CHAR SUI PORK

[Forvols]

Tried something new on the weber for me Char Sui pork (or boneless Chinese pork ribs) you know the boneless red pork ribs you can get at a Chinese place-- started with a pack of country style bonless pork ribs (sliced up pork butt). Made a marinade and marinated for 24hrs. Got the weber up to 500* and put on the boneless marinaded ribs. I didn't add the red food coloring to the marinade, Got a good char on the meat then moved to indirect heat and coated with sauce and turned every 15minutes for 1hr. Sides with this dish long grain brown rice, broccoli, onions, carrots and cabbage (just regular old cabbage) stir fried. Sauce recipe is the secret..used it on the meat and in the sides. First picture, letting meat warm up, 2nd pict meat on grill, 3rd pict finished product. Sweet, spicy, sour, salty, savory. Keeper recipe. Ohh smoke I picked up some hickory limbs from the yard for the smoke wood. Also once I got a good char on the meat and moved to indirect heat I lowered temp to 350.

 

[brass magnet]

WOW!!, Looks like you got that one figured out!

 

[WTM]

lol, this thread is useless without the sauce recipe. looks good though.

 

[GMB54]

Ive made it many times from scratch. No red food coloring is needed with the right amounts of soy, sugar/honey and temperature.

Awesome stuff in fried rice but i dont make that one with as much sugar.

Japanese version made from a rolled pork belly. Koreans make something similar too with trotters.

 

[GMB54]

This is a tad over complicated but the results were excellent. Red fermented bean curd and Chu Hou paste can be very hard to find but they are THE classic ingredients for Cha Siu depending on the region in China. Red fermented bean curd especially, nothing can replace it. Pepper flakes are somewhat optional but you will hardly detect the heat and they add some nice color too....Try to find good Chinese 5 Spice or make your own. I STRONGLY prefer mine made with sichuan peppercorns and most off the shelf brand dont include them.

2 pieces of Chinese fermented red bean curd w/ 1Tbs of the liquid (mashed)
1 Tbs Chu Hou paste
1 Tbs Hoisin sauce (2 if you cant find Chu Hou paste)
1 Tbs Oyster sauce (LKK Premium or any brand with oyster extract as the first ingredient)
4 Tbs Soy sauce
1 Tbs Dark soy sauce (LKK Premium Dark)
2 Tbs Shaoxing wine (red preferably)
2 Tbs Honey
2 Tbs of sugar
1/2 Tsp Five-spice powder
1/4 Tsp White pepper
5-6 Cloves of minced garlic
1 Tsp Ginger paste or fresh crushed
1/2 Tbs toasted sesame oil
1/2 Tbs Mild Korean pepper flakes

Heat in a pan for a few minutes and allow to cool.
Reserve some of the marinade and add more honey and Hoisin sauce to taste. This will be your basting sauce.
Marinate pork for upto 36 hours depending on the cut and thickness. Im using boneless country style ribs mostly but even pork steaks work well.

 

[Forvols]

lol, this thread is useless without the sauce recipe. looks good though.

1C low sodium soy sauce
1/3C brown sugar
1/3C maple syrup (or honey)
1/2C Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce (or Ketchup)
2TBS hoisin sauce
2tsp minced garlic
2TBS sriracha sauce
1tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp onion powder
2caps of apple cider vinegar
1tsp Chinese 5 spice (if you have it, I didn't so left it out)
.5-1tsp red food coloring (I didn't use it

Mix all ingredients in a non reactive pot and heat over low-med heat (just get a slight boil). Taste it and adjust flavors to your liking (I added more garlic, pepper flakes, hoisin). No need to make this boil hard just get everything dissolved, taste, adjust flavors and take off the heat. Put the pork in a zip lock bag and pour in 1C of the sauce,(save remaining sauce for glazing) squeeze out the air and seal the bag. Swish the meat around and make sure it covered. Put the bag in a bowl (in case it leaks) and into the fridge for 4-24hrs(I went 24hrs). Shake the bag up and turn it over whenever you are in the fridge. End of marinade period, remove meat from the bag and shake off excess sauce put on a rack platter whatever for 30mins(discard the marinade and bag) then grill start on direct heat to char, then move to indirect heat for glazing and finish cooking. I glazed and turned every 10-15min for 1hour. Get meat to an internal temp of 185 or so.

 

[GMB54]

LKK makes a Cha Siu sauce that isnt too bad although it has dye in it. Add honey and some Hoisin to it and its ok. Ends up very close to Chinese take out. Thin it with rice wine for the marinade. Their Hoisin and Premium Oyster sauce is what i always get too.

 

[Forvols]

Good looking pork GMB54. :super:

 

[GMB54]

Tell you what, if that was your first attempt you did far better than i did It took me several attempts to get it right. By right i mean authentic without dye added. The stuff at most Chinese takeout isnt quite the same and they all use dye.

One trick i found to get that nice red layer is to "sweat" the pork with just sugar for a couple hours on a rack. Sprinkle a little on all sides and just let the meat rest. Then add your marinade. As the meat cooks the sugar will caramelize to a nice red IN the meat.....Ancient Chinese Secret

BTW if you have a large Asian market close enough i can post pics of the exact brands and ingredients i use. Lee Kum Kee is a pretty popular brand but some of their stuff is just average. A few items are exceptional like their premium oyster sauce and some of their soy sauce. Kikkoman reduced sodium tamari is also high on my list if you want to get the sodium down a little. It taste more like real soy sauce without the wheat. They offer a gluten free reduced sodium too i think. Its basically tamari also.

