Serves: 4
By all means use homemade bao buns but when I’m short of time I buy them frozen from my local Oriental supermarket. If you prefer, serve these pork belly strips with noodles, stir-fried vegetables or steamed pak choy. A couple of hours marinating is enough for the pork belly strips to take on the flavours or you could marinade them overnight.
Ingredients
- For the marinade
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 50g root ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated
- 4 tablespoons shaoxing wine or dry sherry
- 2 tablespoons char sui sauce
- 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon runny honey
- 1 teaspoon Szechuan chilli oil (optional)
- To finish
- 1 kg boneless pork belly strips
- To serve Bao buns, chilli and spring onions
Method
- Mix together the marinade ingredients. Place the pork belly strips in a non-reactive ovenproof dish and pour over the marinade. Cover and chill for 2 hours.
- Leave the pork at room temperature for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 170˚c, fan oven 150˚c, mark 3. Cook the pork belly for 1 ½ hours, turning the meat halfway through cooking.
- Turn the heat up to 200˚c, fan oven 180˚c, mark 6. Continue to cook the pork for a further 25-30 minutes by which time the strips should be a deep-brown, slightly charred colour, sticky and glossy. Scatter over a few strips of chilli and some sliced spring onions and serve with bao buns.
