Category Archives: pork

Home-made Char Siew

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Char Siew, chinese, pork, recipes

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A good day for me is usually one involving quality time with the kids, exercise, and some tinkering in the kitchen.  At the moment, I’m still high on endorphins from this evening’s run. I had a pleasant and fruitful day with the kids, and the Char Siew we made for dinner turned out exceptionally well.  So it’s been a good day.

I first made Char Siew some years back, when it was part of the menu at a family dinner I cooked to celebrate my mom-in-law’s birthday.  Back then, I only had a table-top oven which was relatively small in size. But it was a good microwave-convection combination oven, which in those days didn’t come cheap.  It was my first oven, and I have fond memories of learning how to bake and roast with it.  I’m glad it’s gotten a new lease of life in another household with someone who also enjoys cooking.  But I digress.

I remember wondering how I should make Char Siew, then looking for a recipe online.  That’s when I discovered Lily’s Wai Sek Hong, which is a useful resource for Chinese and Asian recipes.  This Char Siew recipe was originally based on Lily’s recipe, but I’ve experimented with it and tweaked it as I went along so the quantities and method aren’t the same anymore.  I actually think it’s pretty easy to make, and once you can do this, you probably won’t want to buy char siew from the neighbourhood roast meats stall again.

There are two ways you could cook this: If you want very succulent Char Siew, but without the charring, you can simply place it in a tray (line tray with foil first, otherwise it’ll be hell to clean) in the oven at 220 degrees celsius, first covered in foil for 15 mins, then remove the foil, return to the oven for a further 15 minutes, then glaze it and return to the oven for a further 12 minutes or until it the pork appears shiny.  The Char Siew turns out really juicy and tender this way, but you don’t really get any charred bits.

If you like it charred, then place the pork on wire rack fitted over a roasting pan (again, line pan with foil), add some water into the pan (about 1cm depth) and just roast on 230 degrees celsius covered with foil for 10 minutes, then, remove foil, glaze and continue to roast (uncovered) for another 20 minutes, checking to ensure it doesn’t burn.

I prefer the first method, as the meat retains much more moisture, and because the marinade and glaze don’t get burnt off as in the case with the second method, there’s much more flavour as well.  What I’m posting is the first method, but if you like your Char Siew charred, you could try the second method I’ve mentioned.

Ingredients

800g pork shoulder or pork loin (or tell your butcher you’re making char siew)

For Seasoning:
3 tbs Hoisin sauce
1.5 tsp garlic powder (or finely-chopped garlic)
3 tsp soya sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tbs Hua Teow Chiew (Chinese Wine)
3/4 tsp Five Spice Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cracked black pepper

For Glaze:
1.5 tbs dark soya sauce
1.5 tbs honey
1.5 tbs cooking oil

Method

Mix all seasoning ingredients together and marinade pork in it for about 1-2 hours.
Preheat oven to 220 degrees celsius.
Place pork in a tray (line tray with foil first) together with all the marinade and cover tray with foil, then put in the oven for 15 mins at 220 degrees celsius.
Remove the foil covering and return to oven for a further 15 minutes.
Mix glaze ingredients together in a bowl and brush glaze all over pork thoroughly, then return to oven for a further 12 minutes or until the pork appears shiny.
Let stand for 20-30 minutes before cutting into slices and serving.

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Tau Yew Bak with An Identity Crisis

09 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Chinese home-style cooking, pork, recipe, Tau Yew Bak

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This is a dish I have always taken for granted. My maternal grandmother and aunts used to cook it, and  my mom cooks it too.  It’s always been just another one of our home-style dishes.

In my family, we refer to it as Si Yew Bak. In Teochew, which is the dialect of my maternal grandparents, dark soya sauce is referred to as si yew, whereas in Hokkien, it is tau yew. Bak means “meat” in both Teochew and Hokkien.  As this is actually more of a Hokkien dish, it is more commonly known as Tau Yew Bak.

It now occurs to me that this Si Yew/Tau Yew conflict speaks of my own identity crisis over my dialect group.  I am officially Hokkien, because my Dad’s father was Hokkien.  However, my late Mama (my Dad’s mother) was Teochew. She spoke Teochew to us. My Dad’s father had passed on by the time I was born.  As a result, I never had to learn to speak Hokkien properly.  And any Hokkien I try to speak usually comes across sounding more like Teochew.

