I've been requested to post the DIY BBQ pork recipe I spoke of yesterday. As I said, it's as easy as a mud pie, and awfully good. The recipe is from a dandy cookbook I picked up a couple of years back, called "Thai Cooking Class," by Somi Anuntra Miller and Patricia Lake. It was published in New Zealand/Australia by Bay Books, a division of Harper Collins, in 1992. Best eight bucks I ever spent - there are some really outstanding and very easy recipes in it, and the food-porn quality photography is very nice. The garnish instructional pages are to die for.
Any way, here's what you do:
To start, you need a boneless pork loin. The recipe calls for one pound, and indicates that your trim the fat, but I used a two+ pound piece of meat, and left the bulk of the fat on, since American pork is overly lean. I skipped the first step of adding 1/2 - 1 tsp of red food coloring and 3 - 6 tbsp of water to a Zippy bag to get that lurid red color, but if you want to, do that, add the loin, squish it around, and let it sit while you put together the marinade. BTW, if the loin is rolled, unroll it, as you want the maximum possible surface area to be exposed to the marinade.
The marinade:
3 - 6 cloves garlic, peeled
1-2 tbsp of gingerroot - eyeball a chunk of root and cut it off
Get out the food processor, and with the machine running, drop the garlic and ginger down the feed tube and mince finely. (Alternatively, just mince by hand, or pound in a mortar. These are to taste - there are a lot of strong flavors in this.)
Add to processor (or mix with garlic and ginger in a smallish bowl):
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soy or tamari
4 tbsp Hoisin sauce
2 tbsp Shao Xing or dry sherry
2 tbsp sugar (I used palm sugar, as noted, but brown or white are ok)
1/2 -1 tsp Five-Spice Powder (to taste)
3-6 star anise, crushed, to taste (or you can substitute 1 tsp ground fennel seed)
2 tbsp sesame oil
Combine ingredients, either in processor or with whisk, til sugar is dissolved - it takes just a few seconds, even by hand. If you want, you can grind the star anise in an electric spice grinder first, and then add to the mixture.
Pour in the bag with the pork, squish it around to get the pork well-acquainted with the marinade, put in the fridge, and forget it til tomorrow.
Tomorrow, preheat the oven to 450. Remove the pork loin from the marinade, and pour the marinade into saucepan; heat to boiling, then cool. Put a rack in a roaster, add about a cup of water to the roaster, put the pork on the rack, and pop into the oven. Let it roast for about 15 minutes, baste with the reserved marinade, and turn down the over to 350. Roast for about an hour, depending on the size and shape of the meat, basting when you think of it and adding more water if it boils dry. I cooked mine to an internal temp of about 160 or so.
Let rest for 15 minutes minimum before slicing, or leave whole. When I chilled mine, I put the Muu Daeng in a deep plastic container, and poured the remaining marinade over it.
I'd use the minimum amount of five-spice, star anise, ginger, and garlic the first time, and adjust to your taste.
Enjoy, and do try to find the cookbook if you can. It's a little gold mine.