Chinese BBQ pork (Char siu)
adapted from 'The Woks of Life' recipe
Char siu is a type of Cantonese roast meat with sweet, sticky glaze
Ingredients
1 kg boneless Pork neck or shoulder/butt (needs some good fat on it)
¼ cup Sugar
2 tsp Salt
½ tsp Five Spice Powder
¼ tsp White Pepper
½ tsp Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp Rice Wine (or dry cooking sherry)
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
2 tsp Molasses
3 Garlic cloves, finely minced
2 Tbsp Honey
1 Tbsp hot Water
Method
Cut the pork into long strips or steaks about 2 to 3cm thick. Don’t trim any excess fat, as it will render off and add flavour.
Combine the sugar, salt, five spice powder, white pepper, sesame oil, wine, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, molasses and garlic in a bowl to make the marinade (BBQ sauce).
Reserve about 2 tablespoons of marinade and set it aside. Rub the pork with the rest of the marinade in a large bowl or baking dish. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or at least 8 hours. Cover and store the reserved marinade in the fridge as well.
When you are ready to cook, combine the reserved marinade with the honey and hot water. This will be the sauce you’ll use for basting the pork.
Braai the meat over hot coals or roast in a pre-heated oven at 250°C.
If using an oven, place the pork on a rack, leaving as much space as possible between pieces. Pour 1 ½ cups water into the pan below the rack. This prevents any drippings from burning or smoking as we are cooking at high heat. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C
after 10 minutes.
Turn the pork every 5 to 10 minutes and baste until cooked through.
Great served with rice and greens or on noodles.
Notes
To make it look like it came from a restaurant, you'll need to add some red food colouring, but... don't 😀