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BBQ Recipes – Five-Spice Grilled Pork Belly
by Graze & Guzzle - 28.08.2010

Always on the look out for new BBQ inspiration I thought I’d try out Nigel Slater’s recipe for Five-Spice Grilled Pork Belly. So off I trotted to our local butchers to buy a choice piece of pork belly. The recipe suggests you cut the meat into strips and once marinated thread onto skewers. I decided to skin the piece of pork belly, taking the thick outer skin off and most of the fat layer below. I then cut the pork belly into long strips about 3 cm’s in width and laid them in a dish ready for the marinade.

Ingredients

(serves 4)

• 750g pork belly
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 thumb-sized lump of ginger
• 2tbs light soy sauce
• 3 tbs rice wine
• 1 heaped tsp of five-spice stir fry paste or powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbs runny honey

Grate the peeled garlic and ginger into a bowl using a microplane. Next add the soy sauce, rice wine, five-spice, salt and honey. Mix the marinade well and ensure the honey has fully dissolved and then pour over the pork belly. Gently massage the marinade into every piece of pork ensuring it is coated and then leave for at least an hour – the longer the better.

I’ve recently been experimenting with proper local, kiln-fired, sustainable charcoal. I’m not sure I’ve quite got the hang of it, as it burns quite differently to the normal run-of-the-mill charcoal. Anyway, allow your BBQ to reach optimum temperature and then simply grill for 3-4 minutes on each side or, until the outer edges of the meat look nicely caramelised. The meat should be succulent and the outer fat crispy and delicious. We ate the pork belly with some broad beans and a  few home-grown Arran Victory potatoes which have beautiful purple skins and a fluffy texture. Very simple but, very satisfying!

What’s tickling your fancy on the barbecue this summer?