Char siu

Char siu, usually translated as barbecue pork, is a tasty addition to a meal and sometimes I just have char sui and rice with some pickles. Just to mix it up a bit the pickles are either kimchee or sauerkraut.

It's dead easy to do. The trick is the marinade and glaze. Here's the ingredients for the marinade. The brown powder is five spice and it's what makes the pork taste Chinese. The predominant flavour is star anise. Sechuan pepper is next and whatever the other 3 spices are they are mainly drowned out by the other 2. You can put some minced garlic in if you like. I find most of the garlic flavour disappears in the cooking though.

I never measure but if you do equal quantities of wine*, vinegar** and soy sauce and about half quantity of sesame oil***. A good dollop of honey will give the sweetness but don't overdo it or it will burn. (the gin just happens to be there but chuck some in if you want, it probably won't do any harm)


Pork fillet is best for this and it just happened to be 1/3 off in Waitrose today. The bit I'm using is about 3 quids worth. I warm the marinade to disolve the honey and put the meat into the warm marinade because it soaks in quicker. 1 hour is almost enough with warm marinade, 2 would be better and a minimum if the marinade is cold. Turn it often and make sure all the pork gets a good dose.

Take the meat out and drain it well. The best way to cook it is hanging in the oven. My oven isn't tall enough so I've halved it. It's difficult to see but it's hung by poking it through the shelf and passing a metal barbecue skewer through it. 190 is a good temperature in my oven. Let it cook for 10 minutes or until the marinade is starting to dry out, Take it out and roll the hot meat in the marinade. Put it back in the oven. Repeat. When you put it back in this time turn it so the bottom is at the top to even out the cooking. Keep an eye on it and roll in the marinade again if it starts to dry out. In total it needs about 40 minutes at 190. It should still have a bit of a spring in it when you start it cooling. If it's hard you have probably overcooked it. It will be fine, just not as juicy. Try to do better next time.


Take a couple of tablespoons of the left over marinade and mix in 2 teaspoons of sugar and a tablespoon of extra sesame oil to make a glaze and brush or spoon it over the meat while it is still hot. Some of you will be squeamish because the marinade has been in contact with the raw meat. I'm not. Make up some fresh if you want to.

Cool it on a rack, it's much easier to slice when it is completely cold and slicing it hot means it can dry out. All you need to do then is eat it.

I'm adding some of this to a lahksa tonight so I've done fairly manly slices. for eating with rice I'd probably have gone with 2mm slices.

I prefer to eat mine cold. If you go to a proper Chinese restaurant you need to ask them not to reheat it if you are not Chinese, they will assume that as a white ghost you eat your meat hot. It doesn't taste the same reheated. Likewise crispy pork. The texture and flavour is all wrong when it is reheated IMO. (the end bit and a couple of slices might be missing from this picture. Well I had to try it didn't I?

*really this should be shaosing cooking wine but I didn't have that but happened to have a cheap pinot grigio. Cider works just as well.


** if you want to be authentic go for chinese red vinegar. Or add a few drops of red colouring. The stuff you get in Chinatown is bright red.

***there's no substitute for the pure sesame oil. Make sure it says pure.