SWEET SOY & LEMONGRASS GINGER STICKY SLOW BRAISED PORK BELLY

 

SLOW ROASTED BELLY PORK MARINATED IN CRABBIES GINGER BEER WITH SOY SAUCE, SUGAR, STAR ANISE, LEMONGRASS AND FIVE SPICE.

 

 

WoW !  What a fantastic mouth melting sweet sticky aromatic pork dish and well worthy of the 24hr marinating time.  What makes this even more special is that it is our first tasting of our home reared pork belly and it did not disappoint.

 

INGREDIENTS

1 large whole piece of bell pork skin on or off

(skin on more fatty but a bit of crackling too!)

 

THE MARINADE

1 lrg bottle crabbies ginger beer

200g soft dark brown sugar

2 sticks of bashed lemongrass

3 whole star anise

1 tsp five spice powder

150ml dark soy sauce

1 clove of garlic crushed

1 lrg spring onion bashed

 

 

Place your belly pork in a deep roasting tin, add all the marinade ingredients and stir well, cover with tin foil and place in your fridge for a minimum of 24hrs, less will be ok and if you only have a few hours (min 2) that is perfectly ok and probably only makes a 30% difference overall, it is just the longer you leave the marinated meat the deeper the flavour penetrates into the belly pork.

Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees and place your marinated pork in, leave to cook for approx 3 hours, if your belly pork has skin on and you want crackling, remove the foil after 2 hrs of cooking, pat dry the skin with paper roll and sprinkle over some sea salt, place back in the oven for the last hour un-covered to allow the skin to become gorgeous crackling, the marinade sauce will also reduce to a lovely glaze for the finished dish.