Char Sao (Barbeque Pork / 叉烧)

The cooking heat is on :) After the Crispy Roasted Pork, we are asking Yoki for the Char Sao (Barbeque Pork / 叉烧) recipe instead and she is so nice enough to actually show us how to make it. (Thank you so much Yoki, really am!)

This is much more complex then making the roasted pork for me but still, I am so eager to try it out. So after cooking and marinated the pork, there goes the pork into the wok and braised. Ta da ….. that’s my first Char Sao!! It does look a bit pale from the inside and because I am not using the red colouring, so its colour does look a bit ‘darker’ instead of the normal bright red outer layer :) I also love the sweeter version of Char Sao so I did add in extra 4 tablespoon of sugar into my Char Sao before cooking :P The outcome is nice and sweet although not really taste 100% like Char Sao LoL. However, Hubby and I managed to finish the entire dish all by ourselves that night. And also because this round my Char Sao does taste a bit salty then usual so I didn’t give it to Angel. Maybe she has to wait for my 2nd attempt, yes again :) All in all, it was surely a very appetizing dish to have and I will make it our regular dish from now on :)

Thank you Yoki for sharing such a nice recipe with us, I love it so much and I will work harder to get the recipe right :)

(Translated from Yoki’s recipe)

Char Sao Recipe

600g – 700 gram pork, cut into 3 cm wide strips
- loosen meat by hitting the meat with the back of the knife

Sauce
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
4 tablespoon oyster sauce
4 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoon Siu-Heng cooking wine
1 tablespoon rock sugar (melted with a bit of hot water)
2 teaspoon five spice powder
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 small bowl of water

Thickening
1 teaspoon corn flour + 1 tablespoon of water

Method of cooking the sauce:
1) Heat wok with 2 tablespoon of oil, stir fried garlic until fragrant
2) add in all ingredient for the Sauce, stir occasionally in low heat until boiling
3) add in Thickening gradually, keep stirring until sauce is thicken.
4) Marinate the pork meat with the ready sauce for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight.

Method of doing Char Sao
1) Heat wok with 1 tablespoon of oil, fried pork until fragrant
2) Add in a small bowl of water, simmer in low heat until the sauce is thicken, (may take out to serve as char sao sauce)
3) Turn on high heat to darken the meat (until slightly burned)
4) Slice and ready to serve


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2 days later, I am craving for the Char Sao dish again so I went to buy another piece of pork for my 2nd attempt. When I went home, only I found out that I have ran out of the cooking wine and fish sauce ….. oh boy!!! What to do …… so after searching high and low in the kitchen, I found a bottle of ready made Char Sao Sauce which has been sitting in my fridge for don’t know how long, must be hubby who bought this without telling me! So since I can’t follow Yoki’s version due to shortage of ingredients, I use the instant sauce instead. According to the recipe at the back of the sauce, I must baked my Char Sao instead of braising. So here I go, baking my Char Sao in the kitchen watching closely in front of my oven and ta da ……… the outcome is just as nice!! Although it still doesn’t taste 100% similar to those Char Sao I had in those Wantan Mee stalls but the texture and out look are close enough! Furthermore, our own cooking is surely much healthier without the colourings and the portion is much bigger as well! The meat is also very moist and tender as compare to those we had in the restaurant because it just come out of fresh from the oven.

Hubby loves it, I love it and so does our little Angel. She even pointing at the Char Sao before we had our meal indicating that she wants to eat those LoL I told you how picky my little missy was and still is when it comes to her food, basically she has turned into a carnivore at this point! Surprisingly today for this particular dish, I do not have to introduce much to her and by instinct, she knows that’s her favourite meat dish (although the colour is so dark) and voluntarily hinting me that she wants to try them way before we started our dinner! LoL