Cubed pork belly and thick slices of Japanese cucumber are tossed in chili sauce, skewered, grilled and brushed with more sauce until beautifully charred. Spicy, juicy, perfect.
Cook’s notes
To make this dish, you’ll need three ingredients — chili sauce, cucumber (optional but highly recommended) and fully cooked pork belly. You’ll also need skewers and a grill.
Japanese cucumbers, narrower and firmer than the more common English cucumber, are cut into rings about half an inch thick then tossed with chili sauce.
Chili sauce
Bird’s eye chilies are used here. You may substitute other chili variety that is accessible to you but note that the flavor and heat level of the sauce will be affected.See: Cooking with chilies
Cucumber
Japanese cucumbers, narrower and firmer than the more common English cucumber, are cut into rings about half an inch thick then tossed with chili sauce.
Pork belly
The pork is precooked before grilling. That’s to make sure that the meat is very tender. If you grill large pieces of uncooked pork belly tossed in chili sauce, chances are high that the sauce will burn while the pork will still be rather tough and chewy. So, precooking is the key. To get uniformly-sized pieces, choose a slab of pork belly. Simmer in salted water with a whole garlic, a teaspon of peppercorns and a split onion until tender. Then, cool on a rack, wrap and chill before cutting into cubes and tossing with chili sauce (chilling firms up the fat and makes cutting easier and you get cleaner cuts).Skewers
This is Southeast Asia and, by default, we use bamboo skewers. If grilling over charcoal, soak the skewers in water for at least 30 minutes to avoid catching fire. If cooking indoors using a stovetop grill, you may skip the soaking part. If what you have are metal skewers, by all means, go ahead and use them.Grilled spicy pork belly skewers
Equipment
- 8 10-inch bamboo skewers
Ingredients
Pork
- 800 grams pork belly (about 1.75 pounds), in one piece
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns
- 1 whole garlic (no need to peel)
- 1 onion (no need to peel) split in half
Chili sauce
- 4 to 5 bird’s eye chilies
- 4 cloves garlic
- ¼ cup cilantro roots and stems
- 1 teaspoon chili flakes (we use Korean)
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon rock salt
- juice of one lemon or lime
- ¼ to ⅓ cup olive oil or just enough to puree the chilies (doesn’t have to be extra virgin)
Skewers
- cooked pork belly
- 3 to 4 Japanese cucumbers
Instructions
Cook the pork belly
- Boil about eight cups of water in a casserole and slide in the pork belly. Cook for about ten minutes over high heat, skimming off any scum that rises.
- Add the garlic, peppercorns, onion and salt.
- Set the heat to low, cover and simmer until the meat tender and the fat is gelatinous (depending on the age of the animal, this can take anywhere from an hour and half to two hours).
- Scoop out the pork belly, rest on a rack and cool.
- Wrap the cooled belly (with foil or cling film) and chill in the fridge for at least six hours.
Make the chili sauce
- In an oil-free frying pan, dry fry the chilies for a few minutes. Cool then roughly chop, discarding the stems.
- While the chilies cool, peel and grate the garlic, and roughly chop the cilantro.
- Drop all the sauce ingredients into a blender or food processor.
- Pour in the olive oil and lemon juice. Process until smooth.
Assemble and grill
- Take the pork out of the fridge and cut into one-and-a-half-inch cubes.
- Slice the cucumbers into rings about half-inch thick.
- Place the cucumbers in one bowl and the pork in another.
- Toss the cucumbers with a heaping tablespoon of chili sauce.
- Add two tablespoons of chili sauce to the pork and toss well.
- Thread the pork and cucumber alternatingly on the bamboo skewers.
- Arrange the skewers on a very hot grill at least an inch apart.
- Grill the skewered pork and cucumber, turning ofen and brushing with more chili sauce with every turn, until sufficiently charred to your satisfaction.
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