Babi Pangang

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Roasting rack and tin
• •Small saucepan
• •Wide frying pan
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Season the pork

   Pat the pork very dry. Mix the salt, soy sauce, oil, grated garlic, five-spice, coriander, and white pepper into a paste, then rub it all over the meat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight if you can. Time is doing quiet work here: salt seasons the centre, and the surface dries enough to brown properly.

2. 2

   Roast until tender

   Heat the oven to 180C. Set the pork on a rack over a roasting tin and roast for 55 to 70 minutes, until the centre reaches 72C and the outside is deep brown in patches. Rest it for 20 minutes. If you slice too soon, the juices run onto the board instead of staying where you paid for them.

   Pork belly gives the richest restaurant-style result; pork shoulder is meatier and easier to slice. Both are honest choices. Avoid lean loin here, which dries before the edges crisp.
3. 3

   Make the sauce

   While the pork rests, put a small saucepan over medium heat with the grated onion, garlic, ginger, passata, water, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, ketjap manis, and sambal. Simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the raw onion smell is gone and the sauce tastes bright rather than sharp.

4. 4

   Thicken the sauce

   Stir the potato starch with the cold water, then whisk it into the simmering sauce. Let it bubble for 1 minute until glossy and just thick enough to coat a spoon. Don't make pudding of it; the sauce should run around the pork, not sit on it like paint.

5. 5

   Slice and crisp

   Slice the rested pork into pieces about 1cm thick. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat and fry the slices in a single layer until the edges are crisp and browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. This last pan is where the Dutch takeaway memory happens: roasted meat becoming something sharper, darker, and more eager under the teeth.

6. 6

   Serve with sauce

   Spoon a little sauce onto a warm serving plate, lay the crisp pork over it, and pour more sauce across the centre, leaving some edges bare. Serve with white rice and atjar tjampoer, the sweet-sour pickled vegetables that keep the richness in line. Put extra sauce on the table, because somebody will ask, and they will be right.

Chef Tips

• •Make the pork a day ahead, chill it uncovered once cool, and slice it cold. Cold pork cuts cleanly, and the dry surface crisps faster in the pan.
• •Ketjap manis is sweet Indonesian soy sauce, not ordinary soy with sugar stirred in at the last minute. Use it if you can; it brings dark sweetness and a little molasses depth.
• •The red sauce should be sweet, sour, and lightly hot, not sugary ketchup. Taste it after simmering: add vinegar if it feels flat, sugar if it bites too hard, sambal if the table can bear it.
• •Serve with atjar tjampoer, mixed pickled vegetables. That sour crunch is not decoration; it is the small argument that makes the pork taste richer.

Advance Preparation

• •The pork can be seasoned up to 24 hours ahead and roasted the day before serving. Chill it, then slice and crisp just before dinner.
• •The sauce keeps three days in the refrigerator and reheats gently in a small pan. Add a spoonful of water if it thickens too much.
• •Leftover crisped pork keeps two days refrigerated, though it is best reheated in a dry frying pan rather than a microwave.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 470g)