Cha Cha Char Siu, Chinese BBQ Pork!
The ultimate comfort food is the food you ate as a kid. In our family, my Dad was the cook. The last 30 minutes of his workday found him running around Chinatown for dinner groceries. He haggled with the fishmonger for the freshest catch of the day or gossiped with the store clerks as he picked through piles of fresh snap peas. Some of my favorites included steamed fish with soy, ginger and onions, stir-fried beef with pickled vegetables, and scrambled eggs with bbq pork.
My Cooking Roots, from Gung Gung and BaBa
Dad (BaBa) cooked for fun, but for my grandfather (Gung Gung) it was his livelihood. He worked as a chef at the Original Joe’s on Broadway and also at the legendary Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel. To this day I have no idea what he cooked at these iconic San Francisco restaurants. Every meal he made for me and my brother was rooted in Chinese comfort food. We ate dinner with him a couple of times a week right before he went off to work.
In his tiny room above Jackson Cafe in Chinatown, he would spread the China Daily on the table, pull out chopsticks, rice bowls, and a tiny shot glass. The shot glass held a “digestive” he would swig right before eating. He cooked in a communal kitchen down the hall. A well-worn oval metal tray, a remnant from his restaurant days, sat wedged between the burners and wall at the ready to ferry our meal to his room.
We usually sat waiting, impatiently, stomachs growling and legs swinging in anticipation, as he made the long trek back to his room. As we ate he regaled us with stories from his childhood. We feasted on steamed pompano with black bean sauce, stir-fried greens with garlic and onions, steamed pork with fermented shrimp paste, or slices of bbq pork (char siu). My comfort food.
These days I make my own Char Siu. The marinade is adapted from a cookbook I found years ago in Chinatown, Authentic Chinese Cooking by Sharon Hoy Wong. Long out of print, it is my go-to cookbook for the down-home food of my childhood. Serve Char Siu as an appetizer, stir-fried with greens or eggs, noodle topping, or as a filling in buns. Our entire family loves the play on the sweet and salty flavor combination.
The marinade is also delicious for grilled baby back ribs.
Char Siu, Chinese BBQ Pork!
Ingredients
- 2-3 pound piece of pork shoulder cut into strips approximately 1.5 - 2" thick 3" wide, 6-7" long
- or 2 slabs of baby ribs with membrane removed
- 1- tsp. Salt 2 T sugar mixed together rub this on ribs or boneless pork shoulder and let sit for 15 minutes while making marinade.
Marinade:
- 3 T hoisin
- 2 T catsup
- 1 T honey
- 1 T soy sauce
- 1 T sherry
- 1 T oyster sauce or black bean with garlic paste
- 1/8 t 5 spice powder
- 1-2 T orange or apple juice
- 2 cloves of garlic crushed
- 2 slices ginger 1/4 inch thick each slice
Instructions
- Combine marinade ingredients and coat meat. Let marinade for 2-4 hours minimum or overnight in the fridge.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a wire rack over a baking pan. Place strips of pork on the rack and place in oven. Add 1/2 cup hot water to pan, filling to approximately 1 inch depth.
- Roast for 45-50 minutes. Turn pork over midway through.
- With about 10 minutes to go, increase temperature to 400 degrees, drizzle pork with honey and roast an additional 10 minutes to glaze the pork or pork can be transferred to a grill for the last 10 minutes.
Pork Ribs
- Place ribs on grill (underside of ribs faced down) and cook over indirect heat, (medium heat 350-400 degrees) in a covered grill for 15-20 minutes. Flip ribs over, brush with additional marinade and grill additional 15 minutes.
- To finish ribs, move ribs over direct heat and continue cooking ribs uncovered. Baste ribs with honey and flip every couple of minutes to avoid burning ribs but you do want a little bit of char for flavor and texture. Grill over medium heat additional 10 minutes. This is for baby back ribs, times will be longer for larger ribs.