SWEET AND SOUR CRISPY BELLY PORK

BEST EVER CRISPY SWEET AND SOUR PORK EVER !!!

As healthy as sweet and sour can be, this is one of those dishes that you can indulge in once in a blue moon and allowing yourself sumptuous treats like this from time to time helps keeps balance in a healthy lifestyle, after all life is for living, loving, eating and sharing.

Beautifully aromatic crispy five spice belly pork and crackling, naturally sweetened with fresh pineapple and a hint of sugar, served with peppers and rice

Prep Time 5 minutes / Cooking Time 1hr

Ingredients

(serves 4)

Crispy Belly Pork

700g belly pork skin on

2 tsp five spice

(recipe below)

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

Sea salt

Black pepper

1 tsp coconut oil

Cooked rice to serve

Sweet and Sour Sauce

100g golden granulated organic sugar

3 tbsp water

3 tbsp white wine or rice wine vinegar

3 tbsp tomato ketchup

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 pineapple chopped

1 red or green pepper rough chopped

Five Spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/1 - 1 tsp ground cloves, personal taste

1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and ground

1 tsp ground star anise

1 tsp szechuan peppercorns, toasted and ground

Pre-heat your oven to 220 degrees, take your belly pork and score the skin, turn the belly pork over so that it is skin side down and score lines 1/2 way through the meat, add the wine vinegar and five spice powder and rub all over, turn the joint back over and pat the skin dry, sprinkle with sea salt and leave to marinate for a couple of hours if you can, I like to leave the pork at room temperature for a better infuse of flavours, however if you are marinating for longer pop in the fridge.

Place a roasting tray in the oven to warm up, remove from the oven, grease with the coconut oil and place the belly pork on the roasting tray and place in the oven to cook for the hour, after 40 minutes, if the crackling is done, reduce the heat to 150 degrees for the rest of the cooking time.

Meanwhile make the sweet and sour glaze, place the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat through to melt the sugar, once melted stir in the wine vinegar, then the tomato ketchup and soy sauce, stir in well and bring to a simmer then immediately remove from the heat.  Add the chopped peppers and pineapple and stir through.  Leave to one side until the pork is ready.

Once the pork is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10-15 minutes allowing all the gorgeous juices to seep back equally through the meat, slice and dice the belly, bring the sweet and sour sauce back up to a simmer, turn off and add the belly pork, toss through and serve with rice.