Char Siu BBQ Pork (蜂蜜叉烧)

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1. 1Step 1: Fry your minced white-part-of-green-onion and ginger in the smallest oil that you could muster, about 1 minute or so on medium heat.
2. 2Step 2: Add in the liaojiu (rice wine), then the water and the two soy sauces, then the spices. Also add in your water, the soy sauces, and all of your dried spices except the shajiang (cutcherry powder) – that’s going in later.
3. 3Step 3: Simmer on low for 30-90 minutes. Add a touch of water if it’s going a little too crazy.
4. 4Step 4: Strain out the spices and aromatics.
5. 5Step 5: Add in ¾ cup of the reserved lushui liquid, the red miso, the liquid of the red fermented tofu, the shajiang (cutcherry powder), the ground red yeast rice (or sweet paprika), and the chunk of rock sugar. Then simmer on low until the rock sugar dissolves. Spoon the sauce over the rock sugar to help it along, and add in a couple tablespoons of your reserved lushui liquid in case it’s reducing a little too much.
6. 6Step 6: Turn off the heat, add in the Maltose. Stir that in, and incorporate into the Char Siu.
7. 7Step 7: Jar it!
8. 8Step 8: Cut your pork into strips. Roughly 1 inch high and 2 inches wide.
9. 9Step 9: Make your Marinade. The marinade will be three parts Charsiu sauce – either bottled or homemade – and one part soy sauce.
10. 10Step 10: Poke holes in your Charsiu with a fork and toss it in a bag to marinate. Then massage the meat and make sure the marinade is even.
11. 11Step 11: Marinate, 4-48 hours.
12. 12Step 12: Gather your materials. We’re gunna need a Western-style charcoal grill here, a cast iron dutch oven (or other large pot) that’s deep enough to let strips of Char Siu hang, aluminium foil to cover the bottom of the pot, and some handle-less metal skewers.
13. 13Step 13: Set up a two zone charcoal fire, and nestle the Dutch oven into the cool side.
14. 14Step 14: Skewer your Char Siu strips at the very top of the strip, and cover the top with a wet paper towel. Aim for 3-5 strips of Char Siu hanging from each skewer.
15. 15Step 15: Hang your Char Siu ‘skewer’ over the Dutch oven to let it cook, periodically moving and basting the Char Siu. For me, these cooked for about 90 minutes. You might also want to periodically rearrange your skewers as the ones closer to the charcoal will tend to cook a little faster. Three times during cooking, I took the Char Siu out and basted them with a brush. Again, the basting sauce is 1 part Char Siu, and 1 part honey.