Wednesday, January 26, 2011

char siu

It was my first time using the NOH char siu packet.

In Hawaii, our char siu is sweet and red.

I find that the red foods turn off a lot of people in Japan, not sure why though.

Japan's char siu is grey-ish brown and savory, but the red, sweet version is what I grew up on and love it.

The packet says to add water, but according to my mom (and she knows best), she says not to add the water, just dump the contents of the packet and marinade what you want...pork, chicken, both.

Since I only had one packet and needed to bake it on my oven's turntable, I did some pork spareribs and chicken drumettes.

The packet says to marinate for at least 4 hours but I let it marinate overnight.

The following morning, I baked them off following the directions on the packet and in about 40 minutes...voila!

My blog friend, Kim, tweeted that her dad often makes this sweet type of char siu, slices it thin and puts it in banh mi...so you know what I had for lunch yesterday??

> Banh Mi! minus the cilantro because I couldn't find some at the store.

(I actually found some at another store after lunch but wasn't willing to pay almost $2 for 1 stalk of cilantro!)

Since I had cooked bone-in pork spareribs, I took the meat off the bones and sliced them up for the sandwich.

I knew this was sandwich meant to happen because I had daikon and carrot in my refrig.

While the char siu baked, I whizzed some in my food processor and threw together the pickled veggies.

Then while the pickles soaked, I shopped for the baguette and cucumber for the sandwich.

Even without the cilantro, this sandwich was awesome, sweet sour and a little salty.

Then for dinner, I took some char siu chicken off the bone and shredded it for chinese chicken salad.

I also used okara chips because the taste resembles wonton chips.

Even though the weather is icy and cold, there was lots of comfort food and sunshine in my kitchen today.

NOTES: next time use boneless pork belly and boneless chicken, also buy more packets.

11 comments:

KirkK said...

Hey Kat - Love the Banh Mi! Everything tastes good in a Banh Mi! ;o)

K said...

Yum, looks delicious! I usually only think of char siu in ramen or fried rice, but these ideas are great!

K and S said...

it does Kirk :)

thanks Nate :)

thanks K!

Take care everyone.
Kat

Japan Australia said...

I love pork char-siu in Japanese ramen and with rice, it was one of my favaourite things to eat in Japan. I never even thought about trying to make it at home, which is a great idea by the way.

jalna said...

Great job! It's always a good idea to listen to mom.

Rowena said...

In banh mi! I grew up on the red stuff too but after reading the negative things on red food coloring it kinda turned me off. Okay to eat every now and then, and especially when using it in manapua because the red against the white dough looks so ono!

K and S said...

thanks J-A :)

it is isn't it Jalna :)

yeah Rowena too much red dye is not good, but I still love Red Velvet and you are right, red w/white does look ono for manapua :)

Take care everyone.
Kat

Deb in Hawaii said...

I haven't tried the NOH Char-siu yet. It looks great in the Banh Mi--bet it would be good on a taco too. ;-)

K and S said...

ooh yeah thanks for reminding me about that char siu taco we shared Deb in Hawaii.

Take care.
Kat

Anonymous said...

Hi, found your blog while searching for char siu (the red kind) in Japan. I've heard that it's sold in yokohama, but since I live a couple hours away by shinkansen it's a bit out of the way. Your char siu looks good though... maybe I'll have my parents send me some NOH packets from home.
Thanks for the idea!

K and S said...

Thanks Fatjenny, there is a recipe on House of Annie's blog here that I want to try, it seems easy to do and may be faster than trying to get packets sent from home :)

Take care.
Kat