Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Homemade Char Siew

This is my very first time roasting char siew. I was inspired by Camemberu when I spied hers on her blog one time. Just like her, I would never have thought that I'd ever roast char siew, but I believed her when she said it was very easy to do - just marinade and roast, and that was exactly what I did. I marinaded the meat for 12hrs and roasted it on a Sunday morning before I left for church. I removed it to cool while I was out. I thought it turned out a bit salty even though I had cut down on the tau cheo.

0.5 kg Pork Collar (if you like it juicy) or Pork Shoulder (if you like it leaner) - I used pork shoulder which the butcher told me was 'twee bak'. I also made 1kg with advice from Camemberu that there was plenty of marinade using this recipe.
250g Sugar
150g Oyster Sauce
100g Bean Paste (Taucheo or Dou Jiang) - I used 70g but might cut it down to 50g the next time
100ml Soya Sauce - possibly cut this down to 80ml
2 teaspoon Rice Wine
2 teaspoon Black Soya Sauce
I omitted the red food colouring, but you can put 1 tsp if you like.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix all the ingredients together and marinade the meat in it for at least an hour (overnight is best).

2. Roast in a moderately hot oven for half an hour, turning and basting the meat till it is cooked and slightly charred. (I used 200 deg C for 45mins - basting halfway and at the end), and then at 240 degrees for another 10 minutes for greater char.

The first dish I used my homemade char siew in was fried rice. I love fried rice with char siew and saved the sauce to be mixed in. It was yummy and the char siew didn't actually taste salty once fried with rice.

Since hubby was working late one evening, I decided to fry a simple fried rice for dinner using my homemade char siew which I cut into small cubes, some onion, garlic, peas and the remainder slices of pineapple leftover from when I made the upside down cake. I also fried two pieces of Japanese fishcake to go with it.

When I was young, I remember fried rice being made up of whatever was left in the fridge. However, these days, we tend to use fresh ingredients specially for frying it. I always loved some char siew in it, as it gives more bite to the dish.

What do you like to use as ingredients in your fried rice dish?

5 comments:

HK Choo said...

Yummers for the char-siew, shall try this soon, hopefully can save some moolah rather than getting them from Canton-I, which we just visited (again!) yesterday.

Beau Lotus 涟 said...

Hey great minds think alike. I just bought pork filet mignon to make char siu too with the aim of using it for different dishes!

Yours looked yummy!

SIG said...

Choo - If Miss Lazy says it's easy, it's easy!! And can save money yes, exactly what I thought of when I wanted to try this out.

Beau Lotus - Woohoo, gmta! What is filet mignon, what part of the animal? Is it fatty? Do you have your own recipe which u use?

Dutchess said...

D, it looks great! I used to (still do here) make my own char siew in huge quantities and then freeze it for other dishes like pau, wan ton mee etc. I used pork filet because I like my char siew lean. Instead of grilling in the oven, I fried mine in a wok until the meat absorbed all the marinade and gets crispy around the edges. I find the char siew turns out more succulent than grilling in the oven.

Beau Lotus 涟 said...

SIG, I've blogged about my char siu a few years ago http://beaulotus.blogspot.com/2007/02/char-siu-barbecued-pork-noodles.html

Filet mignon is pork filet with almost no fat on it. Hub likes this cut of the pork so I usually make my char siu with it.

My char siu is never red and I suppose that it is due to my taucheo which is dark brown. Yours is so nice and red though.