Jumping into the bandwagon of making Char Siu

Good morning everyone. Never have I thought that I would take another 6 months to pen down another recipe in here. This recipe surfaced because of my little one, Little M. 

One day while I was watching Singapore Home Cooks (SHC) Live, Little M joined in. As any curious toddlers, he loves to press any emojis. But little did I know that this little monster (didnt realise M is also for monster) took my phone, and typed +1 during SHC Live. 

He was giggling when I told him to return me my phone. I panicked when I saw a +1 in the comments. OMG. "What have you done???" I told Little M. That was how I got a hold of pork jowl. 

SHC Live ships for free for purchases of $80 and above. Truth be told is it is so easy to exceeded $80. Haha. Now I have beef combo, pork jowl and iberico bellota from my first SHC Live buy. Most of which I am not sure how to cook it. My second purchase is almost $250! Yes addictive to watch and +1/+2 on SHC Live. 

Back to this pork jowl, after googling on "How to cook pork jowl" for a few days and read through many recipes of people who have prepared this dish before. I have decided to jump into the bandwagon of using pork jowl to make char siu. 

I sieved out the "essential" ingredients and added some of my own to make it more aromatic. Making sure I have all the ingredients on hand, I marinated this char siu. 

Outcome was surprisingly good. Mr W said it tasted just like those served in high end Chinese restaurants. His words not mine and this husband of mine is very picky when comes to food. So I guess this newly discovered recipe is a keeper.

Here is the recipe and step by step process. Do note that you may alter the amount towards your own liking as everyone has different taste. Cheers!

Ingredients (Serve 2 to 3)

1 pork jowl (around 300g to 400g)

Marinate 
Wet ingredients
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp shaoxing cooking wine
2 tbsp charsiu sauce (I bought Lee Kum Kee 李锦记)
1/2 tbsp five spice powder 五香粉
1/2 cup honey 

Dry ingredients
1 knob of ginger
3 cloves of garlic
1 shallot


Method

1. Bring the pork jowl out and leave it in room temperature for about 5 to 10 minutes.
This is to allow the meat to sweat out the coldness or any excess water. 

2. While waiting for the pork, finely chopped or minced the dry ingredients. Set aside. 

3. Combine all the ingredients in the wet ingredients. Mixed it well. 

4. Add the chopped/minced ingredients into the wet ingredients mixture. Stir well and set the marinate aside. 
I use a huge bowl because I like to massage the meat in the sauce. 

5. Using a few pieces of kitchen towels, pat dry the piece of pork jowl. Use a fork and prick the piece of pork front and back. 
This will allow the pork to absorb the marinate and be more flavourful. 

6. Place the pork into the bowl of marinate and massage it. Thereafter, I place the marinated pork and the rest of the marinate into a Glad Food Storage bag. Squeeze out the air in the bag and seal it. Place the Glad bag in the fridge.
This is personal preference. To reduce messiness, you can pour the marinate in any food storage bag and place the meat inside. Seal it up and massage the pork all over. 

7. Marinate the pork for 8 to 12 hours. 
For pork jowl, a marinate for 6 to 8 hours is suffice as this piece of meat is thinner.
For pork shoulder butt, marinate for 12 hours or more as it is thicker.

8. Preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 175 degree celsius.

9. Take the marinated pork out from the fridge, leave it aside while waiting for the oven to pre heat. 

10. Using the broiled function, place the pork on the rack like this.

Remember to place a tray below to allow hold any excess sauce or oil that will drip down. This is for easy cleaning.

11. Broil the pork at 175 degree celsius for 10 minutes.

12. Pour out the rest of the marinate in a bowl and set aside. 

13. After 10 minutes, take out the tray and use brush to apply the marinate on the pork. Return the tray back to the oven and continue for another 5 minutes. 

14. Bring out the tray again, turn the pork and brush the marinate on the pork. Return the tray back to the oven and broil for 15 minutes. 

15. Once done, bring out the tray and allow it to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing it. 

16. While waiting to chomp down the char siu, using a saucepan to bring the remaining marinate to a boil. This can be a sauce on your sliced char siu and rice.
Bear in mind that in this marinate, there are minced/chopped garlic, shallots and ginger. You may want to sieve out the boiled sauce to have a smooth consistent texture instead of a lumpy one. 

17. Serve it while it's hot. 

I hope you will enjoy my humble Char Siu recipe.