Wonders will never cease

The past week has been quite the revelation for me professionally. The event that took place has restored my faith in chefs, more importantly though 'Chinese chefs'. I was having a lovely lunch when my dear friend invited me into the kitchen to have a chat with the chef responsible for their roasted meats.  I was expecting the same old, familiar routine of looking around, asking a few questions, having blank faced responses and then a 'sorry i cant tell you' bullshit from the chef. To my amazement though, it was the complete opposite. I was faced with a chef that was welcoming my interest in his work and was openly telling me the processes that he took the meat through to achieve the fantastic end products.  This was my equivalent of winning the lottery, i could not believe what was taking place before my very eyes. The dishes that i had been experimenting with over the past few years were about to have a grand impetus of fact and theory. I wanted to whip out my notepad right there, but i thought that it might scare the chef into thinking i was an immigration officer so i withheld the temptation. I was all ears............

Suckling pig.

i. Blanch the whole pig in boiling water.
ii. Brush on the wet marinade which i think is made up of 2 tsp maltose, 2 tsp red vinegar, 2 tsp white vinegar, 1.5 tabs water, 1.5 tabs chinese rice wine.
iii. Dry in front of a fan until the skin feels like leather.
iv. Cook in a low heated oven for 2-3 hours (the inside of the piglet will have black, charred bits so i assume that the temperature is about 150C)
v. If there are any blisters on the skin forming, pierce them from the inside of the piglet to allow the built up oil to leak out meat side.
vi. Dry the pig and freeze until needed.
vii. Defrost the piglet and dry in front of a fan again until really dry to the touch and tough in touch.
viii. Over a soft and then high heat, blast the piglet until the skin crisps up and the beautiful glass like crackling is formed.

Pork belly.

i. Let a stock pot filled with boiling water and add 1 percent soda, otherwise known as sodium bicarbonate.
ii. submerge the belly in the boiling water and take off the fire for 1 hour to partially cook through.
iii. Wash the belly in cold water/
iv. Poke holes using the Chinese torture tool.
v. Brush on some lemon juice onto the skin and then add some salt and soda to the skin, rubbing deeply.
vi. Rub the flesh side with duck spice mix.
vii. Hang up the belly in front of a fan until it is completely dry.
viii. Roast over a high temperature and blacken the pork belly.
ix. remove the belly and scrape away the black, charred crust leaving you with an amazingly crunchy skin and moist meat.

i cant thank the chef enough for being so generous with his knowledge, the idea of using soda powder as a meat tenderizer is not a foreign concept as i have seen it done in restaurants to make beef topside texturally similar to fillet.(at a tenth of the cost) However, i had never come across a pork belly recipe that used it. Most cook books describe how one should braise the belly first before crisping the skin. Its all just an another example of how people love posting recipes, claiming authenticity when in fact, they are about as Chinese as sesame prawn toast. (good luck finding bread in China back in the day)

I never thought that i would find myself saying this, but thank you Chef for passing on your knowledge. Do not fear, i do not intend to use this knowledge to steal your job and make your homeless. I merely want this knowledge to aid my culinary education in the hope that one day, after first being able to roast these meats as well as you and as consistently as you, to maybe find new ways of heightening these dishes to the next level. Maybe find a suckling pig recipe that creates the same glass like skin, but a more moist flesh. (ive been trying it already by confitting pork belly for 12 hours at 60C and then finishing in a pan) thank you, thank you, thank you!

ps. having just come back from Hotelolympia, i have just had my first interaction with a new age combi oven from Rationale. All i can say is 'fuck me!' those things are about one silicon chip away from telling chefs to 'piss off' when they do something stupid. The oven had 61 languages programmed into it, it has humidity controllers, self cleaning facilities and even has a program in it called 'Beijing duck' (how very politically correct of them). After listening to the sales speal, i must honestly share with all my Chinese peers working in restaurants around London that these things really are the future. Throw those traditional, over sized, bullet shaped duck ovens away, they don't talk, they don't walk, and more importantly they are inconsistent.  I'm awaiting an afternoon to carry out some Peking duck trials in one and i can barely contain my excitement. yeeeehaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!