Crackling

*non halal post - sorry dear Muslim friends*

Our family loves pork.  Pork cooked with soy sauce, pork curry, pork soup, pork stew, bbq pork... gosh, the list goes on and on!  One particular type of cooking we love is crispy roasted pork.  In the shops, this would cost rather expensive and we can't really eat to our heart's content.  So, one day, during a chinese new year eve dinner, I decided to try to make this at home.  And even if it was my first try, it was a success!!  Ever since then, no turning back.  If we want to eat this, we shall make it on our own at home.

The success is not because I am a pro okay... it's because, it's really easy to make this!  As long as you have an oven which has those "top" and "bottom" heat, you are good to go!  Let's see how easy it is.

First, prepare marinate.  In the earlier days, I would just use the 5-spice powder.  Then I discover, I really like the red taucu (fermented tofu) taste, so I added that in too.  For this recipe, I am marinating 2 kgs pork.  I used 3 teaspoons of 5-spice powder + 4 cubes taucu (and some of the water that is in the taucu jar).  Mix it into a paste.

When you go to your butcher, just let him know that you want to make siew yuk (crispy pork in Cantonese) or sio bak (hokkien).  He will then hopefully know how to give you a good slab of not so fat yet not all meat part of the belly.  Request him to slice them like below.

One of the essential thing you need is something sharp to poke holes on the skin of the pork.  I saw this in one of the blogs and have been hunting for it.  One day as I was browsing through a kitchen hardware shop, I finally found it.  Oh joy! But, before I got it, I used a new clean nail (pour with hot water everytime before use) to poke the holes.  It is this that will give your pork a beautiful crackling skin.

Next step, boil some water (make sure it's enough to cover the pork) and after it boils, drop the pork in and let the water return to a simmer.  Always start with the skin down so that it becomes flat and easier to grill in the oven.  Then, flip it over and return water to simmer.  The purpose of this is not to cook the pork, but rather to get rid of the impurities.  When we make soup, we also will get rid of the impurities that floats to the surface of the soup yes?  Same case here.

Then, take the slab of pork out and put it somewhere where excess water can drip off.  Here I put it on a wire mash.  Take a sharp knife and lightly score the skin diagonally with it's end.

Next, use whatever sharp tool you have to poke as many holes as you can on the skin.  The more holes the better.

Then, flip the pork over and marinate the meat.  Make sure non of this marinate touches the skin.

The marinate is just enough for 2 kgs pork.

Next, flip the slab over and dry it with paper towel.  Make sure you try to dry it as best as you can.  Next, rub the skin generously with salt.  The salt help to get rid of the moisture thus making the skin dry and will result in crispy crackling.

After that, your work is done!  Just leave it in the fridge overnight to further "dry up" (or at least 5 hours).  This will also help achieve the "krup, krup, krup" factor.

Right, final step.  The next day, time to cook it!  There is 2 cycle for this.  First cycle - bake (top and bottom fire) at 180C for one hour.  Then, second cycle - Grill (top fire only) at 200C for 1 hour or until all the skin has cracked.

After 2 hours, you will have a beautiful slab of crispy crackling slab of pork!  There you have it.  easy peasy right?  Now, time to head off to the butcher and start making your own :)