I’ve always loved melt-in-your-mouth braised pork belly and this one here might remind you the flavors of beef pares and patatim.  No doubt yum served with steamed rice and vegetable spring rolls.

“It’s so shiny and beautiful!”, my son’s exact words.

Ingredients:
750g slab of pork belly, cut in half to fit pot
1 small onion, diced
Approx. 5 cups chicken stock
¼ cup light soy sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
3 slices of ginger, crushed
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 star anise
Black peppercorns
Freshly ground pepper
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
½ tsp cinnamon powder
½ tsp five-spice powder
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch

Heat a tbsp of oil in a pot. Sear pork belly until browned. Scoop out and set aside.

Add a bit of oil to the same pot and sauté onions until caramelized. Pour stock to deglaze. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking wine and sesame oil. Add pork belly and bring to boil. Lower heat and throw in ginger, garlic, star anise, peppercorns, some freshly ground pepper, bay leaves and cinnamon stick.

Simmer, adding more stock if necessary, until pork fat is melt-in-your-mouth tender but the meat is just right – not falling apart. I cooked the belly for 3 hours.

Scoop out pork belly, slice and transfer to a serving platter. (I have them over fresh salad greens.) Strain broth through a sieve or strainer to remove chunks and return broth to the pot (should be cleaned of bits and pieces as well). Broth should be at least 2 cups if you like more sauce like us. Bring to boil then simmer.

Combine cornstarch with little water in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve and set aside.
Add brown sugar, cinnamon powder and five-spice powder to the simmering pot. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Pour cornstarch mixture and stir until the sauce thickens. Serve over cooked pork belly and fresh salad greens.

Iska

I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.