Char siu pork (叉烧肉).

A Cantonese favorite, char siu is a style of cooking where meat is roasted on a spit.  It is flavored with a combination of five spice powder, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, honey or maltose, and is often colored red with food coloring for a more appealing look.

Char siu is most commonly made with pork.  A variety of cuts can be used, but long, thin strips no more than 2-3 inches thick work best for the flavor to penetrate and for a faster, hotter roast.  The sweet and savory flavor lends itself to fattier cuts like pork shoulder, but for a healthier option, a leaner cut like pork tenderloin works fine.

Maltose syrup is used in Cantonese roasts for glazing and flavoring.  It is less sweet than sugar or corn syrup and has an almost solid consistency at room temperature that makes it difficult to work with, but a few seconds in the microwave makes it flow like honey.  On that note, it is okay to substitute honey for maltose in these recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 pound pork tenderloin or pork shoulder in long strip no wider than 3 inches diameter
• ¼ cup maltose syrup or honey

For the marinade:

• ¼ cup light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons five spice powder
• (Optional) 1 teaspoon red food coloring

Instructions

(Note: Instead of roasting in the oven as this recipe instructs, char siu pork can be grilled for more flavor.  Go hot and fast to an internal temperature of 150 degrees F, making sure to baste frequently as detailed below.  Avoid excessive direct heat and flareups so that the sugars in the glaze don’t burn before the meat cooks.)

1. Combine ingredients for the marinade in a saucepan and heat until sugar dissolves into the mixture.  Marinade the pork tenderloin in the mixture for at least 12 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place pork on roasting rack.
3. Combine marinade with maltose or honey and heat in saucepan until dissolved to make glazing liquid.
4. Roast pork on rack at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 150 degrees Fahrenheit.  During roasting process, take pork out and glaze with glazing liquid on all sides at least 3 times.
5. Let pork cool, then cut into slices.  Pork can be served with rice and vegetables, over noodles, or stuffed in buns.