Baked Liempo

oh my.. has it been that long since i blogged... well i have a perfect excuse.. its been one crazy summer.. but i hope to redeem myself by my friday night recipe.. an all time filipino classic with a twist.. Oven Baked Liempo.. =)

Weirdly enough I’ve been avoiding cooking Filipino foods because these dishes are sacrosanct to me. Each dish has a distinct taste and memory that any tweaking to it is blasphemous…

Liempo is one of them, deep fried pork belly goodness is one of my favorites.. but the heart burn at the end of the meal is almost a given. I was searching for a good baked recipe but couldn’t find one in google (big surprise), so I decided to tweak recipes from different Filipino foodie blogs and make my own.

Baked Liempo

3 lbs pork belly – washed and dried
Salt
Pepper (freshly grind and a few peppercorns)
Garlic Powder
2 – 3 Bay Leaves

Bring a pot of water to simmer, add salt, peppercorns and Bay Leaves
Season the pork with salt, pepper and garlic powder very well.
Add pork to water and boil for 2 ½ hours
Take pork out, dry and freeze overnight.

Heat oven to 350 degrees
Place pork on rack and bake for 30 – 45 minutes
Move the rack closer to the top and broil skin for 5 – 10 mins until you see blisters in pork skin (clear indication of its crispy goodness)
Take out of oven and let meat rest for 10 – 15 mins

Serve with hot rice and your favorite dipping sauce..
Mm mm mmm

I kept the meat baking for only 30mins and there were parts of the meat that was still frozen. I had no problem serving it because it was already cooked.

I think the secret will be the spices and flavoring in the brining liquid... I'll try different spices next time, thaw the pork 30mins before tossing it into the oven and keeping it longer for an extra roasted flavour..

Over-all for my first attempt it was the goodness of the liempo without the guilt of fried foods…
Enjoy!! =D