Slimming Friendly Fake-away Char Sui Pork

If you have ever enjoyed char sui pork in a Chinese restaurant you will know it is utterly addictive and delicious. It usually calls for a fatty part of the pig, the belly, shoulder, or butt and the fat really helps to keep it moist and tasty.

But in my quest to continue to eat delicious things whilst trying to shift some extra Christmas pounds as well as get bikini ready for a trip to Cyprus coming up, I did a little experimenting and have come up with this version which uses a much leaner cut; pork fillet which is lower in fat and calories, inexpensive and easy to source in most supermarkets. In fact by switching the pork belly to pork fillet you save 200 calories per serving; and 24g of fat! I omitted from using the copious amount of brown sugar too – whilst you don’t get the final glaze, that is synonymous with char sui, it already has the sweetness from the honey.

Some of the ingredients – such as red bean curd and Shaoxing wine are a little more niche but you will find in any Asian supermarket; and once you have Shaoxing wine add a drop to any stir fries – it’s super tasty.

The below serves x4 people and a 140g serving of the Char Sui Pork equates to 328 calories. I served with a small portion (approximately 75g) rice, and some quick fried bok choi and pak choi with a drizzle of Oyster sauce.

It’s best to marinate meat overnight – but a few hours will also be good.

For a Friday night fake away – I can thoroughly recommend and will be making again soon. 

Slimming Friendly Char Sui Pork Fillet

Here’s how:

• 450g pork fillet
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4cm piece of ginger
• 4 tbsp low salt soy sauce
• 3 tbsp Shaoxing Wine
• Red Bean Curd 3 pieces
• 3 tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp hoi sin sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• ½ tsp black pepper

Firstly you need to make the marinade which is all of the ingredients, bar the pork. Mince the garlic and grate the ginger and place everything together into a large zip lock bag or in a bowl – combine well then take out about 3 tablespoons of the marinade and place into a small pot – this will be the sauce to drizzle over the meat once cooked. Keep in the fridge.

Now with the pork, take a sharp knife and all over the fillet, make a few incisions, not too deep, but enough for the marinade to get inside of the meat.

Place the pork fillet into the bag, do up and then use your hands to massage the marinade into the meat ensuring it is fully immersed and covered. Now place into the fridge and allow to marinate for as long as you can – overnight is good.

As pork fillet is very lean and without fat, it’s important when cooking to not allow it to dry out and become tough so if you cook it on a wire rack over an oven proof dish half filled with boiled water, this will help that process. I don’t have fancy equipment for this at all – I used a roasting tin, covered with the wire rack from my grill.

Pre-heat the over to 180 degrees and when warm enough, place the meat onto the wire rack, above the tin, then use a brush to cover the meat all over with the marinade.

You will roast for 35-40 minutes in total, but every 8 minutes, take out the meat and brush again with the marinade. The second time you take the meat out to brush it again, turn the meat over.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to rest. Now place the retained marinade into a small saucepan and gently heat through.

Slice the meat, once sufficiently rested and serve with the sauce drizzled over with your choice of accompaniments.

A London Lunch: New Loon Fung, China Town

On Saturday, Bridget and I joined my parents for a dim sum lunch at New Loon Fung, Gerrard Street in London's Chinatown.

It's the first time we've eaten there, and we were impressed. 

We had a combination if dishes, starting with Seafood Crispy Noodles, which were the perfect mix of crispy round the edges, and soft in the centre where the saucy seafood had sat atop. The seafood in question was a generous portion of scallops, prawns and squid plus a combination of vegetables - all cooked to perfection, delicious. 

Seafood Crispy Noodles

We also had roast duck on rice, usually a favourite, but this was the one, slightly disappointing dish, as the duck was overdone and had taken on that liver-esque taste and texture. A shame.

Roast Duck on rice

Dim sum dishes at New Loon Fung were all pleasing though, sui mai and har gau plus prawn cheung fun, as the cornerstones of every dim sum meal we have, were all good. 

Other dishes though that impressed included a scallop and spring onion dumpling, sesame paper wrapped prawns which were deep-friend and delicious, Shanghai style dumplings - Xia Long Bao, with pork and a soupy broth inside - two beautiful mouthfuls, and some gorgeous crispy vegetable spring rolls. The squid cakes were also good despite being devoid of my favourite coriander. 

