Braised Pork Belly

Braise, required a combination of two steps - searing and stewing. Searing helps to make the meat texture to be more 'spongy' and give a nice colour. Stewing helps to soften the meat and enhance the flavour. The longer you braise, the more intense is the flavour.

This version of the braised pork is modified from my mom's recipe. The original version, which is my mom's version, is very simple. It uses a lot of garlic and soy sauce. Then, tint with some dark soya sauce to colour. Simple and delicious.

Now, let me share with you on the ingredients:

• Pork belly
• Garlic & Onion
• 5 spices powder
• Sage powder 
• Anise star (1~2 biji)
• Clove (3~4 biji)
• Pepper 
• 2 tbsp Chinese rice wine 
• 1-2 tbsp Light soy sauce (生抽)
• 2-3 tbsp Dark soy sauce ( 老抽）
• A dash of Tea leaves
• A dash of fish sauce
• Salt to adjust saltiness

Here's the cooking part:

1. Heat up clay pot.
2. Add in some oil. I use grapeseed oil, about 2~3 tbsp.
3. Put in Onion first, then garlic. Fry until fragrance.
4. Pour in pork belly and continue searing until caramelized. Sear under high heat.
5. Put in 5 spice powder, sage powder and pepper and lightly pan-fry.
6. Add in water immediately to avoid the spices be burned.
7. Add in water bit by bit. Bring to boil.
8. Add in dash of soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, anise star and cloves.
9. Stew for 1 hour. Add in tea leaves and stew for another 1 hour.

During stewing, check regularly on the heat and moisture level. Watch out not to dry up the base.

As i use claypot, hence, it 2 hours to achieve the 'melt in the mouth' texture. I have added tea leaves into this recipe as I find it help to reduce the greasiness. 

As for the spices, you can adjust the taste to your like and preferences. I find sage flavour matches the taste very pleasantly. My recommendation is 1:1 for 5 spices powder and sage.

Hope you like it.

Fry onion and garlic until fragrance

Then, add in the pork and sear till brown

Braise with low heat

Ready and grab a bowl of rice

Super Easy Homemake Siew Yok

I came across Auntie Lilly (from Follow Me To Eat la) showing off with Uncle Hong's Siew Yok. Well, I know my hubby for sure not going to cook for me. Hence, I asked Auntie Lilly for her recipe how to make that very crispy looking Siew Yok that haunted me every since.

Finally after all the super busy week of traveling around Malaysia for roadshow and events, I finally settle down and got the time to cook.

Ok, let's get started with what you will need -
Pork Belly with skin on. Must have skin cause that's the best part.
Marination : 5 spices powder. Paprika powder, salt, pepper and rice wine.

That's all. Yes, that's all.

Now, is the marination.
1. Slice the pork belly with a knife. Just simply slice on the meat will do.
About 0.5-1cm deep will do. This will help the marination goes deep into the meat.

2. Cover the pork belly with all the marination ingredients. Make sure you spread everything well.

Wrap the pork belly with wrapper/zipper bag. Marinate overnight.

3. Heat up Airfryer for 5 mins@180°C, then put in the pork belly and turn on timer to 35 mins@190°C.

Done. Ready to serve.

I put into the freezer cause it's going to sit in for few days. I usually like to marinate at one go. This save alot of my time when I get back from work and cook for my hubby. The best part cooking with Airfryer is you gonna save a lot time and semangat cause you just need to dump the meat into the Airfryer. You can also dump in corn & french beans if you really find yourself lazy to cook and yet have a complete meal.

Roast until the skin looks crispy and brown

Look at the lard. That's the best part of Siew Yok.