Inihaw na Liempo

Belly grilled slowly over embers and basted only in the last few minutes.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg pork belly, in thick slabs
• 120 ml soy sauce
• juice of 10 calamansi, or 3 limes
• 4 tablespoons banana ketchup
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 8 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 can lemon-lime soda, optional
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

Method

1. Marinate the belly slabs in the soy, calamansi, garlic, pepper and soda if using, for at least 4 hours. Keep the ketchup and sugar OUT of the marinade.
2. Mix the banana ketchup and brown sugar with a little marinade to make the basting glaze, and set it aside.
3. Burn charcoal down to embers with no flame at all.
4. Grill the slabs 25 to 30 minutes, turning every few minutes, over MODERATE heat and not close to the coals. Belly is fatty and a hot fire flares and chars it black while the inside is raw.
5. BASTE WITH THE SUGARY GLAZE ONLY IN THE LAST 5 MINUTES. Sugar burns long before pork is cooked, and brushing it on at the start gives a bitter black crust every time.
6. Rest the slabs 5 minutes, then slice them across into finger-width strips.
7. Serve with a dip of vinegar, soy, chopped onion and chilli, and more calamansi.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes