Caramelised Braised Pork Belly

Ingredients

Pork Belly

• 1kg pork belly
• 15g / 1 tbsp coarse sea salt
• selected herbs and spices eg black pepper, ginger, garlic, star anise, thyme or any other flavours that you like
• Japanese or Korean toasted sesame seeds

Soy caramel

• 200g white sugar
• 200ml water
• Soy sauce, to taste

Method

Salt the pork with salt and leave in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours.

Rinse the pork in cool water and pat dry with paper towel. Place the pork in sous vide or zip lock bag with any aromatics desired – typical examples include but are not limited to black pepper, ginger, confit garlic, star anise, or thyme.

Seal the bag using a vacuum seal or by removing as much of the air as you can.

Place the bag in a water bath and cook at 80°C for 12 hours or 62°C for 60 hours.

Refresh in ice water for one hour. Remove from bag and scrape away jelly. Slice into short tiles.

Fry pork belly in a heavy-based frypan on both sides then glaze with soy caramel. Lastly, toss in Japanese or Korean toasted sesame seeds.

Serve with rice and pickles.

Soy caramel

Stir sugar and half of the water in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves, then increase heat to high.

To dissolve any sugar left on the side of the pan, brush down with a wet pastry brush. Bring to boil.

Cook until the mixture is a dark brown colour. Quench caramel with the remaining water carefully. Reduce to a syrup and add soy sauce to taste. Cool.