at least the meat will not go to waste. And this is what i found when i went home on Monday night.

It's a BIG piece of meat that goes up to 2kg+ easily. The butcher already slit the meat nicely and it was cleaned by MIL. All i needed to do was to wipe it dry before marinating. Imagine how this fatty portion will turn out to be like after roasting. I will remember to snap the exact angle tonight.


To marinade the skin:
1.5 tablespoons of vinegar
1.5 tablespoons of salt

To marinade the meat:
1.5 tablespoons of 5-spice powder
1.5 tablespoons of pepper
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce (to replace "Nam Yue" or fermented beancurd)

Before marinating process, i poked hundred of holes on the skin using the tip of my knife. This is to create bubbles that will make the skin crispy during roasting. Scoring is quite dangerous (at least, for me) cos i maybe slitting the skin too deep whereby the salt + vinegar will go into the meat portion. Stabbing on the skin was so much, but hubby who was in the kitchen too, refused to join in the crazy fun.

After making sure there are enough holes on the skin, i marinated the meat first, though most of the recipes i found stated otherwise. You need to "massage" all the ingredients into every corner of the meat so that they can penetrate into the meat. Do the same for the skin. After massaging, put the marinated meat into fridge and lower the temp. The secret to get crispy siew bak is to have a very dry skin before roasting. Preferable 4 days. Mine will be only for 2 days cos mil needs the siew bak to be ready by Friday morning for prayers.


Do you know that siew bak or siew pai (roast pork belly / roast pork ribs) are selling at RM100++ per piece during 8th day of CNY? Let you know the result tomorrow.
Stay tuned....