Thursday, February 02, 2006

Siew Yoke ~ 'Chinese Roast Pork'

Having encountered numerous failures, I was ecstatic when I finally managed to achieve the hawker type crackling effect on my siew yoke.

Chinese Roast Pork
Ingredients
1.5kg pork (sam chan bah)
1/2 tsp salt

(A):
2 tbsp vinegar
1 litre water


(B):
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
2 pieces of red fermented beancurd (tau chu or nam yee), well mashed
1 tsp cooking wine
1/2 tsp sugar

Method
1. Combine water and vinegar and bring to a boil. Scald the skin of the pork with the hot vinegar mixture. Set pork aside, then rub just enough salt on the skin. Rub meat with combined marinade (B) and leave aside for one to two hours to dry.

2. Place pork with the meat side up on a rack and roast in a turbo broiler at 200ºC for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove meat. Prick the skin with a sharp metal skewer several times. Put meat back on the rack with the skin side up and roast at 200ºC for 25 to 30 minutes or until skin turns crispy.

Note
After roasting, the chunk of meat will shrink to less than half its original size

Siew Yoke
Tip :
1. I find fresh pork does yield a better result. I have experimented with a piece of pre-frozen pork belly and found the skin took a little longer to start blistering.

2. Leave the oven door slightly ajar (1 cm) during the grilling of the skin to let in fresh air.

3. Grill the pork on the middle rack.

4. Marinating the pork overnight to get a more flavoursome pork.

5. The skin must be kept dry during the marinating process.

Redneck says……
This is very more-ish so try to avoid eating all at once – save some for later.

Recipe : kuali.com (adapted)


Update 1 April 2008 : Another easy method of getting puffy crackling siew yuk here

12 Comments:

Escoffier said...

Thanks for this excellent recipe!

One question though.
What in Gods name is a "Turbo Broiler" ??
What it actually does might be more helpful as there is no such thing on my continent or I would know about it.
If I knew a bit about it, I could substitute its functional equivalent.
I'm assuming that the word "broil" is used in this case as a North American regional dialect word for 'roast' (?)

In any case, shouldn't this dish be called "Chinese Turbo Broiled Pork" ???

Sinner said...

Hi Escoffier,

Broiled is indeed an American term for grill. My oven has a 'fan grill' function.

Anonymous said...

Hi guys, thanks heaps for the recipies.
I've been looking ages for a good recipe for this roast pork, and it took a fellow contry man to provide it. It works great.

I'm living in London at the moment and it's good to see us kiwis coming out on top.

Sinner said...

Changstar,

Thank you for your feedback. Glad the recipe worked for you.

It is our fav pork eaten with chillie sauce.

eatingclubvancouver_js said...

Scalding the skin with hot water? That's a must-try technique.

I've been haunted by pork belly skin for some time now, ever since we've made a version of roast pork. I had some problems with the skin. It wasn't as crispy as I would like.

(The roast pork pictures are up on the blog.)

Thanks for the tip.

Sinner said...

eatingclub,
Don't be discouraged by your first few attempts. I tried so many methods and recipes before I got it right.

Try this recipe or my latest one here.

The trick is to get the skin really dry - keeping it overnight in the fridge will help dry it.

Good luck.

moufat said...

Hey Sinner,

I just have a question. You mentioned that we should cook the pork with the meat side up first. But if we do this, and put the skin at the bottom, will this make the skin wet then?

Thanks!

Li Lian

Sinner said...

Hi Moufat,

I can't remember if the skin got wet as I now use my other recipe as it is simpler but I do recall it didn't affect the crispiness of the skin.

moufat said...

Hi Sinner,

Thanks! I will try the other recipe and see how then!

Moufat

Ancella said...

I've tried the recipe but the skin did'nt puff up.The taste is o.k. Pls advise. Thanks in advance.
Ancella Soo from Malaysia.

Sinner said...

Hi ancella,
Have a read through the comments in this other recipe :

http://neckredrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/04/siew-yoke-with-puffy-crackling-chinese.html

You might find some answers there.

Anonymous said...

Your siew yoke recipes is fantastic. I have tried twice before viewing your blog and fail. But not this time. I use your method, it turn out great taste. The siew yoke is crispy and juicy. It was too expensive to eat in the chinese restaurant in England here. I save a lot preparing myself. Thank you so much. You are life saviour. Cheers!

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