Caramelised pork belly paratha wraps

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  1:45 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 litre (4 cups) chicken stock
• 125 ml (½ cup) soy sauce
• 4 cm-piece ginger, sliced
• 3 star anise
• 800 g pork belly
• 180 ml (¾ cup) kitul treacle (palm sugar syrup) (see Note)
• 2½ tbsp fish sauce
• 4 paratha (see Note) warmed

Tomato salsa

• 100 g cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 eschalot, finely chopped
• 1 Lebanese cucumber, seeded, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp coriander leaves
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp fish sauce

Instructions

To make the tomato salsa, combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Place 500 ml water, stock, soy sauce, ginger, star anise and pork in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, then cover and simmer for 1½ hours or until pork is tender. Remove from heat and cool.

Strain and reserve stock for another use. Pat pork dry with paper towel.  

Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Cook pork, skin-side down, for 5 minutes or until skin is crisp. Transfer to a plate and reserve pan. When pork is cool enough to handle, cut into 1 cm-thick slices.

Add kitul treacle to the reserved pan and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until slightly reduced. Return pork to pan and cook, turning occasionally, for 3 minutes or until pork is coated in syrup. Stir in fish sauce.

Place 2 tbsp tomato salsa on each paratha, top with pork and serve.

Note

• Kitul treacle (palm sugar syrup) is available from Indian and Asian food shops.

• Paratha, flaky Indian bread, is available from supermarkets in packets or in the frozen section of Indian food shops.

Recipe inspired by ingredients found at Indian Foods 14 Jingili Terrace, Jingili, NT, [phone].

Photography by Alan Benson.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.