Incredibly crunchy crackly pork belly

Imagine the most deliciously tender meat, crowned with the crackliest, crunchiest crackling ever. That’s what this is.

• 500g piece of pork belly (no bones)
• 2 tsp shaoxing rice wine
• ½ tsp five spice powder
• ½ tsp pepper
• ¼ tsp fine salt
• 2 tsp rice vinegar
• 150g fine salt

1. Combine the five spice, pepper and salt
2. Turn the pork belly skin-side down and rub the flesh with shaoxing, then sprinkle with the spice powder all over except the skin
3. Flip the pork right-side up and place in an open container. Dry the skin off with paper towels and leave uncovered in the fridge overnight to properly dry out
4. Pre-heat the oven to 150C fan (170C) and remove pork from fridge
5. Put the pork onto a sheet of foil and fold the sides up around it to enclose the meat snugly, leaving a rim sticking up around ½ cm above the pork skin
6. Place your pork package on a baking tray and brush skin with rice vinegar. Then carefully spread the salt over the skin in an even layer, trying not to let too much fall down the sides of the package
7. Roast for 1½ hours, then remove the pork from oven and transfer the foiled pork onto a chopping board
8. Turn oven up to 240C fan
9. Remove the foil and scrape the salt off, thoroughly brushing the top to remove all of it
10. Place the now-nude pork on a rack over the same baking tray and, once the oven is to temperature, roast for a further 30 mins until the crackling is golden and crispy
11. In high excitement, turn the crackly pork onto its skin-side to cut into squares. Try not to eat it all before it gets to the table

Serve with rice, pak choi and a vinegary-spicy dip or sauce to counteract the salty fattiness

And by all means exchange the SE Asian flavours for Western ones for a different kind of dish