Roast Pork Rice

The Wife is a roast pork-roast duck fan, while i'm more of a char-siew-roast duck person.
in fact, it was she who had dug out this recipe from a very notable Uncle Phil's blog and did most of the preparations for this dish (i only chopped the garlic and watched the oven).

My mom had previously used 500g of the slab for braising when she was here 2 weeks back and we thought we'd better consume the other half sitting in the freezer. besides, since my 80 yr old grandma was also here, it'd be too unhealthy to suggest cooking this. we made some adaptations to Uncle Phil's recipe and this serves 2 hungweeee adults.


ingredients:

• 500 g boneless pork loin
• 1/5 cup shaoxing wine (original recipe called for sherry, since we didnt have it we used the shaoxing wine + sugar. i'd also read somewhere that you can use apple juice.)
• 1 tbsp sugar (see above, this was probably the reason why the skin turned out caramalised ie look abit 'chaota' rather than the familiar golden orangey hue)
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1/5 cup light soy sauce
• 5-spice powder (we got those bottled ones from woolies)
  
• salt
• pepper
• 1-2 piece of preserved bean curd (豆腐乳)
  
• 1/4 cup oil
• wasabi/mustard paste
  

recipe

preparation:

• score pork skin at regular interval (dun cut too deep) and rub salt, pepper, 豆腐乳 and five spice powder all over the pork. go easy with the salt if you dun want it to be to salty
  
• mix other ingredients in a bowl/cup. this is the marinate
  
• put the pork into a ziplock bag and pour in the marinate
• marinate overnite in the fridge

roasting:

• preheat oven at 250'C
• rub in oil and salt on skin to ensure crisp crackling skin in the roast
  
• place the pork on a baking dish lined with aluminium foil with skin facing the heating element in the oven
• sprinkle some water into the baking dish
• roast for 45 minutes at 250'C, or until the skin begins to crackle and bubble
• reduce the heat to 180'C and continue to roast for another 45 minutes (you will need to approx increase the roasting time proportionately if you have a bigger slab of meat)
  
• pierce the meat with a skewer. if there should be some juice oozing out but it should not be bloody)
  
• once done, remove from oven but do not cover the pork or the skin will soften
• set aside for at least 10 minute before cutting/serving
• use wasabi/mustard as dip
  

we actually used the leftover gravy and marinated some chicken wings for grilling too. turned out ok if you like 5-spice powder. :)