Saturday, May 1, 2010

Chinese Barbecue Sauce aka Char Siu


Many people don't know that Chinese Roast Pork is called Char Siu Bao.   The only reason I'm  a smarty-pants is because when I saw it posted on foodgawker.com by My Asian Kitchen I realized that my recipe box was missing something that I truly loved.  Remember Moon Garden, anyone?  Wow, was that exotic!  Driving downtown, the chinese music and waiters.  What a thrill for a little farm girl from Chamberino.
So, most of the recipes go something like this:

Pork.  Most recipes use Butt or Belly.  Have you ever seen pork belly for sale, here in West Texas?  Please tell me where.  And another thing, isn't that called bacon?  Anyway...  I use what I can get.
1c. sugar
6T soy sauce
3T hoisin sauce
4T rice wine or sherry
1T salt
1T Chinese 5 Spice
1/2 tsp. garlic chile or just red chile flakes
Red food coloring (but why bother?)

Just mix it up and marinate your pork in it.  Several hours, if possible.   If you cook a loin roast, set the oven at 400, put it on a rack and turn it after 30 minutes. I cooked these ribs in the oven for about 2 hours at 325, turning and painting again once.   Some recipes call for a coating of honey and/or  Maltose at the end for shininess, but if you put water under your roast or ribs you won't need it.  If you grill it, you might just use honey thinned with a little  water right before you take it off. 
Chinese chicken salad minus the chicken would be a great side for this, it seems to me.  

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