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Who here has made

Char Siu aka Cha Sew aka Chinese roast pork?
 
The recipes vary somewhat but many call for 2 hard to find items. One is Chu Hou paste its a type of bean paste and the other is red fermented bean curd. I managed to find the red fermented bean curd. It gets its "red" from red yeast rice. I use red yeast rice for making rice wine sometimes. I didn't buy it because i didn't take my notes with me to the market and i was not sure it was the right product.
 
Chu Hou paste though has eluded me at 2 Asian markets. I haven't checked the huge market in "China Town" yet but they usually have anything. I just hate to make that drive for 2 items i wont use much.
 
Quite a few versions of Char Siu marinade don't use either of these items. Its mainly sugar or honey, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, light soy sauce and dark sweet soy, The spices have usually been pretty much the same, garlic, white or black pepper and Chinese 5 spice.
 
I have
Chinese rice wine and Mirin (sweet sake)
Korean black bean paste
Korean Pepper paste
5 Spice
Hoisin sauce
Oyster sauce
Both light soy and dark sweet soy
Honey and other sugars
Annatto powder (for color)
 
 
Im thinking i can make a reasonable facsimile using what i already have. The black bean paste might work "ok" for a Chu Hou replacement and it does go very well with pork. Chinese roast pork is not normally spicy but a little Korean pepper paste might be kinda nice. The annatto should help give it the nice red color and not alter the flavor hardly at all.
 
 
Starting the marinade today
 
2 Tbs Hoisin sauce
2 Tbs Oyster Sauce
4 Tbs Reduced sodium soy sauce or 2 Tbs regular light soy sauce
4 Tbs Chinese rice wine
1 Tbs Dark sweet soy sauce
2 Tbs Honey
1 Tbs Black bean paste
1/2 Tbs toasted sesame oil
1/2 Tbs minced garlic
1/2 Tsp 5 Spice powder
1/4 Tsp ground white pepper
1/2 Tsp Anatto powder

Heat is 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 48 hours depending on the cut and thickness. Im using chops and just marinating over night.
 
Homemade 5 spice although mine has 6
 
1 Tsp fennel seeds
1 Tsp Sichuan peppercorns
1" cinnamon stick
1 Tsp whole cloves
1 Star Anise
3 AllSpice berries
 
If you look at some 5 spice blends they use black pepper instead and too much cinnamon for me. McCormics for example has no peppercorns at all but they add ginger. The blend i listed combined with McCormics or other commercial brands mellows out the cinnamon if you leave out the stick. If you dont like too much star anise leave that out too.
 
Mix 1 tsp of McCormics with the above in your grinder. I used the 5 Spice from MySpiceSage and left out the cinnamon and star anise. It was spot on perfect for my tastes.
 
Marinade needed 3 changes
1) Twice the anatto powder
2) Almost a 1/2 Tsp ginger paste. (I cracked my good Japanese ginger paste.)
3) 1 Tbs sugar
 
Chops are marinating and the wait begins.
 
Added about 2 Tbs of honey and a 1 Tbs of Hoisin to the remaining marinade. Warmed it just enough for it to mix well. I think i came super close to authentic or at least super close to the most authentic Chinese place around here. Lu Lu's restaurant in our "China Town" is about as close as it gets in these parts and the place is always packed.
 
They have stuff you wont see at the typical Americanized Chinese restaurants. The Dim Sum brunch on weekends is flat out killer.
http://www.luluseafood.com/menu/dinner/
 
Not as red as i hoped but its damn tasty. Served it up with rice, kohlrabi/radish kimchi and nappa kimchi.
P1020453_zpsqmnrd5pp.jpg

 
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Looks great! Well you didn't use red dye I see that as a plus...
 
I think i can get the color closer if i leave out the black bean paste. The only thing i added for color was anatto powder. To get it the original way i would need to buy some red fermented bean curd and probably let is marinate longer.
 
The sweet potato in the Hoisin is the flavor ive been missing before when :red cooking". The flavor is so close to what im used to that im very happy with the results.
 
Got the "right stuff" and some boneless country style ribs. They have a better balance of fat. This one is a bit more complicated than it probably needs to be but here goes.
 
Char Siu #2
2 pieces of Chinese fermented red bean curd w/ 1Tbs of the liquid
1 Tbs Chu Hou paste
1 Tbs Hoisin sauce
1 Tbs Oyster sauce
1 Tbs Soy sauce
1 Tbs Dark soy sauce
1 Tbs Shaoxing wine (red)
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
 
Mash the fermented red bean curd and mix is all up. Warm slightly in a pan if needed to dissolve the sugar and honey.
 
This should easily be enough for several pounds of pork. I think ive got about 6lbs but half is for a Korean version with Asian pear as the base. I got a smoking deal on the pears so i could not pass them up. Im going to let this one marinate longer too
 
Korean BBQ pork version similar to Dwaeji Bulgogi. Its mostly Maangchis' recipe but i cut back on the pepper paste and omitted the soy sauce to lower the sodium and added pepper flakes.
  • ½ cup of crushed pear
  • ¼ cup onion purée
  • 6 cloves of minced garlic
  • ½ ts of minced ginger
  • 1 chopped green onion
  • 3 tbs sweet sake or mirin
  • 1 tbs of sugar and 1½ tbs rice syrup or honey
  • a pinch of ground black pepper
  • 2 ts of toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tbs hot pepper paste
  • 1 tbs pepper flakes
  • 1 tbs Hoisin sauce
Reserve some with additional honey for basting. Im going to run mine through a Nutribullet to get it as smooth as possible.
 
The marinade tasted so good i use the entire 6.29lbs of country style ribs. Color looks better. I had to sample the 2 hard to find ingredients. Both have a slightly similar flavor. Almost like Hoisin but more savory. I can see why many of the authentic recipes call for these two.
 
Today im going to try an experiment. It will be a fusion of flavors and cooking techniques. Hong Shao Rou meet Char Siu, I didn't cook all the marinated pork i had so im going to try braising aka "red cooking" the rest. While its normally made with pork side or belly i think this will work ok too.
 
Additions will include some pepper flakes and a little rice vinegar for some tang. Brown the pork, caramelize some sugars and stew it until liquid is reduced.
 
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