This is the gorgeously crispy belly pork I made this afternoon. Really simple to make and huge on taste. Here’s how I did it……

In a plastic bowl mix together

2 grated or crushed cloves of garlic, big fat juicy ones
a grated thumb sized piece of ginger
1 tablespoon five spice powder
2 teaspoons salt

Mix well together and rub all over the meat side of the belly pork. Make sure you get it in all the nooks and crannies.

Heat oven to 230oc
Place pork on a rack over a tray with the meat facing the rack. In the tray have some water. This creates steam while the pork cooks to help keep it moist. I just use an old cooling rack over a metal oven tray as you can see in the picture above.
Place pork in top of oven and then immediately drop temperature to 200oc
Cook for 40 minutes and then check with a thermometer. You need the temperature to be above 75oc. If you haven’t got a thermometer, the juices need to be running clear from the meat when pricked with a skewer.
A thermometer only costs a couple of pounds and I wouldn’t cook without one now, seriously recommended!

After the pork is cooked you can chop it up in chunks and serve with salads, noodles, mash or whatever takes your fancy. It will also freeze well when sliced, defrost first then just make sure you re-heat it to piping hot when serving up. If freezing, I would remove the rind from the pork first as this won’t freeze well.

Enjoy!