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Roast pork with turmeric, ginger and garlic
Serves 6 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 1.5-2kg pork belly cut from slimmer half, skin on
- 1tbsp oil
- 1 x 400ml can coconut milk
For the basa gede spice paste
- 50g small red Asian shallots, peeled
- 50g candlenuts or blanched almonds
- 40g ginger, peeled
- 6 large garlic cloves, peeled
- 4 bird’s eye chillies, half seeded
- 2 lemongrass sticks, trimmed and sliced
- 1 1⁄2tbsp ground turmeric
- 1tbsp coriander seeds
- 1tsp gula jawa (dark palm sugar), shaved
- 1tsp salt
- 1tsp black pepper
- 1tbsp oil
Method
Roughly chop the ingredients for the spice paste and whizz in a food processor. Set a quarter aside, chilled, for the sauce.
Score the skin of the pork belly with a sharp knife for crisp crackling. Flip over and prick the meat with the knife. Thickly spread over the spice paste, rubbing it into the meat. Roll the pork into a joint surrounded by skin and use butcher’s string to tie tightly at regular intervals. Cover loosely with foil and marinate, chilled, for a couple of hours or overnight.
To cook, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Dry the skin with kitchen paper and rub with plenty of salt. Sit on a wire rack over a roasting tray and cook for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and roast for a further 2 hours. Turn the heat up to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 8 and cook for 30 minutes to crisp the skin. Leave to rest for 20 minutes.
To make the sauce, heat the oil in a pan. Add the reserved spice paste and fry for 5 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk and any juices from the roast pork. Simmer for around 5 minutes and adjust the seasoning to taste. Serve the pork in thick slices with the sauce.
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