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.
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.