By Christine Salins.
Following on from last week’s column about the current passion for travelling around the world in the comfort of your own kitchen, this week we bring you Adam Liaw’s take on a Hong Kong classic.
As Aussie passports continue to gather dust, many of us are consoling ourselves by recreating dishes from places we’ve enjoyed travelling to or places that we aspire to visit when the madness of Covid is over.
Liaw is a big fan of Hong Kong food, and the recipe here is his take on the popular pork char siu, a quick and easy dish that will help bring a little bit of Hong Kong into your home. “Trust me,” he says, “as soon as the pork hits the grill, the smell is like being teleported to Hong Kong.”
Liaw is one of my favourite television presenters. I’ve met him on a number of occasions and, just as he does on screen, he comes across as having no ego or pretence, just a great passion for food and a quiet, gentle demeanour that is rare in the world of television.
The winner of series two of Australia’s Masterchef, Liaw was born in Penang to a Malaysian Chinese father and Singaporean-born English mother.
Poh Ling Yeow, runner-up in the inaugural MasterChef in 2009, also has Chinese-Malaysian heritage. She and Liaw recently teamed up to present Adam and Poh’s Malaysia in Australia, which will premiere on October 7 on SBS Food.
Malaysian food is classic fusion food, combining native Malay, Chinese and Indian flavours in vibrant, delicious dishes. In the series, the pair explore their Malaysian heritage and Australian upbringing, hitting the road to find inspiration for Malaysian dishes here on home soil.
Across six episodes, they discover that there’s a whole lot more to the Malaysian – Australian relationship than laksa and lattes. Along the way, they pick up expert tips from local farmers, Malaysian expats and even a Hollywood superstar, serving up mouth-watering Malaysian dishes with an Aussie twist.
Virtual travel isn’t as grand as real travel, but by golly, it’s a lot of fun.
Pork neck char siu
Serves 4
1kg pork neck
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ cup Hoisin sauce
1 tsp five spice powder
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
Glaze:
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water
4 tbsp honey
Sweet soy sauce:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 spring onions, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, bruised
2cm ginger, sliced
½ cup soy sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
Gai lan:
1 bunch gai lan, ends trimmed
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
- Combine the pork neck with the marinade ingredients. Marinate overnight.
- For the sweet soy sauce, heat a small saucepan over medium heat, add the oil, spring onions, garlic, and ginger. Fry for about 2 minutes until fragrant, then add the soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar, plus about ¼ cup of water. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stand for 10 minutes, then strain.
- For the glaze, combine the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Cool to room temperature.
- Heat your oven to 200 deg C. Heat a barbecue or grill pan over high heat and grill the pork neck for about 4 minutes on each side. Brush with the glaze and transfer to an oven tray and roast for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, brush with the glaze again and rest for 10 minutes.
- For the gai lan, bring a pot of water to the boil and add the gai lan. Add the salt and oil and agitate the leaves in the water. Remove with tongs and set aside.
- Slice the pork, serve on cooked jasmine rice with the gai lan, and add a couple of spoons of the sweet soy sauce to serve.
Recipe by Adam Liaw.
