Char Siu (Chinese Barbecued Pork)

[Tropicalsenior]

Char Siu (Chinese Barbecued Pork)

This is the traditional Chinese Barbecued pork that used to be served as an appetizer in every Chinese restaurant. The best cut of meat for this is something with plenty of fat or marbling. Do not use pork loin. It lacks both the moisture and the flavor that a fattier meat will provide.

 

3 pounds pork shoulder, or butt
2 cloves garlic, mashed 
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey or molasses
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
a few drops red food coloring, optional

 

Cut the pork into strips approximately 2 inches wide and 5 inches long. Whisk together the rice wine or sherry, hoisin sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, liquid honey, sugar, mashed garlic, ginger and five-spice powder. If using the red food coloring, add it now. 
Place the pork and the marinade in a zip-top bag. Marinate the pork in the refrigerator, for at least 6 hours or up to 2 days, the longer the better.
Remove the pork from the bag. Reserve the marinade.Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Fill a shallow roasting pan with 1/2 inch of water and place the pork on a rack above the water. Roast until brown, turning and brushing 2 or 3 times with the reserved marinade  for about 45 minutes. The internal temperature of the pork should be 155 to 160 degrees F.  Do not overcook or it will be dry.

Note: Do not leave out the alcohol. If you don't have the rice wine or sherry you can use rum or brandy. It seems to make a big difference in the penetration of the marinade.
Any extra marinade can be boiled and stored in the refrigerator up to a month or in the freezer to be used the next time

 I like to serve this in 1/4 inch slices with ketchup, Chinese hot mustard and sesame seeds. To make Chinese hot mustard, just mix dry, ground mustard with water to make a paste.
Or use the in following recipe to make  Char Siu Bao.

 

 if you don't have any Chinese five-spice powder you can easily make it with the following recipe. It is an essential flavor in this recipe.

 

 Five-Spice  Powder 
1  tsp.  ground  star-anise  (3  whole  star  anise) 
1  tsp.  ground  fennel  seeds  (3/4  tsp.  whole  fennel  seeds) 
1  tsp.  ground  Szechuan  or  white  pepper (1  tsp.  whole  Szechwan  or  white  peppercorns)
1/2  tsp.  ground  cassia  or  cinnamon
1/2  tsp.  ground  cloves  

Grind to a fine power in a spice grinder or mortar

Edited February 1, 2018 by Tropicalsenior
spelling error (log)

[kayb]

Thanks. Saved it!

 

Cooking pork shoulder tonight, but I'm jonesing for German, so it's going to be braised in cider with caraway, juniper berries and allspice. Served with egg noodles, red cabbage, and cucumber salad.

 

[Tropicalsenior]

@kayb sounds great! Sounds like it will have undertones of sauerbraten. At least there's no kraut.

I just put a corned beef in to cure for Saint Patrick's Day. It's a recipe that I've used for years with a lot of success, (and a couple failures). I'm thinking of posting the recipe but I'm not sure if anyone would be interested.

Before.

In the brine.

 Two weeks to wait.

Edited February 3, 2018 by Tropicalsenior
Grammatical error (log)

[Paul Bacino]

Love my Jaccard..Thank u for the recipe too

 

[Tropicalsenior]

23 minutes ago, Paul Bacino said:

Love my Jaccard..Thank u for the recipe too

 

Especially down here, I couldn't live without it. Unless you can shell out for the export quality beef, sometimes the beef that you buy was running in the pasture the day before. I bought it in a restaurant supply house here about 25 years ago and the salesman asked me what it was. I told him and demonstrated on the table how it worked. He told me that he already knew how it worked and showed me the palm of his hand. He had scars running the full length of his palm. I paid $15 for it at the time and when I went back 2 weeks later they had about 10 of them for a dollar a piece. I bought every one of them and gave them as gifts.

[kayb]

18 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

@kayb sounds great! Sounds like it will have undertones of sauerbraten. At least there's no kraut.

I just put a corned beef in to cure for Saint Patrick's Day. It's a recipe that I've used for years with a lot of success, (and a couple failures). I'm thinking of posting the recipe but I'm not sure if anyone would be interested.

Before.

In the brine.

 Two weeks to wait.

 

 

There'll be much corning of beef going on. Another recipe will be most well accepted.