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:
1 kg pork neck with good proportion of fat & meat, sliced to long strips with 1.5 cm thickness.

Marinade / sauce:
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 tbsp brown sugar
5 tbsp water
3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp hoisin sauce/oyster sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp bean paste (dou jiang)
2 tbsp rice wine
white pepper powder
1 tsp five spice
1 tsp sesame oil

Directions:
Place the chopped garlic in a glass casserole and set aside.

Mix the brown sugar and water in a saucepan and melt the sugar until it turns into chocolate-brown, rich and glossy liquid. Switch off the fire and add the rest of the marinade into the saucepan (the left-over heat should encourage mingling of flavour or so I theorize). Mix well.

Layer the meat on the glass container with garlic. Pour 2/3 of the marinade and ensure each piece is coated well with both garlic and marinating sauce. Reserve the rest of the marinade and marinate the pork in the fridge overnight.

Remove the meat from the fridge about 30 minutes before grilling. Preheat oven at 250 degrees Celsius. Brush garlic pieces from the meat and place the meat pieces on a grilling rack (I improvised using my fish grills, see picture below). Brush the top-side with the thick, original marinade.

Place the grill-rack on the top 1/3 of the oven and grill for 10 minutes. Flip, baste (with the thick sauce) and grill for another 5 minutes to char.   If the cooking time seems too short for you, please feel free to adjust as the cooking time depends highly on the type and thickness of the cut.  If it’s not charred enough, increase the heat to 275 degrees for the next batch. Either char this batch on a stove-top grill or just live with it. Cooking the meat further results in tough and dry char siu. Don’t ask how I know.

Repeat until all the meat pieces are cooked. Set them aside. Meanwhile, pour the remaining original sauce, the marinade liquid, and the pan dripping into a clean sauce pan. Simmer this concoction, stirring constantly to prevent all the sugar from burning at the bottom of the pan, until thick (ie. the sauce coats the back of a spoon) and glossy. Strain and drizzle on the sliced Char Siew when serving.

Afterthoughts:
I was telling my mother about my foray into char siew making and she told me to use Wu Hua Rou instead of pork neck. I have no idea what to call that in English although researching, I see some people use spare-ribs instead. For background reading, a page from "I eat I shoot I post" is very informative for the different types of pork cuts, including the lovely Bu Jian Tian made famous by Kaca Mata’s legendary honeyed roast pork.  But I think my pork neck is fine for now.  I am not ambitious enough to explain this cut to the butcher in German. 

The air is crisp, the trees are bald.  Builders start constructing the booths for the Herbstmesse.  It is time for blut and leberwurst. 

PS:  Rhyming is hard.

Wise chefs say the simpler the dishes, the more difficult they are. I can’t agree more when I was making this dish. Sure I’ve cooked pasta with mushroom countless of time but this season’s sample of Porcini, also called Bolet in French or Steinpilzen in German, made me rethink my technique.

On a recent trip to the Italian-speaking Switzerland, we discovered that Porcini, the wild mushroom abundant only at the end of summer and early autumn, was in rage.  We sampled a few but we love the one served in Carona in the compound of its Botanical Garden was the best.  The porcini was brown and nutty. All the earthy flavours shine. Texturally, it was juicy and firm. I realize I’ve always done my mushroom incorrectly.

Mushrooms are friends of butter, onion and parsley. So I use them. The key is in the timing. You’ll be rewarded with sweet, flavourful, and toothsome mushroom sauce. Due to the rather oily nature of the dish, it’s best served with bone-dry, light white wine.

Ingredients:
Pasta for two
10-20 g butter, or to taste
1 onion, finely chopped
200 g porcini mushroom or champignon, thickly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil - or if you’re scared, water, wine, stock, etc.
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp chopped flat-leafed parsley, for garnish

Directions:
Cook the pasta to the manufacturer’s specification. Set aside on a plate with a little of their water to prevent clumping while you cook the mushroom which will take minutes. Alternatively, start cooking the mushroom when the pasta is halfway done.

Melt the butter in a heavy pan (don’t use non-stick for this purpose as we want the browning). When the butter melts, dump in the onion and fry slowly until soft but not brown. Decrease the heat if required.

Put the heat back to high again and when the onion sizzles, add the sliced mushroom. The mushroom will absorb the butter so stir quickly to ensure even distribution of butter. Keep the mushroom moving to prevent sticking until the mushroom shrinks, the pan is dry and the whole thing (pan included) begins to brown. It is important to continuously stir because in this high-heat the mushroom will stick and we do not want to lower the heat because instead of searing, the mushroom will leak its juices.

When mushroom looks done (shiny and plump), switch off the fire and deglaze the pan with the olive oil. Continue stirring. Coat the mushroom with the oil and scrape the brown bits off the pan. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce onto the pasta and sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.