Paper Wrapped Prawns

Spring Rolls

Squid Cakes

Shanghai Dumplings

Char Sui Bao, the soft doughy steamed bun filled with barbecue pork, were on top form, which is just as well as my little toddler foodie, Bridget, loves them. She has recently become much more adept at using a spoon and fork and it was lovely to see her feeding herself noodles, rice and the like all on her own. 

Char Sui Bao

Bridget enjoying her dim sum

As a sweet treat, we had egg custard tarts to complete the meal which were excellent; sweet, flaky pastry containing a light, bright yellow-hued baked custard, just delicious. Bridget had her first try too and, as usual loved them. 

Custard Tarts

The meal for the four of us (three adults plus a toddler) came in at £70 including service which was good considering we over-ordered and took away a couple of boxes of leftovers. Service at New Loon Fung was excellent and the staff here were extra attentive to Bridget, which really makes a difference when eating out with a toddler. I'll definitely return to New Loon Fung for more.

We rounded off the day by visiting Trafalgar Square to join into the St George’s Day festivities, which included a bit of a street party atmosphere, lots of food and drink stalls, a few fairground attractions, people in medieval dress and a Chef’s area where I watched a short demo from Masterchef winner, Natalie Coleman – so plenty going on. A great family day.

The Cheung Family

Bridget having fun in Leicester Square

Hong Kong: Michelin Star Dim Sum at Yue, City Garden Hotel

My paternal grandfather hailed from Hong Kong before he settled here in London back in the sixties, and so whilst he is no longer with us, we have some family that remain in various parts of Hong Kong.

During our stay, we were invited by my Dad's two first cousins Wai Hung and Wai Lock and their wives invited us to join them, alongside my Grandad's two brothers, to visit the Michelin starred Cantonese restaurant, Yue at the City Garden Hotel in the Fortress Hill area.

As well as some of the more traditional dim sum dishes with which we are very familiar, such as sui mai and har gau (steamed crab and pork dumplings and pork dumplings) we also enjoyed something a little more unusual and experienced why Yue has that Michelin star. 

Sui Mai at Yue

Har Gau at Yue

One of the signature dishes we had was a beautiful looking confection that looked more like a dessert on first glance. It was a well-seasoned small piece of fried grouper with fish maw placed a top of a three layered blancmange-looking jelly; that was in actual fact, egg white with truffle sauce. As I don't eat egg, it was a shame, I did try the truffled egg white but it wasn't to my taste which was a shame as overall it looked very impressive. The grouper, however, was utterly delicious and the dish was awarded the Gold with Distinction Award, 2010 Best of the Culinary Awards by Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Seared Grouper with Fish Maw on Truffled Egg White

We also enjoyed some char sui - which we did most days during our stay in Hong Kong but this pork was exquisite. It was the perfect balance of sweet and umami and just beautifully melt-in-the-mouth tender too and sat upon some gorgeously seasoned soya beans - a definite stand out dish here.

Char Sui on Soya Beans

Equally delicious was a dish I was surprised to have in Hong Kong - crispy pork served with a dipping sauce of English mustard. Again the meat was fantastically tender and the crispy skin was addictively good. 

Crispy Roast Pork at Yue

We had crispy noodles with seafood - another of our favourites whenever we enjoy Chinese food, but this again was something extra special with gorgeous prawns, scallops and squid - everything was just so, seasoned really well and cooked perfectly.

Crispy Noodles with Seafood

Other new dishes we enjoyed at Yue included chicken & pineapple buns that sound like an odd combination but were actually really delicious; like so many exceptional Cantonese dishes, they combine the sweet with the savoury with great results. 

Chicken & Pineapple Buns

We also had a dish of which I'm unsure of the name of, the outside were rice rolls, like with Cheung Fun, but the inside was crispy fried noodles - a really lovely textural contrast. We had fried rice with XO sauce which was another winner, vegetable spring rolls, turnip paste, that was infinitely better than any I've tried in the UK, glutinous rice in lotus leaf and tried the steamed sponge cake for the first time at any dim sum, of which my daughter adored and we now get every time we have dim sum. 

Fried Rice with XO Sauce

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Turnip Paste at Yue

Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf at Yue, City Garden Hotel

This was a really great meal - an elevated experience from your average dim sum experience; and one of my favourite meals in Hong Kong - it was extra special as was spent with family members who we don't often see. If visiting Hong Kong make sure Yue is on your restaurant wish list.

The Cheung family