Chinese Crispy Roast Pork(Siew Yoke)

Crispy as eating a crisp...mention by my monsters. Absolutely fabulous, thank so much Happyhomemaker for the fantastic recipe. Been try two other recipe before but the result is not crispy at all. 

Crispy Roast Pork is one of our favorite. Finally I'm get what we like... been making this crispy crispy every two weeks even when we celebrated the festival.

Adapted from : Happyhomemaker88

2.5 kg to 3 kg belly pork with skin

Marinade on meat side

1 1/2 cube fermented red beancurd (nam yue)

3 tablespoon 5-spice powder (ng heong fun)

3 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoon pounded garlic

2 tablespoon sugar

Brushing for the skin

2 to 3 tablespoon white vinegar

2 tablespoon salt

Method Marinade and Brushing(first day)

1. Washed the pork belly, scald the skin side in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. This is to make the skin slightly cooked then is easily to be pricked with a fork or sharp point of knife.
2. Take it out and drain off in a colander and pat dry with paper kitchen towels.
3. Prick all over with the tines of a fork or sharp knife on the skin side. (prick as many hole as you can)
4. Turn it over, use a sharp knife to make shallow cuts on the meat side about 1 cm apart each cut.
5. Mix all the ingredients for marinade and rub thoroughly into the meat side of the pork. (even inside the shallow cuts)
6. Brushing the vinegar all over the skin.
7. After brushing vinegar follow by brushing the salt all over the skin.
8. Place pork belly meat side down in a rectangular baking tray.
9. Place uncovered in the refrigerator overnight until an hour before roasting. The air in the fridge will dry out the pork skin. 

Method for roasting(second day)

1. Take the roast pork out of fridge back to room temperature before roasting.
2. Test the skin, if the skin not dry enough or still soft use a hair dryer to dry it up. (very important step, to make sure the skin is dry. If the skin not dry enough then the roast pork won't be crispy)
3. To roast, preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Have both the upper and lower heating elements as well as the fan in the oven on. (every oven is different, you must adjust the temperature accordingly). 
4. Place pork belly on a rack in the middle of the oven. Have a pan below to catch the dripping fat during roasting. Placed a piece of aluminium in the pan for easy cleaning later. Roast for 30 minutes.
5. After 30 minutes , change the oven setting to just the upper heating element or “grill function to 250 degrees celcius and roast for one hour or more, depending to the oven and the charred of the skin.
6. When you see some liquid fat building up on the skin, Using a pair of long tongs, dab frequently with kitchen paper towels frequently to promote more crackling/bubbling crispy. (very important step)
7. Around 20 to 30 minutes roast,  turned the meat around to make sure all the skin is exposed.
8. Must to monitor the pork quite often by looking at the progress of the skin in getting crispy. The total time it takes for the skin to get really light and crispy will depend on your oven and how dry the skin was before roasting.
9. Look at the skin closely. The  pork skin needs to get charred and burnt as that will mean that the skin has become really crispy all the way through.
10. Don’t worry about the burnt parts – use a steak knife that has a serrated edge and you can easily scrape the charred bits off in 2 minutes. The roast pork will be look nicely.
11. Crispy homemade roast pork is ready. Let it rest for about 15 minutes or more before CHOP (don’t slice as the crispy skin will drop off) it into bite sized pieces.