Chinese Roast Pork (Siu Yuk)



There can never be too many recipes for chinese roast pork (or "siu yuk" as commonly known in Cantonese). Over the years, I have attempted various recipes and methods for achieving the perfect crackling - crispy and brittle enough that it doesn't break your teeth when you bite into it. It has always been a hit and miss for me. Either the skin doesn't fully crackle all over (leaving some parts soft and chewy), or the meat's dried out, or the crackling is burnt in some parts. But now, I have successfully made the almost-perfect roast pork, twice in a row. Woo-hoo! I must be doing something right there?


There's nothing particularly difficult about making roast pork (except the part where you have to prick a zillion holes in the skin). You just need the right ingredients, the right technique and the right tools. Someone gave us a pork-skin-pricking tool for Christmas two years ago, which you see below. Roast pork fanatics who make their own at home might have this tool, which is available in Malaysia and Singapore. I don't know what it's called, but it's made of wood with a bunch of super sharp needles at the end. If you don't have one, just use a sharp pointed knife to prick the skin, or simply score it (with a knife, of course) at 1/4 inch intervals. However, this special tool will yield the perfect crackling every time. If you have a metal meat tenderizer, that might actually work too!


This recipe has worked really well for me and my oven. Yes, my oven can be temperamental sometimes, especially when the heat doesn't distribute evenly. This time, I used fan-forced in first 50 minutes to achieve an evenly roasted golden crackling, and it worked! I then turned down the heat to let the pork continue cooking until tender. I also added a tray of water below the roasting rack to keep the meat from drying out in the oven. A brush of vinegar on the skin helps to attain a crispier crackling.

I found that it was not necessary to pour boiling water over the skin (to open up the pores). This step yielded a "harder" and crunchier skin. So my recipe only requires covering the raw pricked skin with plenty of salt, leave it to dry out in the fridge, and then brush off all the excess salt before roasting. The result was a much more brittle and crispy crackling. But then again, I bought the pork from a different shop, so maybe one pig was more thick-skinned than the other. I don't know, but it's still crackling, and crackling rocks!


Chinese Roast Pork (Siu Yuk)
Serves 8 | Prep 20 mins | Wait time 120 mins | Cook time 120 mins

Ingredients

1.3 kg (2.8 lbs) pork belly, skin on
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon vinegar, for brushing

Marinade (mix well in a small bowl):
2 tsp five-spice powder
1 tablespoon sea salt (cooking salt)
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 tsp sugar
2 cubes red fermented beancurd
1 tsp vegetable oil

Method

  1. Rinse the pork under the tap and drip dry. Then, pat dry all over with a few paper towels.
  2. Place on a chopping board, and poke holes all over the skin, as many as you possibly can. Use the tip of a sharp knife, or ideally, "The Pork-Skin-Pricking-Tool".
  3. Turn the pork over skin side down. Rub the marinade all over the meat, including the sides of the pork.  Avoid getting any on the skin.
  4. Carefully turn the pork over onto a clean plate, skin side up. Check that the skin is dry, if not pat well with paper towel.  Rub 1 tablespoon salt all over the skin until evenly covered.  This will draw out the moisture.
  5. Place the pork in the fridge, uncovered, for 2-4 hours.
  6. When ready to roast the pork, preheat oven to 230C fan-forced. 
  7. Remove pork from the fridge. Use a paper towel to wipe off all the salt from the skin. Pat the skin dry. Place pork skin side up on a metal rack over a roasting tin. Fill the roasting tin with 1 inch of water. Place the roasting tin on the middle rack and roast for 30 minutes. Once the skin starts to crackle (about 30 minutes later), brush some vinegar over the skin and place the pork back in the oven. Continue to roast for 20 minutes until skin has fully crackled and is lightly golden. Watch it constantly to make sure the crackling doesn't burn!
  8. Once crackling is nicely coloured, turn the oven temperature down to 180C (switch the oven to conventional - I turned off the fan-forced mode at this stage). Continue to roast for a 60-80 minute so that the meat is tender.
  9. Remove from oven and let pork rest and cool down for 30 minutes before chopping into bite-sized pieces.  You will need a sharp cleaver for this. Enjoy while meat is warm and crackling is super crispy.
Note: This will be perfectly complemented by a sweet and sour chilli dipping sauce. Recipe below:

Vinegar Chilli Sauce

1 long red chilli, chopped
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
Pinch of salt

To prepare the sauce, use a mortar and pestle to pound the chilli until fine, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Add more sugar/salt if necessary. Transfer to a small bowl and use as a dipping sauce.

    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    Light and fluffy Ricotta Cheesecake (with homemade ricotta)

    Image
    I made ricotta cheese. Did you not know you could do that, with only 3 ingredients in less than 10 minutes! And all with curds and whey, I felt like Little Miss Muffet now waiting for a spider to pounce at me. So why make ricotta? Apparently, homemade ricotta gives the cheesecake a fluffier texture, and it did turn out to be light, fluffy and creamy, with a subtle taste of ricotta. I used a gingernut biscuit base just to add some flavour and texture, although you can omit that to make a crustless version. This is not a very sweet cake, unlike your typical New York cheesecake. It's probably closer to a Japanese cheesecake except for the fine graininess of the ricotta. If you like, you can serve it with some berry coulis to satisfy that sweet tooth. I find that the cake tastes best after it has "matured" for up to 3 days in the fridge. The flavours seem to have developed and the texture is somehow creamier too. Ricotta in the making Homemade Ricotta Adapted from Smitten Kit...
    Read more

    Malaysian Satay Recipe

    Image
      Mention the word "satay" and I am instantly reminded of my childhood years and years ago, how the Malay Satay Man would peddle his mobile satay stall on his bicycle in my neighbourhood, tooting his horn. Sometimes, I could even smell the aroma from my house, even though he could be grilling his satay down the road. I would get all excited at the prospect of having satay for dinner, and run to the window to see if I could detect any "smoke" signals in the sky. He made one of the best satays in town, and the fact that he peddled his stall around the neighbourhood meant that we could walk up to him with empty plates and bowls waiting to be filled with freshly made satay. Those were the simple things in life back then, though coming from a foodie family, food was and is a big deal, as to most Malaysians of course. Malaysian Satay is such a luxury item in Sydney. I don't think I've ever ordered satay here before, not when I know it costs multiple times less bac...
    Read more

    The Ultimate Pad Thai Recipe

    Image
    I was pretty excited when I saw that Lorraine  had posted this wonderful recipe for Pad Thai on her blog. The photos simply said it all. The almost deep and rich orange hue of the noodles was the sign of a winner and it's as authentic as it gets. None of the dry, pale-looking noodles with dry chunks of chicken meat and scattering of chives, egg and tofu that I usually get in Sydney. For the record, I never order pad thai though Mr TFWL likes to always give it a chance. My preference is still to order pad kee mao (my favourite pad kee mao is from Pom's Thai in Burwood, now Strathfield). Anyway, this is how I like my pad thai - saucy and moist noodles with the right balance of sweet and sour from the tamarind and palm sugar, with saucy bits of egg crumble tossed through the noodles. Notice the key word is saucy. Loving this pad thai sauce and if you make a big batch of it, the rest of the preparation and cooking is a breeze (well, almost!). Thanks  Lorraine  for the recipe!...
    Read more