Belly pork is roasted with star anise, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine until tender and the skin crisp and served sliced with a slaw of Savoy cabbage, carrot, red onion, cucumber, mint coriander, roasted peanuts and fried shallots, a dressing of fish sauce, lime juice chilli and sesame oil and with Jasmine rice.
For the peanut sauce:
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
½ small Savoy cabbage, central stalk removed, cabbage thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, grated
1 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
½ cucumber, very thinly sliced
small handful each mint and coriander sprigs
1 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp fish sauce
3 Tbsp lime juice
pinch of chilli flakes
1 Tbsp sesame oil
¼ cup fried shallots
¾ cup unsalted roasted peanuts, crushed or chopped coarsely
For the pork and rice:
1kg shoulder belly cut, skin scored with a sharp knife in parallel lines 1cm apart
5 star anise pods
40g ginger, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, squashed
40ml Japanese soy sauce
60ml Shao Xing Chinese cooking wine
15g sugar
120ml water
350g Jasmine rice
150mls Thai sweet chilli sauce
For the slaw: Put everything except the shallots and peanuts into a mixing bowl and mix well. Reserve for 20 minutes. Just before serving, mix in the shallots and peanuts
For the pork and rice: Preheat the oven to 220°C. Bring a full electric kettle to the boil. Put the pork into the bottom of a clean empty sink, skin side up. Pour the boiling water over the pork skin. This helps crisp it up. Dry with paper towels and reserve
Put the star anise, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, wine, sugar and water into a small roasting dish and mix well. Place the pork on top, skin side up and sprinkle the skin with a little salt
Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until you see the skin begin to bubble. Lower the temperature to 170°C and roast for 1 ½ hours or until tender and the skin crisp
If the skin isn’t crisp and bubbly enough place under the grill to do this - but be careful as it will burn easily
Meanwhile, cook the rice
Slice the pork and serve with the rice and slaw with the chilli sauce on the side