Bicol Express

Method

1. Cut the pork belly into pieces about 1.5 cm thick and 3 cm long. Mince the garlic and onion, peel the ginger and cut it into thin matchsticks. Slice the long chillies on the diagonal and the bird's eye chillies into thin rings. Wear gloves when handling hot chillies and don't touch your eyes.

2. Put the pork and oil in a 24 cm pan or wok on medium heat and cook for 12 min, stirring, until plenty of fat has rendered and the pork is lightly browned. Spoon off the fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan; too much fat makes the sauce greasy.

   Add in this stepPork belly 400 gVegetable oil 1 tbsp

   medium heat

3. Add the garlic, onion and ginger and fry on medium heat for 2 min until the onion is translucent and fragrant.

   Add in this stepGarlic cloves 5Onion 1Fresh ginger 15 g

   medium heat

4. Add the bagoong and fry on medium-low heat for 1 min 30 sec, until it coats the pork and smells savoury. This takes the raw edge off the shrimp paste.

   Add in this stepBagoong alamang (ready-to-eat sautéed shrimp paste) 1½ tbsp

   medium-low heat

5. Pour in the coconut milk and bring it up on medium-high heat, about 3 min. As soon as the edges bubble, turn down to medium-low heat and simmer uncovered for 30 min, stirring now and then so it doesn't catch, until the sauce has reduced by about half and the pork is tender. Boiling too hard makes coconut milk split.

   Add in this stepCoconut milk 400 ml

   medium-high heat→medium-low heat

6. Add the long chillies, bird's eye chillies and coconut cream and simmer on medium-low heat for 6 min more. It is done when the sauce is thick and a little orange oil starts to show on the surface.

   Add in this stepLong green chillies (siling haba, mild) 4Bird's eye chillies (siling labuyo) 2Coconut cream 120 ml

   medium-low heat

7. Taste, then season with salt (how much depends on your bagoong) and the pepper. Turn off the heat, leave for 2–3 minutes for the flavours to settle and serve with hot steamed rice.

   Add in this stepSalt to tasteGround black pepper ½ tsp