Its not that i care about gluten but traditionally Chinese soy sauce was not made with wheat. It was just soybeans and some rice. The Japanese added wheat to the mix so it taste different than good Chinese soy sauce. Now days many brands add wheat, even the Chinese.

 

[WTM]

thanks for the recipes guys. i think that is what this forum has been missing for the last couple of years. i need to get to cooking more like i used to. i love americanized chinese food and pretty good at cooking it. i was in fu cheng china once setting up a 600 amp generator test board for a company and i didnt like the food there. it basically consisted of noodles, bland rice and some sort of fish the speared from a lake in front of the hotel and an overcooked omlette for breakfast. we didnt get to go out very much. basically our handlers escorted us to and from the factory. it was a strange place back then. you would have the industrial build up in one area and the other people in other areas were pushing carts on dirt roads and men in little fishing boats catching fish.

i havent had those kind of ribs in 20 years. the restaurants around here dont serve them.

 

[Forvols]

Next time I'm going to give this a try with some boneless/skinless chicken thighs, also a pork loin would be great too.

 

[GMB54]

Ive made it with chicken thighs and its great too. A variation of that is called 3 cup chicken in China. Not quite the same but the flavor is close. It all sort of falls under what the Chinese call "red cooking"

And whole thighs too

Pork loin is a bit lean for it. Try a rolled Boston butt roast. Open it up if you can or use an injector and put some sauce inside or just roll up your own.

 

[Mud Creek]

Looks great!!

 

[Forvols]

DADGUM that's some good looking stuff. I never made it to China, but have traveled ALOT courtesy of the US NAVY. My spin on what I thought the recipe was...and some variations from around the world, that usually equaled a late night meat stand and meat on a stick..though at times I did have a good sit down dinner with Char Sui pork and sides...Keep em coming fellas. Worst I ever had little meat stand operator kept saying no beef..goat...no chicken..goat...no pork...goat...so got the goat..n rice at 3am --- 5am and the next day running off at both ends..

ETA: NOT SAYING I WONT EAT GOAT..just saying my choice and location was probably not the smartest..

 

[Forvols]

thanks for the recipes guys. i think that is what this forum has been missing for the last couple of years. i need to get to cooking more like i used to. i love americanized chinese food and pretty good at cooking it. i was in fu cheng china once setting up a 600 amp generator test board for a company and i didnt like the food there. it basically consisted of noodles, bland rice and some sort of fish the speared from a lake in front of the hotel and an overcooked omlette for breakfast. we didnt get to go out very much. basically our handlers escorted us to and from the factory. it was a strange place back then. you would have the industrial build up in one area and the other people in other areas were pushing carts on dirt roads and men in little fishing boats catching fish.

i havent had those kind of ribs in 20 years. the restaurants around here dont serve them.

GMB54--- NAILED IT...give it a try either recipe..you will like it, I think my is more Americanized his more authentic. Pair with some rice and veggies..bam

 

[GMB54]

Get the LKK char siu sauce i posted, some Hoisin and i like a little oyster sauce in it too. Add a little honey and it will taste pretty much like the ribs and BBQ pork at Chinese takeout places. Any white wine will work including cooking sherry. I eat mine with kimchi and steamed rice but the rice is topped with a Japanese rice seasoning called furikake. Its mostly flakes of dried seaweed. Some have a little dried and smoked fish. (Katsuo Fumi Furikake)

This stuff is highly addictive on rice.

 

[BamaProud]

Me so hungry.

 

[GMB54]

DADGUM that's some good looking stuff. I never made it to China, but have traveled ALOT courtesy of the US NAVY. My spin on what I thought the recipe was...and some variations from around the world, that usually equaled a late night meat stand and meat on a stick..though at times I did have a good sit down dinner with Char Sui pork and sides...Keep em coming fellas. Worst I ever had little meat stand operator kept saying no beef..goat...no chicken..goat...no pork...goat...so got the goat..n rice at 3am --- 5am and the next day running off at both ends..

ETA: NOT SAYING I WONT EAT GOAT..just saying my choice and location was probably not the smartest..

I dont know if you like curry but goat is awesome in curry. Its popular in both Jamaica and India in curry. There is a Mexican dish called Birria. Its goat braised in a kinda spicy chili pepper mix. Its one of my favorite authentic Mexican dishes. Flavor to me is similar to venison. Not like lamb at all. Its fairly easy to make and you could use beef chuck roast if you really wanted.

If you want to try a really good type of Chinese red cooking, use very meaty pork belly with the skin on(more like a pork side). Its called Hong Shao Rou and Dong Po Rou(fancier version). Once its braised long enough it just melts in your mouth. This is seriously one of the best authentic Chinese dishes i have ever eaten.

I like some other spices in mine (star anise/5spice/mildish chiles or powder) but this one is simple. The key to this is carefully caramelizing the sugar in some oil before adding the pork. You dont need a clay pot. You can just add the boiled/fried pork belly to the caramelized sugar, give it a stir and then add the rest of the ingredients. As the liquid reduces it will turn more red and thicken.

https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/hong-s ... ork-belly/

Its really cool when you get this one right.

 

[BamaProud]

Goat is common on the taco trucks around southwest TN.

 

[GMB54]

Lets see how close i get it to looking correct. Flavor is spot on. Its always the color thats tuff.