Five-spiced roast pork belly with leek pilaff

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the pork:

2 tsp five spice powder
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
A thumb and a half sized piece of ginger, finely grated
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
3 star anise
8 large pork belly strips

For the pilaff:

100g wild rice
140g basmati rice
1 leek, cut lengthways and finely sliced
1 large bunch coriander, leaves picked
1 lime

Method

Mix the 5 spice, soy, grated ginger and hoisin sauce and then rub into the meat. Put the marinated meat in a baking dish which just accommodates it, and leave it to marinate in the fridge for a few hours or ideally overnight.

Approx 2 hours before you want to eat, pre-heat your oven to 160 ° C. Arrange the pork strips skin side up and put them in the oven. After 30 minutes baste the pork with the juices. Repeat after another 30 minutes and then keep an eye on the pork to ensure it does't burn on top. If it gets close to burning, you should be able to turn some pieces so that the more cooked side is sitting in the juice.


Stir-fry the leek in a little sesame oil, grate in the zest of half a lime and add a good pinch of salt. Cook the rice as per the instructions. I put the wild rice in first and throw in the basmati 8-9 minutes before the wild rice is ready. Add the leek to the cooked rice and stir in the juice of half a lime. If the pork isn't ready, you can cover the rice and keep it warm in a cool oven.

Twenty minutes before you want to eat, drain the juice from the pork and return the pork to a cooler oven. About 140 ° C. The pork, now free from juice, should now dry out and crisp up a bit. Don't work, it won't dry out too much as it has layered fat within the meat.

The pan juice is full of flavour but will also be very fatty. Strain off the juice and discard the fat. If there is a lot of juice, you could now reduce it while you wait for the pork.

Divide the pilaff between warmed plates, drizzle a little pan juice over the rice and top each pile with two belly strips. Garnish with coriander leaves if you're posh.