getting all steamed up about my belly

Well, I say my belly. I didn't quite mean the area of my body that once was a six pack and now is more beer barrel. I meant a piece of belly pork that I marinated and steam cooked in the oven last night. My mate Paul the fishmonger and former chef who works with me at Tesco made me a chinese marinade. He did verbally give me recipe and cooking method but I couldn't remember it all when I came to cook the pork so, with a bit of help from t'internet, I made the cooking up.

First I part sliced the belly pork through to create lots of little squares of pork but the slab of meat still remaining as a whole piece. Then I rubbed in the delicious smelling marinade, covered it in silver foil and left it in the fridge for a day.

To cook the belly I turned the oven up full (gas mark nine). With the belly on a wire rack and suspended over a water filled tray I popped it into the hot oven for an initial fifteen minutes and then turned the heat down to gas mark four. It remained cooking for an hour and a half and a couple of times along the way I basted the belly with the water in the tray. At one point I rather stupidly moved the hot wire rack along the work surface with my bare fingers! Ouch! I called myself a few choice names and took my stinging finger tips to the cold water tap.

I could hardly wait to eat the chinese style belly pork and finally at 9pm I wolfed down the little cubes of gorgeousness with some plain cooked rice and a few greens. Yummy!

PS: I still have half of the belly sitting in the fridge but it I don't really fancy it cold.