Whoa! The more experience I have with cooking, the more I dare to experiment and try new things without using recipes. In this case I made up a recipe from scratch, and I am truly amazed how delicious it turned out to be. From Paul’s That Other Cooking Blog I got the inspiration to deep fry pork belly in cubes rather than as a roulade. And from blogging about Dutch nasi with atjar I got to think about Indonesian cooking. Now this recipe is not Indonesian and not authentic, but it is certainly inspired by Indonesian cooking and uses Indonesian ingredients. Don’t worry though if you can’t get Indonesian ingredients, as I’m sure that it will be just as delicious with substitute ingredients that I will provide.

This dish is bursting with flavor. It starts with pork belly cubes cooked sous-vide for 36 hours at 60C/140F with 5-spice. (You can also prepare this without a sous-vide cooker, though.) (I have since then discovered that pork belly is even better when cooked sous-vide for 36-48 hours at 57C/135F instead.) The pork is then deep fried briefly to crisp it up. The juices from the pork belly are used to create a darkly flavored sweet & sour sauce that is bursting with flavor from sambal oelek, fresh ginger, and caramelized onions. This sauce pairs well with the juicy tender pork belly. As a contrast to the deep dark flavors of the sauce, I prepared atjar-inspired spicy sweet & sour cauliflower that is equally bursting with flavor, but in a different fresher way. Served with some rice, this was one great meal! I will definitely make this again, and I won’t change a thing.

If you like spicy food, you have to prepare this. I promise you will like it!

Ingredients

For 2 servings

For the pork belly

300 grams (.67 lbs) pork belly, rind removed

1 tsp five-spice (ground star anise, cloves, cinnamon, sichuan pepper, and fennel seeds)

1/4 tsp salt

oil for deep frying

For the cauliflower

400 grams cauliflower florets

1 small onion, minced

1 Tbsp sambal oelek

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp minced fresh ginger

1 Tbsp palm sugar (or brown sugar)

80 ml (1/3 cup) rice vinegar

80 ml (1/3 cup) water

1/2 tsp ground laos (omit if you can’t find this, and increase the ginger a bit)

1 tsp ground turmeric

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

For the sauce

1 small onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp minced fresh ginger

1 Tbsp kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce, substitute with regular soy sauce and increase the sugar a bit)

1 Tbsp palm sugar (or brown sugar)

1 Tbsp double-concentrated tomato paste (or 2 Tbsp single-concentrated)

1 Tbsp sambal oelek

For the rice

130 grams (2/3 cup) white rice of your choice

salt

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Preparation

Cut the pork belly into 5 cm (2″) cubes.

Put the pork belly in a bowl and add a teaspoon of five spice.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt and mix until the pork belly is coated with salt and spices on all sides.

Vacuum seal if cooking sous-vide. Otherwise, wrap in aluminum foil.

Cook sous-vide at 60C/140F for 36 hours (or 36-48 hours at 57C/135F). If not cooking sous-vide, roast in a low oven until tender (3 hours at 125C/250F should do it I think, but I haven’t tried this). Make sure that you wrap the meat such that you will be able to obtain the juices after roasting.

For the cauliflower, sauté the onion in the oil until translucent.

Add garlic, ginger, laos, and sambal, and sauté for a minute longer.

Add the cauliflower and toss to coat with the sauce.

Add the water and the rice vinegar.

Add the sugar.

Stir until well mixed. Lower the heat to a simmer.

Cover and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes or so, turning the cauliflower so it will cook evenly.

After 20 minutes the cauliflower should be tender and the sauce should be thick. Turn off the heat. You can make this the day before if you like to allow the flavors to develop. Gently reheat when it’s time to serve.

To make the sauce, sauté the onion in the oil until caramelized. If you stir more often than I did, your onions will caramelize more evenly 😉 You want them brown but not burnt.

Meanwhile, remove the pork belly from the sous-vide (or from the oven). This is also a good time to cook the rice.

Drain the pork belly, reserving the juices.

Add ginger, garlic, and sambal, and sauté for another minute.

Add the pork belly juices to the onion mixture.

Add the sugar…

…the soy sauce…

…and the tomato paste.

Stir and cook for another minute.

Heat up the oil for deep frying to 180C/350F.

Dry the pork belly with paper towels and allow to cool somewhat.

Deep fry the pork belly cubes at 180C/350F.

They only need a minute or so since they are already cooked and still warm inside. The deep frying is only needed to crisp them up on the outside without overcooking the pork belly.

Drain on paper towels to remove excess oil.

Plate the pork belly with the onion sauce, the cauliflower with its sauce, and the rice. As usual, use warm or even hot plates to prevent the food from getting too cold while you are plating.

Wine pairing

One of the few wines that can stand up to this explosion of flavors is a full-bodied gewurztraminer from Alto Adige in Italy. My favorite ones are Elene Walch “Kastelaz” and Girlan “Flora”.