Char sui (Chinese barbecue sauce)
November 19, 2009 • Hello. I am currently out of the country and unable to respond to comments and e-mails. Rest assured, however, that future posts have been scheduled so new recipes will go live almost everyday during my absence. I'll be back soon with lots of stories and photos. Ciao for now! ~ ConnieMy husband came home last night with a kilo of pork tenderloin and I knew I was going to cook them a la Chinese asado. You know, the thinly sliced pork served as an appetizer in Chinese restaurants. These reddish rimmed and highly seasoned meat is served as a stand alone appetizer or as part of the cold meat platter. In the latter case, it is served with duck or chicken, pickled seaweeds, century eggs and suckling pig.
The marinade for the pork is called char sui sauce. You can buy char sui sauce in jars or you can make your own. My char sui turned out great but I should have grilled the meat over lower heat. The marinade contains a lot of sugar which burns fast. To make sure that the pork gets cooked through without too much charring on the surface, keep the heat down.
The basic ingredients for making char sui sauce are garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce and sugar. Some recipes include black bean paste and red food color.
Here’s my version. For a kilo of meat, I used:
1 whole garlic
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
half a cup each of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sugar and rice vinegar
1 tbsp. of black beans
1 large onion
1 tsp. of annatto (atsuwete) powder
Crush and peel the garlic.
Peel the ginger and chop.
Peel the onion and chop.
Place in the blender with the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth. Pour over the meat, massaging the meat to work the sauce into the fibers. Place in a covered container and keep in the fridge for a couple of hours. Turn the meat over every hour or so.
Again, I really recommend that you keep the heat of the grill to low when cooking the pork. Depending on the thickness of the meat, grilling can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes. The thicker the meat, all the more reason to keep the down.
While the meat cooks on the grill, simmer the marinade for at least 10 minutes just to kill whatever bacteria there are from the raw meat.
To test the pork for doneness, cut the meat at the thickest part. If the center is no longer pink, it is done. This isn’t roast meat, Continental style where you want the meat to stay very pink at the center.
Let the pork rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting. This is should let the juices settle and prevent them from running when you slice the meat. You really want those juices in the meat rather than dripping on the chopping board.
Serve your char sui pork sliced with the thickened marinade on the side.
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Thanks for sharing that recipe connie! am just wondering, do you know how to make hoisin sauce? Because most of the time, hoisin sauce is a bit expensive *for me*
btw, can you substitute the rice vinegar with plain vinegar? whats the difference? 
I buy my hoisin sauce in jars, Hershey. What is “plain vinegar”? Cane vinegar? Palm vinegar? The levels of acidity differ.
Thanks connie!
Random – but have you heard of The Kasbah in Boracay? A few friends said it was good but wondered if a true foodie would know? I’m going in a few weeks and am trying to plan my nights out.
Ivan, no haven’t heard of The Kasbah. I’ll remember to look for it though. I hope it isn’t a night-only place. We’re going in a few weeks too.
Connie,
Thanks for the appetizing publication of recipes via the net… helps me a lot to do my own homemade receipes. Cooking is one of my frustrations and i enjoy it a lot especially with substitute ingredients to hard to find ones.
Again, thank you and more power!
parang napanood ko to recently sa TAKE HOME CHEF. charsui din from the chinese gorcery ang ginamit nya dun sa manamis namis na chinese barbekyu pork.
yum yum.
I have a recipe of charsiu which i learned from my chinese step father and I cooked it in my restaurant here in malaysia I just use a lots of garlic, sugar, salt, food color, charsiu sauce, chinese wine and honey sugar to make pork shiny.It is the combination of the exact amnt. of ingredients that makes the charsiu delicious.