Fairly simple to prepare ahead, but requiring a sufficient time on the hob, Rick Stein’s pork belly recipe is one I don’t have to keep a watchful eye on.

Considered a Filipino dish, pork adobo with rice is meaty, tasty and very filling. The key ingredients include dark sugar, vinegar and soy sauce to cook the meat in.

While the method instructs washing the accompanying rice, which I did, when I make this again – which I most definitely will do – I’ll prefer sticky rice.

Here’s how to make Rick Stein’s pork belly adobo with rice recipe – and my tips along the way, including making the fruity mango atchara ahead of time.

Do note the mango atchara recipe is not listed below, but here, which is highly recommended to go alongside the pork belly recipe.

Pork adobo with rice

• Prep: less than 30 mins
• Cooks in: one to two hours
• Serves: four people

Ingredients

• Two tbsp vegetable oil
• 900g pork belly, skinned weight, cut into cubes
• One onion, sliced
• Nine garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
• Four dried bay leaves
• 250ml sugar cane vinegar or Japanese rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 125ml dark soy sauce
• Three tbsp fish sauce
• Four tbsp dark brown sugar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• For the rice
• 300g jasmine rice
• Two or three large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• One tsp olive oil
• One bay leaf
• Half tbsp cracked black pepper
• One pandan leaf, fresh or frozen (optional)

Method

Heat the vegetable oil in a wide frying pan over a medium heat. Add the pork belly and fry for about five minutes until browned on all sides.

Add the chopped onion, garlic, bay leaves and one tablespoon of black pepper and fry until the onion is translucent.

Stir in the vinegar, dark soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Simmer over a low–medium heat, uncovered, for about 45 minutes until the pork is tender and the liquid has reduced to below the level of the pork.

Meanwhile, make the rice. Rick Stein instructed: “First rinse the rice in a bowl of cold water at least three times until the water runs clear, then drain.”

I would prefer sticky rice with this meal so I wouldn’t wash the rice; instead, I’d put the rice in the pan and top with boiled water, just skimming over the rice.

Next, put the chopped garlic into a frying pan with a little oil and fry until golden-brown. Set aside.

Adding ingredients to the rice before boiling

Add the bay leaf, black pepper, pandan leaf (if using) and the browned garlic. “With your hands, stir the rice to incorporate the aromatics,” said Rick Stein.

I just stirred the ingredients in the rice pot with a wooden spoon, put the rice on a high heat until bubbling, then turned the heat off and covered the pan with a lid so the rice is steamed.

Once the pork belly has been cooking for 45 minutes, turn the heat down low and continue to cook, stirring so the pork doesn’t stick to the pan, until the liquid is thick and coating the pork.

Once ready, fluff up the rice with a fork before serving, and make sure to serve the pork belly and rice alongside a fruity mango archaea.