I'm home from the summer, living in a home that no longer feels truly mine. I've had a taste of independence, and I liked it too much to really enjoy being back in my mother's house. Especially in the kitchen. I've blossomed in terms of culinary skills, while away at University. I've eaten foods that I can't pronounce the name of, cooked dishes that are beyond even my mum's impressive repertoire of recipes, but most of all, I've enjoyed doing it.
Trying to cook in my mother's kitchen is like trying to do ballet in ill-fitting shoes. I'm ungainly, trying to pull ingredients from cupboards that aren't there, or trying to readjust to a gas hob. All in all, it doesn't really work. But my mum insists that I just have to cook something. Because she's been hearing about all the things I've made. So I try, and something always goes wrong, or "it's a bit bland, dear" or "a bit too much salt" and "don't quite like that". I sometimes hate cooking for my mother.
So it was a pleasant surprise when, being gifted with some pork belly after her hearing me complain about craving it, I managed to pull off an impressive Sunday dinner of my (cheat's) version of char siu pork with stir fried vegetables and white rice. The greatest compliment to get from my critical mother...Silence. A blessed silence interrupted only by the clinking of cutlery. And then, "That was lovely."
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| Char Siu Pork, slayer of critical mothers |
Char Siu Pork
Ingredients
1lb pork belly
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1tbsp honey
1tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp rice wine (I'll admit to using Japanese mirin as it's all I had - don't hurt me!)
1 tsp minced ginger
Method
Marinate the pork belly overnight in a whisked mixture of the above ingredients. (I gave it a two day soak).
Remove pork from the marinade, then, in smoking hot oil, fry pork belly on both sides for a couple of minutes, until meat is slightly charred.
Add the marinade mixture and lower the temperature to low/medium heat, then cover for 20-25 minutes. Allow sauce to froth and essentially thicken and "stick" to the meat.
Serve with rice.
Mind boggling easy, this cheat char siu pork is sweet, juicy, moreish, and very quick. However, with a good piece of meat, you can't go wrong. Eventually, I'll try to do a proper roasting, but it'll keep for when I have my own kitchen. Something to look forward to.
