SINGAPORE (THE NEW PAPER) - Want to savour good bak kwa (barbecued pork) without queuing or paying cut-throat prices?
Put your time to better use and save money by making your own version of this classic festive snack.
Be warned though, your friends and relatives may end up queuing outside your home for this festive treat.
When it comes to festive snacking, Chinese New Year simply does not seem quite complete without bak kwa.
According to the Singapore Infopedia, bak kwa is believed to be a Hokkien delicacy with origins in meat preservation methods used in ancient China.
Back then, meat was a luxury food reserved for Chinese New Year.
Leftover meat was thinly sliced, marinated in sugar and spices, wind-dried and cooked over a hot plate.
Immigrants introduced this meat-preservation method to Singapore and Malaysia, adding a local touch by grilling the meat over charcoal.
Don't worry, you won't need a charcoal burner or barbecue pit to make your own bak kwa. It is perfectly possible to keep tradition alive in the modern home kitchen by using a regular oven.
If you don't have one, you can take a cue from my neighbourhood pork seller's wife, who uses her toaster oven. A little painstaking, but she says the effort is worth it.
I slice the bak kwa into smaller pieces as this allows the edges of each piece to get crispy.
I suggest you taste the first tray of bak kwa, so that you can adjust the seasoning to the remaining pork mixture if necessary.
The thickness of the bak kwa is very much up to you. I find 280g per tray gives a thickness of about 0.4cm, which makes for fairly meaty slices. Using 1kg of minced pork will yield three and a half trays of bak kwa. Each tray of bak kwa can be sliced into about 15 pieces of 7cm by 8cm each.
Bak kwa
Ingredients
1kg minced pork collar
220g fine sugar
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 Tbs oyster sauce
½ tsp five spice powder
1½ Tbs Chinese rice wine
Pinch of red food colouring powder
Equipment needed: Baking paper, cling wrap, a rolling pin and a baking tray measuring 37cm by 26cm and 1.5cm deep.
Method
1. Place the minced meat in a bowl. Add the sugar, salt, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, five spice powder and Chinese rice wine. Mix well.
2. Add the red food colouring sparingly and mix well till you get a desired shade.
3. Leave the pork in the fridge to marinate, preferably overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C.
5. Cut the baking paper to match the size of your baking tray, but with an additional 6-cm border. This is to prevent the bak kwa from sticking to the sides of the baking tray. Line the baking tray with the paper
6. Place 280g of the minced pork on the tray. Cover the minced pork with enough cling wrap to reach the edges of the paper. The cling wrap will prevent bits of meat from sticking to the rolling pin as you go and keep things tidy.
7. Flatten the pork mixture evenly with your rolling pin. Aim for a thickness of about 0.3cm.
8. Remove the cling wrap.
9. Put tray on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 18 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and cut the bak kwa into slices according to your preferred size.
11. Put back into the oven and bake for another 18 minutes at 180 deg C.
12. Turn the bak kwa pieces over and bake for two minutes. The timing may vary with your home oven and the thickness of the bak kwa. It is cooked when the edges are crispy.
13. The bak kwa may appear to have an orangey hue, but it will become a darker red as it cools down.
14. Remove from oven and allow it to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
15. Repeat the baking process for the remaining minced pork mixture.
Yield: About 700g of bak kwa.
