Bak Kwa aka Pork Jerky

My first attempt!!

And it wasn’t as hard as I thought…fun bit was flattening out the meat. I can’t believe how over rated and expensive it has become to buy these things and they are also too chewy to bite.

Then again, it is meant to be a jerky…I like my texture softer and tender though. The moment I pop it into my mouth, it was yummier than I thought from the way I cook it!

I initially used this recipe for the ingredients but stumbled across another which has a bit more ingredients and will attempt to use it in the next round. In terms of the baking process, it all depends on one’s oven but the more you ‘dry’ the meat, the closer the meat will form into ‘jerky’ like texture.

Courtesy of My Kitchen Snippit's post and soyandpepper's post)

Makes about 450g of jerky

Ingredients

• 500g mince pork (or pieces of pork blended in a food processor)
• 1 tsp Sesame oil
• ¼ tsp 5 spice powder
• 1 tbsp chinese rice wine
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp honey (mixed with a bit of water and a few drops of soy sauce)
• 90g Sugar
• 2 tbsp Fish sauce

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together with the meat.
2. Let it stand for 4 hours or overnight (I used mine immediately and it still taste good)
3. Pre heat oven to 100degC
4. Use the fan bake option if possible
5. Prepare an aluminium sheet on a baking tray
6. Place the pork onto the tray and place a clingwrap on top of the meat
7. Rolled out the meat to about 5 mm thick or less
8. Alternatively, flatten the meat with the back of the spoon occasionally dipping in water to avoid the meat from sticking to the spoon
9. Place tray into the oven with the door partially open and let it ‘dry’ for 50-60 minutes

Cooking

1. If immediately, bring the meat out and let it cool abit
2. Coat the honey mix on to the meat
3. Bring the oven heat to 180degC
4. Place it either in bake or grill mode
5. Place the tray back into the oven and let it cook for 5-7 minutes
6. Turn the meat over and coat it with honey and let it cook for another 5-7 minutes
7. Step 5 and 6 varies according to the oven so I advise to keep a close watch on it.
8. Not thin enough (next time should use a rolling pin and gladwrap) and I dried it for 50 minutes..mistake to put baking sheet too.