BELLY PORK WITH PEANUT SLAW AND RICE

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.

Prep:
25 minutes
Cook:
2 hours
Serves:
4-6

Ingredients

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

Method

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