Home-roasted Char siu (叉燒)

Roasted BBQ pork

(for 60)

This is a classic Cantonese BBQ meat that is super juicy, sticky and sweet! It's always been a favourite and a quick fix, but now it's getting increasingly expensive at the Chinese butchers! We decided to try to make our own as we were preparing for the Ninja noodle bar, which meant making enough for 60+ people and that would just end up too expensive! 

This was quite the adventure as I scoured the internet to work out how to roast it in our own Sydney apartment electric oven, nothing compared to the awesome commercial fire-ovens you can hang the meat in. After a night of fiddling and me complaining that it wasn't legit or awesome unless we were able to hang the meat and get equal heat on all sides, Paul came up with an ingenious contraption so that we could hang it off our standard metal rack trays at home... 

The recipe is a bit of a cheat as we used Lee Kum Kee's Char siu marinade from the jar, but given that we didn't have time to try it out beforehand, we thought we'd go with the safe option. Next time I'm going to this (in smaller quantities) experimenting with our own home-made char-siu marinade - i have read it's a combination of hoisin, oyster and ground bean sauce... next time!

Prep time: 20 min

Cooking time: 1hr

Ingredients

4.5kg pork neck, cut into 15cm x 7cm slices (though we probably only needed 3.5kg)

3 jars Char-siu marinade

4 tsp five spice

6 cloves garlic

1/2 C water

1/2 C honey

1/2 C water

Special equipment;

Baking twine

6-8 metal skewers

large baking pan (to catch the drips)

Method

1. Marinate the pork neck with the five spice, char siu marinade, finely sliced garlic and water. Place in a plastic bag (double bag for safety from leaking!) and leave overnight.

Paul's invention 

2. Preheat the oven at 200˚C.

3. Double line a deep baking tray with foil to place under the pork.
4. Tie the baking twine through the round end of the skewer, then tie the baking twine between two parts of the metal rack. Then loosely tie another loop on the other end of the rack so that the skewer can sit into it and be locked in.

5. Thread the 1-2 pieces of pork through the skewer then place the loose end into the loop on the other end. 

NB. This is a 2-person job and you need the strong one to hold the rack!

6. Roast for 20 minutes, then baste with the remaining sauce and roast fo r another 20-25 minutes (may need longer if it's a bigger batch).

7. Baste again with the honey mixture (mix equal parts honey and water), then roast for another 5-10 minutes. 

NB. It'll burn quickly after this so make sure the meat is cooked first!

8. After you've finished, cut off the twine and slide the pork off! Let it rest for 5-10minutes before slicing.

9. Serve sliced up with vegetables and rice, or into strips for stir-fry with noodles!

Out comes the Chinese butcher knife!