Sticky Pork Belly

Prep time: 10 minutes | Cooking time: 1½ hours, plus 10-15 minutes for crackling

Ingredients

• 1.8kg New Zealand pork belly, boned
• 1 tsp flaky salt
• ½ cup thick tomato puree
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1 tbspn sweet soy sauce
• 1 tsp hot chilli-garlic sauce

To serve

Steamed Asian greens.

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Using a sharp knife, score the pork belly skin just through at about 5mm intervals. Rub skin with a little oil then with the flaky salt. Turn the belly over.

Mix together the tomato puree, maple syrup, soy and chilli sauces. Keep aside a small amount as a dipping sauce. Rub the rest into the belly meat. Place pork belly skin-side-up on an oven rack sitting over a similarly sized roasting dish, with a little water in it to catch any drips. Cover pork with foil and place in the oven to cook for 1 hour 30 minutes.

Once the meat is soft and tender, remove from the oven and remove the foil.

Turn the oven to grill. When the grill is very hot, place pork back to get the skin crackling. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.

To serve

Cut the pork belly into thick pieces and serve with steamed Asian greens.

If the tomato puree is a little thin, place in a saucepan and reduce over heat until very thick

Source:  Pork New Zealand – reproduced with permission.