Looking to occupy a few ours with a delicious reward afterwards? This is the perfect meal for one of those rainy weekends in indoors. You’ll need a slow cooker (or equivalent) and an oven for this.

Ingredients (serves 4):

Pork belly, 650kg
Basmati rice
Olive oil
Corn flour

Marinade
Szechuan pepper corns 1 tsp
Cloves 1 tsp
3 Star-anis
3 Garlic cloves (gently crushed)
Fresh ginger (grated or sliced) 1 tsp
Black pepper 1 tsp
Salt 1tsp
Chinese 5 spice 2 tsp
Sesame oil 3 tbsp
Dark soy sauce 5 tbsp
Mushroom soy sauce 5 tbsp (optional)
Honey 1 tbsp
1 cup of water

Method:

  1. First, prep the pork belly. Score the skin if not already done then drizzle olive oil over and massage it into the skin. Next add a generous amount of salt and let it rest while you prepare the marinade.
  2. Ideally use the dish you’ll be slow cooking with for this bit, if that’s not possible, no worries – just transfer it across when you’re ready to cook.
  3. Make the marinade by mixing all the ingredients listed above. This should be rich, dark and salty.
  4. Gently place the pork belly into the dish, make sure to have the skin just resting above the marinade to avoid the salt/oil from washing off.
  5. Leave over night in the fridge for best results, however if you don’t have that luxury – 1 hour will suffice.
  6. Take out of the fridge and slow cook for 4 hours on the low setting.
  7. At 3 and a half hours into cooking, pre-heat your oven at  240 degrees.
  8. After 4 hours, remove the pork belly from the dish leaving the marinade. You will have noticed the meat has firmed up and the scores now visible. Brush more olive oil and salt to the skin then place the pork belly into the oven for 25 minutes, keep a close eye as the crackling starts to appear.
  9. While the pork is in the oven, sieve the marinade of the spices and cloves. Add a large tsp heap of corn flour and mix. Put the slow cooker on high and allow to thicken.
  10. After 25 minutes, the crackling should now be perfect. Remove the pork belly from the oven and allow to rest for a good crunch.
  11. Prepare the rice, then serve with slices of the pork belly and drizzle the marinade over.