Chinese Barbecue Pork, or commonly known as Char Siew (叉烧) is of Cantonese origin where pork meat is marinated and then roasted in the oven to a charred and sticky sweet perfection. Truly for the MEAT lovers.
1tablespoontaucho, or yellow bean sauce / beanpaste
1tablespoonhoi sin sauce
1 piecefermented red beancurd , + 1 tbsp liquid, or nam yue
1tablespoonchinese cooking wine,
1teaspoonsesame oil
Malt Syrup
25mlwater, (Cook maltose with water until sugar dissolve. Leave to cool)
100gmmaltose, 4 tbsp
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Instructions
Prepare Malt Syrup:
Have ready maltose and water.
Dilute maltose with water by cooking in a pan till sugar dissolves. Pour into a bowl and leave aside to cool.
Prepare Marinade:
Have ready ingredients to marinade char siew.
Add all marinade in a bowl. Mix till well combined. Then add in cooled malt syrup into the marinade. Mix well and set aside.
Prepare Pork Belly:
First using a sharp knife, remove the skin from the cleaned pork belly. Then with a fork, prick some holes on both sides of the pork. This helps the marinade to penetrate into the meat for more flavour.
Marinade Pork Belly:
Place the pork strips into a container. Pour marinade over the pork. Blend well to make sure the pork strips are completely coated with the marinade. Cover and place in refrigerator to marinade for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight turning occasionally.
Prepare to Grill Char Siew:
When ready to grill, firstly remove the marinated pork strips from refrigerator and transfer onto a plate. Leave for about 1 hour to bring it to room temperature before baking.
Preheat oven to 220 degree C. Set up the baking tray by lining the bottom with aluminum foil to capture the dripping sauce during cooking and place the wire baking rack on top of the foil. Add a little water to the bottom of the tray. Arrange the marinated pork strips on the wire rack.
Put the baking tray into the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
While waiting, cook the remaining marinated sauce together with the malt syrup over low heat. Do stir constantly and cook until the sauce thickens. This takes about 5 minutes. This is the char siew sauce.
Once the 15 minutes roasting time is over, bring out the pork and brush the char siew sauce on the meat surface. Turn the meat over and do the brushing all over the other side. Put it back in the oven and continue to roast another 5 minutes. Repeat another 4 times. Roast until the pork is slightly charred.
To serve, allow the cha siew to cool for about 10 minutes before cutting it across the grain into thin or thick slices to your preference.
Serve with steamed rice and char siew sauce and Enjoy!
Many cuts of pork can be used to make Char Siew. Pork Belly (without skin) - its the tender, juicy and fattiest version/ maximum flavour. Pork Butt (shoulder) or Pork Neck - if you prefer a balance between meat and tenderness. Pork Loin – if you prefer no fat, only meat .
Cut the pork belly into long strips, roughly about 1 inch thick. Try to have each pork belly strip to be of uniform thickness to ensure they cook at the same rate.
The amount of marinade can be adjusted base on the amount of pork you will be making. Be sure to mix the marinade till well mixed and smooth.
Place the marinated pork in the refrigerator to marinade overnight or for 6-8 hours. Do not marinate the pork for more than 24 hours, otherwise the meat will turn hard.
Before cooking the marinated pork, remove from refrigerator and let sit for 1 hour to bring to room temperature before baking/grilling.
Set up a baking tray by lining with aluminium foil to capture the dripping sauce (for ease of cleaning) and place a baking rack on top of the foil.
Pour in some water onto the bottom of the baking tray before grilling. This helps to generate some steam as the char siew cooks, and to help prevent the drippings from burning and smoking.
The baking/grilling process is really important in getting the right colour on the meat. The vibrant red colour on the char siew is partly due to the red fermented beancurd but really it’s more a factor of good browning of the meat, and getting good caramelisation of the barbecue sauce.
If possible use maltose instead of honey as the malt syrup provides a deeper and richer color and flavor to the pork that sticks better than honey. Lightly oiled your measuring spoon before scooping out the maltose which is a very thick syrup.
Do not replace maltose with sugar as sugar will turn hard when it's cooled, which in turn, makes the meat hard. If you do not have maltose, you can use honey instead.