JOANNA'S FOOD: family cooking, from scratch, every day


Friday, May 04, 2007

Char-sui and noodles















The recipe that follows is char sui-ishier than anything in Nigella's book, although that's what was open when I put the marinade together. A couple of pork tenderloins (aka pork fillet, why DO supermarkets like to re-name everything?) are sitting in their marinade in the fridge waiting to be cooked tomorrow night - when I'll be in a hurry and won't feel like starting from scratch.

In How to Eat, Nigella gives two recipes for char sui, one which is fairly Chinese, the other with what was in her fridge on the night. Well, what was in my fridge tonight didn't quite do her first recipe, so this is what I used for two fillets:

4 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp Madeira (no ginger wine or sweet sherry - EVER!)
2 tbsp runny honey
2 tbsp soft brown sugar

Tomorrow, I'll cook the meat (drained from its marinade) in a hot oven (220C) for 15 minutes, then turn it down to 160C until it's cooked (20-30 minutes, in my case both, because one is bigger than the other!). It needs basting with the sauce. When it's done, put the meat to one side, pour in the rest of the marinade, perhaps with a little water, and cook it through.

The resulting char sui is good hot or cold, cut into thin slices or little cubes (the meat you find in takeaway special fried rice). We're going to eat it with the noodles I made for lunch this week, and pak choi (from Riverford) dressed with oyster sauce.

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