Grilled belly and pak choi side dish recipes!

I love BBQ! The taste of charcoal-grilled meat dipped in a variety of sauces is something that I consider as a winner, especially when having meals with family.

This dish, though simple, brings me back to fond memories of home. I remembered a time when I was still living with my parents, it is my “Sunday duty” to do the grill. Well, we try not to eat too many grilled meats anyway and just cook enough that we can finish for one meal. But the thing is, we usually cook this dish on a Sunday lunch because everybody is at home. So imagine having this tasty dish shared with family paired with steaming white rice, grilled eggplant, and a nice ice-cold soft drink – it is truly an inviting way to spend Sunday lunch, isn’t it?

Now that I am away from home, doing this sort of “tradition” is a challenge. Well, apart from not having the capability to charcoal-grill meats, I am consciously trying to steer away from cooking it too much. It is hard to grill meat just enough for two people as well so it is a lot practical to cook more of this but rarely.
Since I didn’t have a charcoal griller, I used the oven to make this dish. I am also not a fan of grilled eggplants (takes too long to cook!) so I made a garlicky pak choi instead as a side dish. My husband loved the grilled meat, of course. He also ate his vegetables since I coerced him to do so, LOL!

Recipe:

for the grilled meat:

1 kg pork belly
4 cup soy sauce (I used Kikkoman for this)
4 tbsp oyster sauce
4 tbsp kecap manis
1 tbsp dried bird’s eye chili
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 tbsp rice wine vinegar (Asian-style)
freshly ground black pepper to taste

for the garlicky pak choi:
2 big stalks of pak choi, cut from the bulb
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp Chinese five-spice

Steps:

Get a big bowl large enough to fit the pork belly. Mix all the ingredients together, except for the belly.
When the seasoning is thoroughly mixed, add the pork belly. Make sure that every piece is soaked in the mixture.
Marinade for AT LEAST one hour. The longer you can do so, the better. If you can, turn the meat pieces from time to time to soak the other side of the meat.
While marinating, cook the pak choi. To do this, get a pan and place under medium-high heat. Add the oil in and saute the garlic until golden brown.
Add the pak choi pieces and season with five-spice. Toss for two minutes and remove from heat. The residual heat from the pan will cook the pak choi.
When the meat is ready for cooking, preheat the oven in 200C.
Cook the meat pieces for 45 minutes to 1 hour (depends on how thick the belly was cut).
Once almost cooked, adjust the oven to “grill” and set the temperature to 250 C. Grill for 5 minutes to have that nice “charred” texture.