BBQ Pork (Char Siu) - The Recipe

I've actually had quite a few people asking for the BBQ Pork Recipe I did awhile ago. Now, I don't mind sharing my recipes, but the problem is, I don't measure anything. My cooking style is very similar to Jamie Oliver's if not more erratic. Its a pinch of this, a shake of that, a 2 blobs of this, a shietload of garlic and add "enough" liquid to combine. So as my workmates going away present, I sat down and tried to work out what is a "recipe" for the BBQ Pork. I've never really tried this recipe, and I probably never will. But in my mind, its the closest to the quantities I *think* I put in...

Marinade:
1kg pork neck cut into strips
Lots of chinese BBQ Sauce - 1/2 cup or Hoisin (1/3 Cup as its a much stronger sauce)
Sherry or other alcohol - 1/4 cup? (Enough to loosen the bbq sauce)
Five spice powder - shietloads! 1 heaped tablespoon
1 tsp salt
10 tsp sugar
1/2 bulb of garlic
Honey or Maltose to glaze

Basically you need enough marinade to cover all the meat.

TIP: I always make my marinade first so I can taste test it and made adjustments before adding the raw meat. (Of course, I know lots of people who taste the marinade that has raw meat sitting in it...)

Marinate overnight (I had mines marinating for 24hrs )

Bake on a rack and using a tray to catch all the drippings. Add a little water to the tray to stop it burnin. Bake for approx 45mins at 180 (Time will vary depending on the size of the meat). Baste with the marinade throughout the whole process. 10mins before its cooked, baste with honey or Maltose and crank up the temperature. Once its nice and golden with little burnt black bits on the corner, then its all good to go!

Serve on a plate of steaming hot rice and boiled veggies. Drizzle with soya sauce or the marinade/drippings (Which you boil of course!)

Lets hope someone can try it out and tell me if its any good? hahaha Here are some photos of when I made it the other week. Since I was cooking for my dad, and he insisted that I cooked it the way we used to in the restaurant, we had to fashion up a Chinese BBQ stove by creating our own hooks:


Once the BBQ Pork was almost cooked, I took them off the hook and put it onto the rack where I can glaze them properly:


Due to time constraints, I couldn't "burn" them as much as I would've liked. Damnit! Need to cook earlier next time to everyone isn't starving:


Finished product:


Damn it was good!! And no horrible added colouring staining my rice all read! Oh, and I've come up with a draft plan to build my own Chinese Charcoal BBQ Stove in the backyard specifically for making BBQ Pork and Roast Pork. Lets see when I can get off my lazy ass and actually build the stove!

SoRCook is back again!

Its been awhile since I've done any cooking. Theres been so many recipes I've wanted to try, and many things I crave that my mum either doesn't know how to cook, or doesn't want to cook it. Now its my chance! As I go home every night, I stop by the local butcher, veggie shop and asian grocery store to pick up my supplies for dinner that night. I'm trying to cook just enough for dinner, and maybe some leftovers for lunch (and some for my granny as well). So, what have I been cooking?

Shin Ramyun pork noodles

The Korean spicy noodles Shin Ramyun is my favourite hangover cure. Depending on how bad my hangover is, I would to boil the noodles in water, and once the noodle cake starts to break apart slightly, I would pour out half of the water. I then add an entire packet of the spicy soup mix to the pot and let that simmer until the noodles have absorbed most of the soup. This gives the noodles an extra spicy kick that really wakes you up. The more hungover I was, the more spicy I would make it.

For a more decent meal, I stir fried pork mince and cabbage with the soup powder that comes with the Korean spicy noodle Shin Ramyun. I let the mixture simmer for awhile so the pork absorbed all the yummy spicy sauce. Once the sauce starts to thicken up, I poured it over the cooked noodles before stirring through. This was absolutely delicious and a perfect hangover cure!

Satay Chicken, Veggies with Oyster sauce and rice

The one thing I miss the most about our family restaurant is all the restaurant food we used to eat. We never eat "restaurant food" at home. Anything we used to sell at the restaurant is basically never cooked at home. I don't know why, but I do know I miss the food a lot. And one of my favourite dishes was satay chicken. When I was working at Crows Nest, the local Chinese restaurant cooked something very similar to what we used to sell. Similar, but not the same. And now that I'm working in the city, I can't even find something remotely close.

So here's my attempt at it. And although I didn't mix up a batch of the satay sauce we used to use, this was close enough and definitely satisfied my cravings. The veggies were gently steamed and the oyster sauce was drizzled ontop. I know that looks like a lot of sauce, but I had a lot more veggies on the side.

Hokkien Mee

In 2 1/2 weeks time, I can finally go to Singapore and visit my favourite hawker stall for their Hokkien Mee. But I can't wait 2 1/2 weeks. I wasn't paying attention when I cooked this and accidentally made it too thick. And I chose to use a thinner noodle. I also didn't have any Ketjap Manis, so I used a lot of dark soy. I wasn't as dark in colour as a proper Hokkien Mee, but GOD THIS TASTED GOOD!! I even surprised myself! The sauce is rich and comforting. The sauce is caramelised and so moreish! I can't wait to make this again! I might actually go and buy a bottle of Ketjap Manis next time to make this properly. It tasted almost like the real thing! I just wished I had some pickled green chillis to go with it. MmMm and good thing I made extra to take to work, because this will definitely taste better tomorrow! I can't wait!!

Easy Peasy Peanut Butter Cookies

Because of my Niece's intolerence to gluten, dairy and eggs, I've been obsessed with finding recipes that don't require 20 odd ingredients just to make something half decent and edible. I eventually stumbled across the world's easiest peanut butter cookies. Actually, easiest cookies ever. Unless you are cutting the dough from a tube.

Easy Peasy Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter (I like crunchy)
1 cup sugar
1 egg (Chicken or duck)

That's it. Mix all ingredients together. Roll or spoon onto a baking sheet. Using a fork where the prongs have been dipped into sugar, press onto the cookie dough in a cross format. The granulated sugar will stop the fork from sticking to the dough and also gives it a crunchy top.

Pop into a preheated oven for 12-15mins on 180 degrees. Cool on a rack and enjoy.

You can spice the cookies up by adding extra nuts for more crunch. I also put about 1/2 - 2/3 of the sugar as I don't like my cookies so sweet.

MMMmmm cookies...