Fight the urge to turn your grill heat up too high here – a dark soy marinade containing sugar will burn if you cook it too quickly. With the right heat, you'll have a juicy, succulent, smoky grilled pork belly with vibrant Vietnamese flavours.
Pork belly:
800 g pork belly, cut into 1.5 cm thick slices
1 Tbs fish sauce
2 Tbs dark soy sauce
2 Tbs brown sugar
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 small French shallot, peeled and halved
2 stalks lemongrass, tough outer husk removed and tender, yellow heart cut into thin slices
Cucumber salad:
2 continental (English) cucumbers
60mL fish sauce
60mL lime juice (juice of about 2–3 limes)
1 Tbs brown sugar or coconut sugar
1–2 red birdseye chillies, sliced
1 small garlic clove, grated on a microplane
2 Tbs neutral oil
25 g chopped coriander (cilantro)
25 g chopped mint
2 French shallots, thinly sliced
40 g toasted peanuts, lightly crushed in a mortar and pestle
Before you begin: The pork requires at least 1 hour to marinate, but ideally 8 hours. If you’re using a charcoal grill (which will make this most delicious), you’ll need to get it going an hour or so before you want to start cooking.
To prepare the pork marinade, blend the fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic cloves, shallots and lemongrass to a pulp. Mix this with the pork belly slices and refrigerate overnight (8 hours), or for at least 1 hour. Be sure to pull your pork out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature 1 hour before cooking.
To prepare the cucumber salad, halve the cucumbers lengthways and scoop out (and discard) the seeds. Cut the cucumber halves in half again and then into 3–4 cm lengths and place in a bowl.
In a separate small mixing bowl, or in a jar with a lid, combine the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, chilli, garlic and oil and stir or shake to combine and dissolve the sugar. Pour this onto the cucumbers and toss together. Just before serving, add in the herbs, shallots and toasted peanuts. Toss again to combine.
Preheat your outdoor grill or heat a grill pan over a high heat on your stove.
Grill your pork belly for 2–3 minutes per side, until the pork is nicely charred and cooked through, but not blackened. Allow the pork to rest for about 5 minutes, before serving with the cucumber salad.
Serving suggestion:
Serve this dish with steamed coconut rice for a complete meal.
Rinse 2 cups of jasmine rice until the water runs clear. Soak the rice in cold water for 15 minutes. Drain and place the rice in a pot with 1 x 400 g tin of coconut milk and 125 mL water, plus a teaspoon of fine sea salt. Stir to combine and bring to a gentle simmer.
Place a tight-fitting lid on the pot and turn the heat down to the lowest setting. Cook for 14 minutes exactly. Turn the heat off and leave the pot to sit, untouched, for 10–15 minutes. Remove the lid, fluff the rice with a fork and serve with the pork belly.
Blender, outdoor grill or indoor grill pan
Photo Credits: Images and text from Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking by Danielle Alvarez with Libby Travers. Murdoch Books RRP $49.99
