Homemade Chinese Barbeque Pork (Char Siu)

One of my specialites developed over the last few years is chinese barbeque pork or char siu. I guess practice makes perfect and this dish remains a favourite with my family and friends. The only problem with this recipe is that I don't measure my ingredients. I just add a dash of this and a dash of that. Also, I tend to improvise my ingredients depending on what I have available in my pantry so my advice if you're trying this recipe is to be adventurous :-)

Here is my recipe, to the best of my estimation...

Serves 4-8 (depending on whether you're serving other dishes)
1. 8 strips of pork belly (you do need a fatty cut in order for this dish to be successful. A fatless cut would result in a rather dry and chewy char siu)
2. 1 jar (240 gm) of Lee Kum Kee Char Siu sauce
3. 1/2 jar (120 gm) of Lee Kum Kee Hoisin sauce

4. 1/4 cup of honey
5. 1 tablespoon of five spice powder
6. 2 tablespoons of lemon/lime juice
7. 2 tablespoon of Lea & Perrins Worchestershire Sauce
8. 1-2 teaspoons of thick soya sauce
9. 1 tablespoon of Chinese wine
10. 1 teaspoon salt and pepper
11. 1-2 tablespoon of Maltose sugar (Mak Ngah Tong)

Marinade:Mix ingredients 2-10 in a deep glass dish. Place each strip of pork belly into the marinade and make sure that each pork belly is coated with the marinade. Using a fork, pierce the meat to allow it to absorb the marinade into the meat. Ideally, the marinade should totally cover the meat. Marinade overnight in the fridge.

Pre-Roast:45 minutes before roasting, take out the pork belly from the fridge. Preheat oven to 180C. Wrap your roasting rack and tray with aluminium foil (it will make cleaning up much easier). Slit some holes on the rack to allow the liquid to drip down to the tray. Place the pork belly on the rack and pour half of the marinade over the meat.

Now for the key ingredient - maltose sugar. Pour some boiling water onto a large bowl. Place the maltose sugar jar into the bowl. This will warm up the thick maltose sugar into a more liquid syrup, making it easier to pour on the pork belly. Using a large spoon, scoop up the maltose sugar. Lift your hands high and start lacing the pork belly until the maltose sugar coats the pork belly fairly evenly.

Roast:
Roast in the oven for around 30-45 minutes. Midway through, turn the meat and baste with the remaining marinade. If you wish, you can also add the maltose sugar again (I used to but don't anymore). When the char siu is cooked, remove the meat from the rack and the gravy from the tray. Once the meat is cool, slice and serve with rice or noodles. Enjoy!