Jan 31: Chinese BBQ Pork

Here's my recent interpretation of Chinese bbq pork - Char Siu.
The pork really isn't barbecued in the sense of low and slow. Instead, the meat is roasted.

When walking through SF Chinatown, you'll see this item hanging in the deli windows next to the roasted ducks, chicken, roast pig. It's the strips of glazed red colored pork.

The meat is slightly sweet from the glaze with a hint of 5 spice powder.

For my version, I opted out of using food coloring to dye the meat red.

Char Sui - Chinese BBQ Pork
2 or 3 lb of Pork, cut into strips. I used pork shoulder, but pork loin or pork tenderloin is a nice alternative.
1 Green Onion, minced
1 Clove Garlic, mashed
1 tsp Ginger, grated
2 T Soy Sauce
2 T Hoisin Sauce
1 T Honey
1/2 tsp Five Spice powder
1/4 tsp Toasted Sesame Seed oil

Mix all the ingredients and let marinade overnight.
I improvised a rack for the meat to cook on. Sprayed with Pam to simply cleanup.
The roasting pan was lined with foil too.


Ready for the oven...


Bake 425F
Rotate the pan and meat every 10 minutes.
Total baking time 40 - 45 minutes...
I did try coating with ketchup and honey the last 10 minutes to achieve a thick glaze... That didn't really do it... so the glaze part I need to rethink. The glaze is mainly for appearance.



Nice toasty edges adds a little crunch to the meat.


The flavor turned out very nice. The sweetness and taste of five spice is what I imagined. The garlic, ginger and green onions aren't overt, but I'm sure adds to the layers of flavor.

There are many ways to serve the meat... usually as a side dish or on an appetizer platter. The local restaurants have hot mustard and sesame seeds as dippers for the meat.

I can see why the delis give the meat a red hue... without it, the pork looks like cooked meat... which can be grayish.

I guess it's like having Red Velvet cake without the red dye. It just becomes a regular cake.

PART 2
Usually at the end of the year, when I have two weeks off and my body decompresses from a year of work, I end up with a cold. This year, I didn't have my end of the year cold and thought that's great!

Well... looks like it just slid to the right (manufacturing schedule speak... lol) a month . I'm dealing with congestion and fighting off more. Although, I must admit it's not that bad. However, for dinner I wanted something light.

I have the chicken stock from the poached chicken, which I also enriched with the pork bone from the pork shoulder... so a veggie soup was what I made.

Vegetables
Nappa Cabbage
Bok Choi
Pea Pod
Baby Corn
Carrots
Bamboo Shoots
Deep Fried Tofu
Garnished with a few slices of bbq pork.

The soup hit the spot and was warm and filling without being heavy.