Homemade Bak Kwa!!

Tired of queuing at Bee Cheng Hiang/Lim Chee Guan/Kim Joo Guan/Bee Hock Guan for hours on end only to have your year's savings extorted from you? Bee Cheng Hiang is selling sliced pork Bak Kwa at $50/kg this year, and Lim Chee Guan at $52/kg! Bee Cheng Hiang's Gourmet slices are $77! 

(http://sg.openrice.com/info/chinesenewyear/bak-kwa.html)

The pennypincher/DIY goddess in me said let's homemake this because minced pork is less than $15/kg! And the healthnut in me rejoiced because I omitted colouring and preservatives. 

Here you go: 

HOME-MADE BAK KWA RECIPE

Ingredients:

1kg minced pork/chicken/beef (the fattier it is, the more tender, juicy and fragrant) 

100g sugar (caster, fine, white, brown- your choice) 

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 tablespoons shao xing wine (Chinese rice wine)

1 tablespoon kecap manis (dark caramel sauce is recommended here)

1/2 teaspoon five spice powder

1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

Pepper and salt to taste

Red liquid food colouring (optional- I did not use)

No special brand here, just the regular seasonings you'd find in most kitchens. Add all ingredients and mix in well with the minced meat. Ensure to stir well. The meat will turn from lumpy to gooey. Gooey is when you know to stop, about 5 minutes. My preferred mode is chopsticks, though feel free to use a spoon or fork. Stir it well, if it is still lumpy, the pieces will fall apart when cooking. 

It's gooey now. Time to stop and refrigerate it overnight or 6-8 hours. The next day, once out of the fridge, wait for it to thaw a little and give it a good stir once more to ensure it spreads well. 

Spread it on cling wrap. If you use a baking tray or a pastry board or your kitchen countertop, you'll get a bigger piece, and you can make it rectangle in shape. You can use the back of a spoon, your fingers, or a rolling pin. I chose a plate and the back of a spoon, and I got flat, round pieces. 

Once you have it spread out, transfer to baking / parchment sheet or aluminium foil. Put it in a dehydrator to dry it out. I used a regular oven, at 150deg C, and left the door opened. The temperature would depend very much on your oven, experiment and see which temperature is optimum for your oven. 

The meat sticks well to the cling wrap and this is the fun part! Flipping it on the baking sheet and peeling the cling wrap off. 

This is how it looks like dried out and it's time to flip. Admittedly, it does not look appealing, but have patience...... And take a deep breath! Your kitchen will have the mouthwatering scent of Bee Cheng Hiang. 

There will be some juice/liquid and it helps to drain it off or dab it away at this stage. 

Just a few more minutes, remove from oven and cut it to smaller pieces. 

Return to the oven at 220deg C to brown and char the pieces. And here u have it! Enjoy! 

Steps: 

1. Mix the all the ingredients thoroughly, ensuring the lumpy meat becomes gooey, so it will not fall into pieces when cooking. 

2. Refrigerate the mixture overnight or 6-8 hours. 

3. Thaw the meat from out of the fridge and give it a good stir to make it more gooey. 

4. Pre-heat oven 150deg C 

5. Spread out the meat on cling wrap and transfer to baking tray and place in oven with oven door opened. 

6. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 150deg C with oven door open. 

7. Once meat is dried, remove from oven and cool. Increase oven temperature to 220deg C.

8. Cut to smaller pieces and return to oven. 

9. Bake for 10 minutes at 220deg C, or until charred. 

10. Savour your homemade goodness, and don't forget to take pictures first! 

Not everyone has the luxury of firing up a BBQ grill at home all the time, right? And a oven will also suffice when home-making bak kwa at home. However, if you get the chance, bak kwa over a coal fire yields the yummiest results.

28January2014