Anyway, my version of Tau Yew Bak is actually sweeter than my mom’s. It’s really easy to do, and it’s always been a hit with friends with whom I’ve shared either the dish itself or its recipe.  Very kid-friendly too – my kids never complain about eating steamed white rice when its doused in the gravy.

Ingredients

500g pork belly, cut into 1 inch x 1/2 inch pieces
1.5 whole garlic, last layer of skin left on, and tops sliced off
2 tbs sugar
4 tbs good quality dark soya sauce
1.5 cups water
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
2 star anise (optional)
2 boiled eggs, shelled (optional)
1 tau kwa (optional)
Salt

Method

Rub salt over pork and rinse off.
In a small wok or saucepan, melt sugar on low heat until caramelised then add dark soya sauce and water (be careful not to let the sugar burn and turn bitter).
Add pork, garlic, cinnamon and star anise, bring to a boil and simmer 30 minutes.
You may add the boiled eggs and tau kwa at this stage, and continue to simmer until pork has softened, turning eggs and tau kwa midway if they are not completely submerged in the gravy.
Add salt if necessary.
Serve with steamed white rice.

Serves 4.

Note: This dish actually tastes better when it’s cooked the day before.  To spice it up a little, you may add a dried chilli or 2 into the pot together with the pork and other ingredients.

Pork Chops with Garlic Herb Crust

23 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by in pork, Pork Chops, recipes

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Today my Dad brought me a 4kg Angus Ribeye Roll and 4.5kg worth of French-cut lamb racks.  My heart almost palpitated with excitement as I opened up the bag to take a look at them.  Beautiful!  They are now parked in the fridge together with the 6kg turkey which is thawing.  One would think I am planning to feed 40.  But it’s actually closer to 20.  Can’t wait to start cooking!
I also learnt something today. You know, other than the Hainanese kind., the H and I are not fans of pork chops. Unlike beef, pork has to be eaten well-done, so it seems that most of the time, pork chops turn out to be somewhat tough.  However, today I discovered that marinating pork chops in a milk brine for an hour before cooking will make them juicy and tender.
As I said, the kids are into potatoes at the moment, so I’ve been thinking up mains to go with potatoes.  They were so taken by the Chicken Cordon Bleu we had the other day that they were hankering for more.  So I thought I’d do some breaded pork chops today.

Breaded Pork Chops with Sauteed Potatoes and Chinese Greens

I used the Pork Chops and Applesauce recipe at epicurious.com, but I had neither apples nor bottled applesauce so we had it neat, with sliced potatoes sauteed in butter, and Chinese greens stir fried with olive oil.  I knew from the recipe that the pork chops would be flavourful because of the garlic, rosemary and thyme which went into the breadcrumb mix, but we were really very pleasantly surprised at how juicy and tender the meat was.  I think we can attribute this to the milk brine bath.

I had to tweak the recipe since we were only having 6 pork chops.  I also used dried breadcrumbs (panko) instead of fresh, and I upped the minced garlic (doubled it) because that’s what I always do – up the garlic.  I also felt the need to omit the butter because, based on the thickness of the pork chops, I thought it would be difficult to get the meat cooked through without burning the butter and blackening the crust.  The cooking time had to be adjusted as well – I cooked them for about 6 minutes on each side on medium heat, which was perfect.  So in the end, this was it:

Recipe for Pork Chops

Ingredients
2 cups milk
3 tsp salt
6 (1/2 inch) pork chops
2 cups panko (dried breadcrumbs)
2 tbs minced garlic
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp dried, crumbled
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried, crumbled
3-4 tbs olive oil

Method
Marinate Pork Chops:
Stir milk and 2 tsp salt in a shallow dish, then add pork chops.  Marinate, covered and chilled, turning over once, for at least 1 hour.

Fry Pork Chops: 
Stir together bread crumbs, garlic, rosemary and thyme, and 1 tsp salt in shallow bowl.
Lift pork chops from milk one at a time, letting excess drip off and dredge in breadcrumbs, lightly patting crumbs to help adhere, then transfer to a tray lined with baking paper, arranging in one layer.
Heat 2-3 tbs olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, then saute pork chops in 2 or 3 batches, without crowding, turning over once, until golden brown and just cooked through, approximately 6 minutes per side. (add more oil to skillet if necessary).