Oyster Sauce Char Siew
Sweet, savoury, fatty and sticky goodness.
Chinese have a saying: "Giving birth to a piece of Char Siew is better than giving birth to child." This just means how highly regarded Char Siew was in the Cantonese community.
"Char Siew" in Cantonese means skewer roast. And that's how it is prepared traditionally.
Ingredients
- Pork shoulder OR pork belly (skinless) 1kg - trimmed to long thick pieces. (Ask the butcher to do it, say you wanted to make "Char Siew")
Sauce ingredients:
- Shallots - 6 pcs peeled
- Garlic - 4 pcs peeled
- Fermented soy beans (Tau Cheo) - 1 heaped tbsp
- Oyster sauce - 1/2 cup
- Light soy sauce - 1/2 cup
- Raw sugar - 1/2 cup
- Honey - 1 tbsp
- 5 spice powder - 1 tsp
- Hua Teow wine - 2 tbsp
Cornstarch slurry for thickening.
Method
Mise en place
Roasted Char Siew
Roasted Char Siew
One night ahead (or at least 4 hours before cooking)
- Place all the sauce ingredients in a blender and blend till smooth.
- Place the pork in a ceramic or stainless steel bowl. Pour the blended sauce over the pork. Wrap with cling film and keep in chiller.
Roasted Char Siew
Roasted Char Siew
Roasted Char Siew
Roasting
- Preheat fan assisted oven to 180˚C (190˚C without fan).
- Place the marinated pork on a wire rack. Tip: It is good idea to line the tray with aluminum foil or there will be a nightmare to wash the baking tray. Reserve the marinade sauce.
- Position the rack in the middle of the oven and let roast for 5 minutes and glaze with the marinade sauce.
- Glaze the pork every 5 minutes till deeply caramelized on the surface and charred on the edges.
- Turn the pork over and repeat step 4 till the whole piece of pork is deeply caramelized and sticky.
- Turn off oven and let the completed Char Siew rest in the oven for another 10 minutes before slicing up.
Make the sauce
- Pour the marinade sauce into a small sauce pot.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer, Adjust taste with water (it should be overly salty and sweet at this point).
- Thicken with cornstarch slurry and pour over sliced Char Siew.
Serve with rice or noodles.