Recipe - How To Make Bak Kwa (Pork jerky)

This video recipe on how to make Chinese beef jerky landed in my mail. The recipe looked simple enough and since Chinese New Year is just around the corner, I decided to give it a try. Instead of beef, I used pork.

Close to Chinese New Year, people in Singapore go crazy about bak kwa (pork jerky). It is funny. As prices of this delicacy go up, more people queue up to buy.

Bak kwa comes in 2 versions, the minced version or the sliced version which is prepared by slicing solid blocks of meat and tends to be leaner and tougher. The minced version is more tender and easy on the mouth.

In this recipe, I use mince pork. When I made the bak kwa using the ingredients suggested by the video, it was not as flavourful. So I adjusted some of the ingredients to make it more flavourful. Instead of salt, I use oyster sauce and I also added hoisin sauce (a sweet sauce) to give some taste and flavour. I also added 5 spice powder to give flavour.

For 250 grams of mince pork, I was able to make 2 trays and a total of 8 pieces of bak kwa (see picture).

Ingredients:
250 grams mince (ground) pork
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp pepper powder
1 tsp of 5 spice powder
2 tbs of honey for basting the bak kwa.

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together (except the honey)
Let the ingredients sit in the fridge for 2 hours or more.

Oil the aluminium foil on oven pan.
Place half of the pork mixture on the centre of the pan.
Spread out the mixture as thinly as possible over the pan.
(I use a spoon. Otherwise, cover the pork mixture with a plastic sheet and spread with a rolling pin)

Bake the pork in the oven at 100 deg C for about 5 minutes.
This will cook the pork.
Take it out and spread honey over the pork.

Increase the oven temperature to 200 deg C, on top heat
Put back the pan into the oven for another 5 minutes.
The edges should start to char a little

Remove the pan and flip the sheet of pork over and apply honey on the other side.
Finally, heat in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Repeat the process for the other half of the mince pork.

Note: To get the smoky flavour, pan fry the meat after it has been baked for 5 minutes.

Enjoy
    

This is the short video on how to make beef jerky that landed in my inbox.



You might want to try this recipe with video attached.

1 kg of minced pork
marinate with
11/2 tbsp fish sauce
11/2 tbsp soya sauce
1 cup of coarse sugar
1/8 tsp of 5 spiced powder
1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp of kam cho (licorice) powder
1/2 tsp of corriander powder
1/2 tsp of white pepper
1 tsp of rose wine
1 tbsp of hua tiao wine
1 tsp of dark soya sauce

Season ground pork with the marinate and leave in the fridge overnight. 
spread meat on the baking paper, and spread it out. You can cover with cling wrap and using a rolling pin to roll it out flat.
Bake in oven till dry. For about 1/2 hour at 75 deg C. Remove and cut meat to pieces. set oven to 175 deg C and grill meat to golden brown.





Another 7 minute video, in Cantonese.

Her list of ingredients:

豬肉乾
一磅 免治豬肉 1 lb ground pork
十五毫升 紹酒 15 ml cooking wine
十五毫升 蠔油 15 ml oyster sauce
十五毫升 老抽 15 ml dark soy sauce
十五毫升 魚露 15 ml fish sauce
1/4杯 黃糖 ¼ cup yellow sugar



A 5 minute video from Vietnam. She uses solid block of beef.

Ingredients
Vietnamese beef jerky - Thịt bò khô
Ingredients
500g beef (top round/ flank / rump roast / bottom sirloin roast)
3tbsp lemongrass 
2tbsp minced garlic 
2tbsp sugar 
1tsp salt 
1tbsp five spice powder 
1tbsp turmeric powder 
½tsp pepper 
2tsp oil (or oyster sauce) 



 

Another video on how to make bak kwa from JC Cookery

Ingredients needed: - 500g of minced pork (at least 20% fat) Marinating sauce: - 2 tbsp Soy sauce - 2 tbsp Chinese wine - 1 tbsp Oyster sauce - 1 tsp Sesame oil - 1 tsp Dark soy sauce - Some Five spice powder - 80 g Sugar - 2 tbsp Golden syrup (You can replace it with maltose or honey) Glazing: - 2 tbsp Golden syrup