Char Siu/ Char Siew (Roast Pork)
I’ve done char siew/char siu before using Chubby Hubby’s recipe. Delicious as it was, it lacked the complexity I couldn’t pin point. So I did further research and experimented with a combined recipes from "I eat I shoot I post" and Rasa Malaysia . Gaah! It was good. Together with Charmaine of Tasty Treat’s recipe , I should be cured of my cravings of this Asian staple of char siew, siu youk, on a bed of fluffy hainanese chicken rice and crisp, cleansing cucumber.
Now, the details.
Rasa Malaysia encourages the use of molasses but I don’t think it warrants my stocking it. Google advises me on several substitutes and I choose brown sugar. I want the sugar to be in liquid form as I find granulated sugar often doesn’t dissolve well in sauces and therefore, melts only at cooking time. So I added the extra step of making melted brown sugar. BTW, to ensure the caramelized sweetness, we want to use 3 tbsp (or more) of liquid brown sugar and not 3 tbsp of the granulated version so make more and keep the rest for other use.
Oyster and Hoisin sauce, to me, are not the prime ingredients as they all taste the same. The five spice and bean paste are as they add the elusive yet enticing flavours to good Char Siew. I used Lee Kum Kee’s garlic bean paste for this purpose.
Lastly, the grilling. To achieve that glazed, charred look, it’s best to baste the meat, prior and during the grilling with the thick, original marinating sauce and not the thin liquid left over after the meat is removed. Of course it’s ideal to grill the meat on outdoor barbecue. Rasa Malaysia suggests a combination of roasting and pan-grilling. Both are not viable for me so the instruction below caters for apartment dwellers with only oven at their disposal.
PS: I eliminate the use of red colouring. I wonder why it has to be red, what original ingredient was used that made this dish red. My mother said it was Fungkiuk.
Ingredients:
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