For as long as I can remember, I have loved pork.

While Amy was always known as the chicken fan in our family, I could always be counted on to polish off the pork sharing dishes. I suppose it’s no surprise that I love pork so much given that it is one of the most widely used meats in Cantonese cooking. I’m talking about juicy red char siu pork, BBQ hoisin ribs and perhaps the holy grail of pork dishes: crispy five-spiced pork belly.

Oh pork belly, how I do adore thee. Your beautiful zebra stripes of alternating fat and lean meat reveal you to be a crafty cut with the greatest potential for succulence. Oh, and you’re also cheap as chips. Of course, I can understand why some people have an aversion to pork belly. They’ve had it before when it’s too fatty and chewy in texture. But the secret to forming a long-lasting and loving relationship with the humble belly of pork lies in time. Pork belly needs to be cooked slowly so that the fat can soften and massage its way into the leaner layers of meat. The slower and lower you cook it, the more melt-in-the-mouth tender it will be.

Today’s recipe is one of our favourite easy ways to enjoy pork belly. For very few ingredients and hardly any work at all, you get a beautiful dark velvety sauce that clings to melty slow cooked pork belly. In other words, my kind of porky heaven.