serves
4
prep
20 minutes
cook
2:30 hours
difficulty
Mid
serves
4
people
preparation
20
minutes
cooking
2:30
hours
difficulty
Mid
level
Ingredients
- 480 g piece of boneless pork belly
- 3 medium shallots, julienned
- 2 long red chillies, julienned
- 2 medium eschallots, cut in half and finely sliced
- 2 cups watercress
- 1 cup mint
- 1 cup coriander
- vegetable or non-GMO canola oil, for frying
Red braise
- 900 ml water
- 100 ml shao tsing wine
- 100 ml light soy
- 100 ml dark soy
- 40 g brown sugar
- 1 tsp white peppercorns, roughly pounded
- 2 star anise
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 2 bay leaves
- 20 g ginger, peeled and cut into thick slices
- 5 cloves garlic, gently bashed
- 3 large pieces of mandarin peel, de-pithed using a knife
- 3 shallots, cut into 5 cm batons
Dressing
- 3 mandarins
- river salt and white pepper
- 25 ml Chinese red vinegar
- 50 ml robust extra virgin olive oil
Resting time overnight
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 150°C .
For the red braise, place all the braise ingredients into a saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
Place the pork belly into an oven dish that will hold it quite snugly. Pour over the red braise, cover with a piece of baking paper and then cover the baking dish with foil. Place into the oven and cook for 2 hours. Check at this stage by carefully uncovering it and piercing the pork belly with a knife. It should go in very easily. If there is any resistance cook it for another 15–20 minutes.
Remove the pork from the oven, uncover and allow to cool. It’s very important that you let the pork cool down completely immersed in the liquid.
Once the pork is at room temperature you can then remove it from the liquid and place it, uncovered, in the fridge overnight. The red braise can be strained and kept.
To make your dressing, use a knife to skin the mandarins and then, holding each in your hand one by one over a large mixing bowl and using a paring knife, cut out all the segments, squeezing any remaining juice from the mandarin frame. To this add a nice amount of salt and pepper, the vinegar and the olive oil. Set aside.
When you are ready to serve, heat some oil in a large shallow fan for frying.
Take your pork belly and cut it in half down the middle and then into slices about 1 cm wide.
Get the oil nice and hot before carefully tipping in half the pork. Be warned though as the oil will very likely spit. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until it's a dark golden brown.
Drain the pork on some paper towel and then add to the bowl with the dressing. Cook remaining pork. Once all the pork is in the bowl, add the shallots, chillies and eschallots and give it a nice mix.
Taste for seasoning then add the watercress, give it a gentle stir and then finally add the herbs, barely mixing them in at all.
Serve on a large platter.
Note
• Use a firm and slightly tart mandarin for this recipe; a daisy or clementine would be ideal.
• Red braise is a handy thing to have around and can be kept and added to. Strain it after each use before freezing. When you bring it to the boil, often all it will need is some extra bits of the fresh ingredients added to it.
• Make sure you julienne your ingredients nicely as it will make your salad taste better.
Photography by Sharyn Cairns. Styling by Lee Blaylock. Food preparation by Tiffany Page.
Read our with Tama. This recipe is from our online column, . View previous .
Cook's Notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.
