Before this, I thought that all of the little Chinese places around town had this spectacular little secret on their hands, char siu. Little did I know it would be so easy to do at home! Who knew?
I made char siu, not only because it is delectable as all get out, but to use it as an ingredient for something else. Keep your eyes open… Any guesses what’s coming next?
Char Siu
(recipe adapted from Momofuku for 2)
2 pounds pork tenderloin
3 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp hoisin sauce
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp five spice powder
1 1/2 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 inch thumb of ginger, sliced
Directions
- In a bowl, combine the honey, hoisin, soy sauce, five spice, pepper and sesame oil until uniform.
- Reserve about 1/4 of the mixture for later basting.
- Stir in the sliced garlic and ginger.
This, my dears, is a bowl full of tastiness.
- Marinate the pork tenderloin in this marinade for 8 hours or overnight.
- The next day, bring your oven up to 350° F. Roast the pork in a racked roasting dish with a little water poured across the bottom so that drippings from the char siu will not burn.
- Baste with the reserved marinated every 10 minutes or so. When the internal temperature of the pork is 160° F (~40 minutes), give the pork one last basting and then turn the oven up to broil.
- Watch for the glaze that has built up to start to bubble a little and char. This will probably take a minute or two, so watch closely. Turn and repeat for the other side.
- Remove from the oven and allow to rest, slice, and then serve!
So good! So so so good! Salty and sweet and a little bit spicy, char siu is one of those dishes that displays so well the fantastic balance of flavors you find so often in Asian cuisine. The home made result matches really well to the restaurant flavors, though mine was significantly less red than the char siu I’m used to seeing on it’s own or in char siu bao. From what I read it sounds as though the restaurant version is regularly dyed with food coloring.
I was really pleased with my results, using pork tenderloin as I did; the somewhat brining effect of the marinade kept the meat really tender and moist. Using a cut of meat with such minimal fat makes a worrying cook like me concerned about dryness, but it didn’t dry out. Maybe next time I’ll try my hand with a different cut to see what that does to the dish.
While cooking my char siu in the oven is not really true to it’s barbecued origins, it still turns out so well. Once we get our barbecue set up, I’m hoping to make it again, because I’m sure it will just be that much better.
Mr says my char siu is: Tangy, slightly spicy, melt in your mouth goodness.
This time last year: Honey Semifreddo
And the year before: No Nut Nutella