叉燒/ Cha Shao/ Cha Siu

Today's the last day of our 4-day weekend and since JLo has been wanting to show off his fried glutinous rice, we decided that today would be the day (to be updated later). He calls this his Canto-Taiwanese "hybrid" 油飯 since the main ingredient was Cantonese Cha-Shao. So being the great girlfriend that i am, i got up at noon and started making the Cha-Shao that i've marinated overnight-- sacrificing my precious study time, sigh! So if you've ever been to Taiwan or hong kong, you've must've passed by tons of 燒臘 (siu mei) stores where they hang up their perfectly cut and roasted meat outside their shop. I've always thought that they had some crazy, complicated way of producing such beautifully glazed Cha-shao so I was quite doubtful of the online recipes that I've found. I mean, if it was so easy to make, then why are there so many 便當 stores in Taiwan, right? So I popped the meat in the oven, basted it every 15 minutes, made a simple glaze, cut it up... and vuala! A plate of perfectly roasted, crimson lined Cha-Shao... just like that! Not disappointing at all for such a simple recipe.

叉燒/ Cha Shao/ Cha Siu
from yahoo answers-TW
INGREDIENTS:

• 600g pork, cut into a 2'' strips
  
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce (i used bean sauce 豆瓣醬 instead)
  
• 1 tablespoon cooking wine
• 1/4 cup honey or maltose (i didn't have either so i melted sugar in a little bit of water)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 cube red pickled tofu (紅豆腐乳)
• 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
• red food coloring (optional)
  
  
• Honey and water (mixed in a 3:1 ratio) (once again melted sugar in a little bit of water)
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Use a fork and poke the pork all over, set aside [picture 2].
   
2. Make the marinade by mixing the rest of the ingredients together (except the honey water) until well blended [picture 1].
3. Marinade the pork overnight [picture3].
4. The next day, lay the pork on a greased rack and spread foil on the bottom for easier cleaning [picture 4].
5. Bake 30 minutes on each side (1 hour total) at gas mark 5 (190ºC, 375ºF), basting every 10 - 15 minutes with remaining marinade [picture 5].
6. The pork should have an internal temperature of 65°C (or 160°F) when done [picture 6].
   
7. Make the glaze by mixing honey and water in a 3:1 ratio, respectively.
   
8. Glaze the pork on each side and bake for another 5 - 10 minutes [picture 7].
9. Let the pork cool down [picture 8] and cut into thin slices.

Note:
- Cut the pork into smaller strips for prettier outcome (1.5 - 2 inches).
- Even though the Cha-Shao in my pictures came out red, the color got darker as i left it out longer... no idea why.

叉燒/ Cha Shao/ Cha Siu