Accompanied story, "Happy Chinese New Year," published 1-30-2014
3-pound pork belly (the more fat between the skin and meat the better)
1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons sea salt
2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder (contains peppercorns, anise, cloves, cinnamon and fennel seed)
2 teaspoons castor or baker’s sugar
Spike the skin with a fine skewer or anything fine pointed as many times as you can, piercing the fat but not going so deep as to pierce the meat. Then pour about 1-2 pints of boiling water over the skin and dry well.
Heat a dry, heavy frying pan over a high heat and add the Sichuan and black peppercorns and dry fry until you can smell the aromatics. Remove and pound them until you get a fine powder, then add to a bowl with the sea salt, five -spice powder and sugar.
Turn the pork flesh side up and rub all the flesh with the spice mixture and then set aside somewhere cool for at least 8 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Turn the pork skin side up and place on a rack, resting on top of a roasting pan of water. Roast the pork for 15 minutes and then lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and roast for another 2 hours, topping up the water in the roasting pan when it starts to get low. Keep checking the level of water as you do not want it to run dry.
After the 2 hours of roasting, increase the oven temp once more to 450 degrees and continue to roast the pork for another 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool. This dish is best served warm.
Cut the pork into bite-sized pieces and serve with steamed rice.
