Ingredients
| 1 small pork belly, approx 500g | |
| 2 teaspoons flaky sea salt | |
| ¼ cabbage (approx 150g; I used savoy) | |
| ½ carrot, peeled | |
| ½ nashi or apple | |
| ½ cup kimchi, roughly sliced | |
| 2 spring onions, sliced | |
| grated zest and juice of 1 lime (or use 2 teaspoons rice vinegar) | |
| 2 teaspoons gochujang paste | |
| 3 teaspoons soy sauce | |
| 4 teaspoons sesame oil | |
| 1 tablespoon vegetable oil | |
| 150g shiitake mushrooms, wiped and sliced | |
| 2 cloves garlic, chopped | |
| ½ teaspoon toasted sesame seeds |
For consistently crisp pork crackling on pork belly the air fryer is hard to beat as it is much easier to get a decent crackle. However you do need to watch out that the meat doesn’t dry out while cooking it, so I wrap the meat with foil which also helps to retain the meat juices. Pork is rich so I like a sharpish, spicy slaw to serve on the side.
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Instructions
| 1. | PORK |
| 2. | Score the pork rind. |
| 3. | Pour boiling water over the skin then re-cut any slices that haven’t opened and repeat. |
| 4. | Pat dry with paper towels. |
| 5. | Rub 1 teaspoon salt into the cuts and skin of the pork. |
| 6. | Put on a rack over a tray and refrigerate, uncovered, overnight to dry out the skin. |
| 7. | When ready to use, pat dry the skin with paper towels and then rub with the rest of the salt. |
| 8. | AIR FRYER |
| 9. | Heat the air fryer to 200°C. |
| 10. | Wrap a double layer of foil around the meat of the pork but leave the skin exposed (this will help keep the meat from drying out). |
| 11. | Put into the hot air fryer, skin-side up, and cook for 25-30 minutes or until the pork is cooked through and the skin is crisp. |
| 12. | OVEN |
| 13. | Heat the oven 220°C. |
| 14. | Keeping the pork on the rack over the tray, pour 1 cup water into the tray. |
| 15. | Put into the hot oven for 20 minutes or until the skin starts to crackle. |
| 16. | Lower the heat to 180°C and cook for a further 20-25 minutes or until the pork is cooked through and the skin is crisp. |
| 17. | KIMCHI SLAW |
| 18. | While the pork cooks, finely shred the cabbage, carrot and nashi (or grate the carrot and nashi if preferred). |
| 19. | Put into a large bowl with the kimchi and one spring onion. |
| 20. | Whisk together the lime zest and juice, gochujang, 2 teaspoons soy sauce and 2 teaspoons sesame oil. |
| 21. | When ready to serve, dress the slaw, adding a little salt if required. |
| 22. | FRIED SHIITAKE |
| 23. | Heat a frying pan, add the vegetable oil, then add the mushrooms and fry until golden. |
| 24. | Add the remaining spring onion and garlic, cook for a minute, then season with the remaining soy sauce, drizzle with the remaining sesame oil and sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Add salt to taste. |
| 25. | TO SERVE |
| 26. | Rest the pork for 10 minutes before slicing (it’s easiest to flip the pork over so the skin is on the board for ease of slicing). |
| 27. | Serve with the slaw, mushrooms and some rice. |
Recipes & food styling Ginny Grant Photography Aaron McLean Styling Jessica Crowe