Recipe: Caramelised Pork Belly w/ Boiled Eggs and Rice

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

This is classic Vietnamese fare.  Normally the pork is braised for and hour with the boiled eggs but I happened to have a rather large amount of cooked pork belly in the fridge so I though I’d do it a couple of different ways for my housemates.

This is a simple and tasty recipe; it’s a real corker, I’ve written the recipe how it would normally be made with uncooked pork belly.

The belly I had, had already been slow cooked so I put it in about 30minutes into the braising process so it wouldn’t fall apart in the broth, but still have enough time to take up the flavours and be soft and delicious!

Normally this is served with rice . . . 

 ingredients (serves 4-6)

for the caramelising slow braising broth

1/4 side pork belly (1.7kg uncooked weight) (cut into 3-4cm chunks)

500ml coconut water

1 red onion (fine dice)

6 cloves garlic (fine dice)

45g ginger 

30-60ml fish sauce (to taste)

80g palm sugar (or brown sugar)

6 eggs

caramelising slow braising broth

Boil the eggs for 8 minutes, then immediately run under cold water. Once they’re cold enough to handle, peel them, ready for the pot.

Fry the onions until they’re a little charred, then add the ginger and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Deglaze with a little coconut water and pour the mix into a bowl.

In the same pot add the sugar and a slug of coconut water. Cook on a medium heat until the sugar is a dark caramel colour, then add the rest of the coconut water (through a sieve). Careful it will spit!

Add the fish sauce, garlic ginger mix and the boiled eggs and set to simmer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes add the pork belly, bring back up to the boil and set to simmer for another 30mins.

If you don’t have any 3 hr slow roast pork belly kicking about, sear off some pork shoulder and add it in at the same time as the eggs, then simmer for 60 mins. 

At the end of the 60 minutes check the flavour. If it’s needs it, you can sharpen it up with a touch of lime juice just before service.

thinking ahead

You can make this the day before and pop it in the fridge, and reheat when needed.

what could go wrong? (notes)

It’s impossible to cluck this up! Oink.

to serve

Serve it in a large bowl with a ladle in it, and serve with boiled rice.

Experiment - Recipe: Pork Scratching Spirals

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

I was watching Great British Menu last year and one of the chefs presented a spiral pork scratching, and at the time I was doing a fair amount of experimentation with pork belly so it kinda got me thinking about how he'd managed it.

check out this fine hand crafted chopping board made by @olliebutcher81! 
Get in touch with him or me if you want one - available in oak!

After a little thought this is what I came up with . . . trust me it's lush and if you want your pork belly to have sticky bits you can!!

ingredients (makes porky snacks for 10)

for the pork spiral scratchings

1 side of pork belly skin

1L chicken stock

5g rosemary 

5g thyme

4 cloves garlic (whole)

pork spiral scratchings

Coat the bottom of your baking tray with a touch of vegetable oil.

Sprinkle a baking tray with the aromats and lay the pork over the top, skin side up.

Pour in the chicken stock and lightly salt the skin and cover with a lid or tin foil.

Slow roast at 150C for 3hours checking occasionally to make sure that there is still liquid in the bottom of the tray.

Top up with water if it the tray has gone dry.

Once ready let the pork skin cool down until it's cool enough to handle.

Place it skin side down and roll it into a long sausage shape, then wrap it tightly in cling film and put it in the fridge to set.

Leave it to set for for at least 2 hours preferably over night.

Unwrap it and slice it up, the thicker the slice the stickier the centre will be.

Heat a heavy based pan and add the disks of porky goodness without and oil.

Once the skin has crisped up turn them once and crisp the other side, then remove to some kitchen towel to drain off any excess fat. Season them and serve at will! 

thinking ahead

Once rolled into a ballotine and cling 

wrapped or vac packed the pork belly will easily last for a month in he fridge, it can be sliced when needed and prepared in minutes!! Perfect accompaniment to a beer.

Or you can fry of the scratching and keep them in an air tight container to keep them crisp.