Bak Kua 肉干– Malaysian style Pork Jerky

I love to eat Bak Kua , which literary means dried meat in Hokkien (Chinese Dialect). Bak Kua is well-liked snacks in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, it is also one of the popular gift Chinse like to offer to friends and relatives during Chinese New Year.

Over here, the Taiwanese version beef jerky is easier to get then Malaysia bak kua. I do not like Taiwan version because they are harder and dried not like Malaysia type is tenderer. Only recently, I came across one Malaysia Restaurant in Auckland selling them dearly at $21 for 500g!

When I mentioned this to one of my IT classmate also my cooking members Helen, she said she happened to have a recipe making Malaysian style bak kua from a friend of her. Once I got the recipe from her I was so thrilled to learn that the making process is so easy and simple.

 Below was my first attempt of bak kua making using her recipe. The result was superb not to mention the savings that I had made. I calculated the whole expenses from ingredients to utility for baking, the total bill added up to be only $10 for 500g of bak kua, a 50% savings!(Pardon me, accountant by nature, like to do costing hehehe…..)

If you wish to eat fresh and NO PRESERVATIVE bak kua, print out the recipe and start to bake it!

Bak Kua 肉干  

Ingredient:

• 500g Pork Mince **
• 2 Tbsp Fish sauce
• 2 Tbsp Shaoxing wine / Rose wine
• 1 1 / 2 Tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp Dark soy sauce (soy paste)
• 1/2 cup Sugar  

** You can replace pork with beef or chicken. If lean mince being used prefer to add some cooking oil when marinate.

  
Method:

• Marinate pork mince with above ingredients and mix well by stirring in one direction until the mince becomes gluey. Best to leave overnight in fridge to bring out the flavor or at least 2 hours.

I marinate overnight

• Prepare a piece of aluminum foil, a clean plastic sheet (can cut out from plastic bag) or plastic wrap.
• Placed pork mince in center of aluminum foil, covered with plastic sheet/wrap, first slightly flatten the mince using hand.

• Then use a rolling pin lightly flatten the mince, this is to even out the thickness of meat to enable better grill effect.
• Pre-heat the oven about 150 degrees Celsius, take off the plastic sheet, transfer the meat along with aluminum foil to a baking tray.
• Bake the meat in center of oven for 12 minutes.

• After 12 minutes, take out the tray, there will be gravy, ignore and place it aside, continue with other batch of meat at the same temperature until all cooked first.
• Once finished with last batch of meat, return to the first set of meat, by then the gravy might has been absorbed back. At this time, turn over the dried meat to another side.
• Transfer back the meat to the oven at higher rack. This time change the oven heat mode from bake to grill, and grill for another 8-10 minutes or until it has some charcoal effect.

• Take out the grilled meat and leave it aside to cool down before cutting into small strips.
• Great snacks and can be great to go with sandwiches.
  
    

材料：

1. 猪绞肉 ** 500g
2. 鱼露 2 Tbsp
3. 绍兴酒/花雕酒 1 1/2 Tbsp
4. 酱油 1 1/2 Tbsp
5. 黑酱油（酱油膏） 1 Tbsp
6. 糖半杯
   

** 您可以拿牛肉或鸡肉取代猪肉。如果使用瘦肉腌时添加一些食用油

方法:

1. 首先把所有的调味料和绞肉拌匀，一个方向搅拌上劲，要成起胶状
2. 然后准备一张锡箔纸，还有一个干净的塑胶袋（剪开），也可以用保鲜纸，我个人觉得塑胶袋比保鲜纸好控制。
3. 在锡箔纸中央放上大约一杯的绞肉，盖上塑料袋，先用手慢慢的推开，然后再用擀面杖轻轻擀平，这个步骤是为了让肉干的厚度平均，烤出来的口感才会比较好。
4. 然后烤箱预热大约 150摄氏度，把塑料袋拿开，把锡箔纸搬到一个烤盘上，入烤箱烤12分钟.
5. 12分钟后拿出来，这个时候会有很多肉汁，不必理会，把它放一旁，然后相同温度把其他的肉干全都先烤熟。
6. 等所有的肉干都烤熟之后，第一盘的肉干已经把刚刚流出来的肉汁又都吸收回去了，这个时候，整片肉干翻面，入烤箱 grill 高火档，烤8-10分钟，直至有碳烤的效果，颜色漂亮就好了。