Homemade Siu Yuk!

There are some Cantonese dishes you rarely consider making at home on your own. For me, they are Dim Sum (點心) and Siu Yuk (燒肉), otherwise known as roast pork, Chinese style. While I still won’t mess around with Dim Sum, I now know how to make Siu Yuk at home, hassle-free, thanks to a random newspaper article we came across.

The result is an extremely indulgent piece of pork with the crispiest, crunchiest skin. It tastes just as good as what you get at restaurants and somehow 20 times more satisfying because, well, you made it yourself! And the best part? It can’t be any simpler.

Ingredients:

• A large slab of pork belly (五花腩), skin intact. (Suggest ~1.5 inch thick with an even amount of fat and meat)
• Five spice mix (五香粉)
• Rock salt, not too much to avoid over salting the pork
• 2-3 cloves of star anise
• Peanut oil

(Apologies for the lack of exact measurements. You’ll have to use your judgement on this!)

Preparation (1 hr) & Cooking (45 min):

Step 1: Use a mortar and pestle to grind up spice mix, salt and star anise. Rub mix all over pork. Let marinate for an hour.

Note: we didn't add enough of the spice mix this time round. Would add more than the picture shows!

Step 2: Turn heat to medium-low and add a bit of oil to the pot. Place pork skin-side down in a dutch/french oven. (Make sure the bottom of the pot is flat. My trusty Le Creuset pot works very well in this case.)

Step 3: Here’s the trick to super crispy skin: Place something heavy on top of the pork so that the entire surface of the skin is in contact with the bottom of the pot.

Step 4: Cover it up and go read a book. Come back 45 minutes later. (Do not open while it’s cooking!)

Step 5: Voila. Siu Yuk with beautiful, golden, crispy skin. Let meat rest for 10-15 minutes.

Step 6: Chop pork into bite sized pieces.

Step 7: Serve and enjoy.

Who needs a restaurant to cook it for you??

“Recipe” credit: A random article found in Ming Pao (HK newspaper in Chinese).