Pork slider with kimchi

The flavours and textures used in Korean food are popping up all over the place, from exciting new restaurants like Moon Park to funky fusion diners like Ms.Gs. With celebrity chefs such as David Chang and Akira Back leading the charge, Korean food is being dabbled with by other hugely successful identities in the dining scene.  As a result, Korean food is developing a real familiarity with Sydney palates. 

I love that Korean food has finally received recognition and has become mainstream to being served in burgers and not just served as a side dish. As my tastebuds have changed over time, I usually detest very fermented kimchi. Only now I've started to appreciate the complexity of the flavours and have finally begun to understand what my parents have been telling me all this time.

Ever wondered how to make that pork slider, with the tender shredded meat and crackling, then don't venture too far. I found that this dish impressed the friends and family the most, and is so easy to do as the oven does most of the work.

When we served this dish to my brother in law, his response was annoyance that we hadn't served this up to him earlier at our get togethers and loved it so much, it was summed up as, "winner, winner, pork slider dinner".

 

Ingredients

1.5 kg pork belly

1 onion roughly sliced

1 tsp of Chinese Five Spice

1 tsp salt

3 bay leaves

400mL oil (olive oil and rice bran is what I typically use)

To serve

hot sirachi sauce

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

1/2 cup of kimchi

handful of coriander leaves

12 soft white burger buns

Method

 

1. Place pork skin side on a wire rack over the sink.

 

2. Boil a kettle of water and pour over the pork skin.

3. Using absorbent paper, pat the pork dry.

4. Place in a tray and leave in the fridge overnight to air dry. (Steps 2-4 are to help give that crispy crackling but these can be skipped, as I've stated in the handy hints section)

5. Next day preheat the oven to 160C.

6. Rub the pork with salt and 5 spice.

7. Find a tray deep enough to add onion, bay leaves, garlic, oil and pork and cover tightly with foil.

8. Place in the oven and cook for 4 hours or until meat is soft.

9. Drain pork from oil. Remove the meat and return the skin to the grill.

10. Turn the grill on and return the pork belly to crisp up the skin. Make sure you keep an eye on this as you don't want it to burn.

11. Allow the meat to cool before shredding.

12. I also like to refresh the buns to give it a nice crunch on the outside and the contrast of the soft inside. Heat the oven to 180C and leave the buns in for 8mins.

13. To assemble, dollop mayonnaise and chilli sauce on one side of the bun.

14. Add a small amount of kimchi, coriander and a generous heap of pork belly and small pice of crackling. Sandwich and secure in place with a toothpick.

Handy hint

You don't have to wait a day to start this recipe, as soon as you have poured the boiling hot water over the pork and dried this. Add the spices and oil and place into the oven.

If the crackling doesn't work as well, a great trick is to cut off the areas that it didn't work well for and place under the grill and crank the heat up and watch it closely. 

Find my kimchi recipe here.

Braised pork belly & toasted quinoa & broccolini

Another favourite childhood food memory is mum's braised pork belly. I haven't quite replicated the way my mother makes this dish but I was happy with the result. The smell of this dish cooking away in the oven is divine, my visitors were commenting how good it smelt as the fragrant spices wafted through the house.

Having recently eaten at One Red Penny in Summer Hill, I was quite taken with the use of the toasted black quinoa and black barley for one of their dishes. Toasting quinoa is quite easy to do and I think it just lifted this dish to another level with the nutty crunch. It's so good that hubby has told me that this is his new favourite dish. May have to make this dish again soon.

 

Ingredients

2 tbs sugar

1 tbs rice bran oil

1 tbs Shao Hsing cooking wine

500g pork belly

4 cups of water

2 tbs dark soy

3cm thick piece of ginger cut into large slices

4 crushed garlic cloves

3 cardarmon pods

1 star anise

1 cinnamon quill

1 cup of water during cooking 

1 tbs black quinoa

1 tsp rice bran oil

1 bunch of broccolini 

 

Method

1. Preheat oven at 170 degrees Celsius. 

2. Cut pork belly into strips 2cm wide and 2cm thick.  Pour 1 tbs shao zhing wine over pork belly to marinate for 20 mins. 

3. Add sugar and oil to a heavy based pot over medium heat until sugar dissolves. 

4. Add pork belly to the pot to melted sugar. 

5. Add 4 cups of water into the pot. Add dark soy, garlic, cardarmon, star anise and cinnamon. 

6. Put into the oven for 2hrs.

7. Add another cup of water after it has cooked for 2 hours and continue cooking for another 1 hour. (The pork will be melt in your mouth tender) 

8. Cut broccolini in half so you end up with stems and florets. Boil water and blanch for 2 mins. Drain water and cool with cold running water. 

9. Add 1 tsp rice bran oil to a fry pan over medium heat. Rinse 1 tbs of black quinoa through a sieve before adding to the frypan. Shake the pan every 1 min for approximately 3mins until you hear quinoa popping and pour into a bowl to use for later.
 

10. Place broccolini on plate and pile with braised pork belly. Sprinkle toasted quinoa on top before serving.