It can be hard to get Tanny to try new things. Last year I introduced him to Char Siu Pork and now I seem to have created a monster. Anytime he sees we have pork in the house he always looks hopeful that this is what I am making. He and I also decided that this year as we have no kids or anyone over for actual Christmas Day we are going to spend the day in our pjs, watching Christmas movies and eating all of our favourite foods which means Chinese Fakeaway foods and munchies.

Our friends came to visit a couple of weeks ago and as a gift gave us 3 pieces of mystery pork pieces. She really wasn’t sure if it was pork or gammon (unsmoked, brined ham for those who don’t know gammon). I figured I would just go for it and make some Char Siu now so I can prepare us some big spring rolls and have some for stir fried noodles and fried rice and Tanny’s favourite House Special Chinese Curry.

So I prepared the Char Siu like I normally do and thought nothing more of it until I was cutting it up and realised the meat was a really interesting pink colour. Yup, you’ve guessed it, it was gammon, not pork. It really wasn’t awful it was still very delicious, however, after a while the salt became too much and if i had known it was gammon before hand I would’ve boiled it first to leech off alot of the salt.

Lesson learned though, when given random meat, slice a small piece off and test cook it to check if its pork or gammon or even in general to make sure it isn’t a brined or “corned” piece of meat.

Here we go though here’s the recipe…

CHAR SIU PORK/GAMMON

2 Tablespoon Honey

1/2 Cup Hoisin Sauce

2 Tablepoons Dark Soy Sauce

2 Cloves of Garlic or 1 Tablespoon Dried Powdered Garlic

4 Slices of Fresh Ginger or 1 Tablespoon Dried Powdered Ginger

2 teaspoons Chinese 5 Spice Powder (the second video is my recipe for 5 spice powder so you can make it yourself)

2 Tablespoons Shaoxing Wine or Chinese Rice Wine or Dry Sherry or Chinese Rice Vinegar

2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil

OPTIONAL – 2 Cubes Red Fermented Tofu with 4 spoons of the sauce, mash together) This is where traditionally Char Siu gets its red colour from but we tend not to worry about it.

1-2 Kgs Pork Shoulder cut into 4cm/2 inch thick strips or Pork Fillet

1. Mix all Marinade ingredients together.
2. cover and coat the pork pieces with the marinade.
3. Place in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours preferably overnight.
4. Pull meat out of the marinade and place on a rack over a roasting tray.
5. Place in oven on 180C/350f/ Gas Mark 5
6. Place remaining marinade in a pot and cook until it thickens to twice its thickness (around 5-8 minutes.
7. Every 15 minutes for approximately 1.5 hours baste the pork with the thickened marinade.
8. Once cooked allow to rest for 10-20 minutes before cutting into pieces or leave until completely cold and slice thinly.