My husband raved about our Char Siu tonight! Throughout the meal he just wolfed it down saying “Yes!” over and over again, ending the meal with “You can make those again any time!”. LOL I have to admit, it did come out pretty darn tasty. I had thawed 4 small pieces of lean pork loin, but when I decided to do an Asian grilled dinner, I thawed two more pieces so there would definitely be some leftover. The marinade I came up with basically has all the usual things I like to put in my Chinese stir-fries. I wanted a sweet edge, so other than the plum flavor in the hoisin sauce, all I had on hand was canned pineapple juice or fresh-squeezed orange juice. But after seeing the carb count for both, I decided to go another route for the sweet factor needed: diet orange drink and maple extract. If you use the actual fruit juice, know your carbs will go up to around 8.5 net carbs per serving with the orange juice and around 10 net carbs with pineapple juice.
The vegetable combination in the side stir-fry was stellar with this delicious smoked meat. If you don’t own a grill, you CAN bake this meat on a metal sheet pan in a 400º oven for about 30 minutes, but we don’t think kebabs of any sort are as tasty cooked inside. 🙂
MEAT: 1½ lb. boneless pork loin (leave bit of fat on edges), cut 3/4″ strips
VARIATION: Substitute strips of chicken meat for the pork
MARINADE INGREDIENTS:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1½ tsp. fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
2 T. my Homemade Hoisin Sauce
3 T. soy sauce (I use low-sodium)
1 T. rice wine vinegar
2 T. toasted sesame oil
2 T. dry sherry (or white wine)
¼ c. diet orange soda (Zevia® brand with stevia) (or squeezed from orange)
½ tsp. maple extract
¼ tsp. each black and cayenne peppers
VEGGIE STIR-FRY SIDE:
3 T. light olive oil
2 oz. onion, sliced
3 oz. red bell pepper, diced to 3/4″
2 c. bok choy (2 stalks)
Remainders of meat marinade
DIRECTIONS: Cut boneless pork loin into 3/4″ strips and set aside. Measure up all marinade ingredients into medium mixing bowl. Stir well and add pork. Stir, cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Stir contents every 2 hours to be sure all meat is getting a good soaking in the marinade flavors. Also soak your wood skewers in water (to prevent catching fire during cooking) while your meat is marinating.
When ready to prepare meal, set meat out on counter to come to nearly room temperature. While meat is sitting, cut up the onion, red bell pepper and have ready by the stove. Next cut leaves off the bok choy stems and cut or tear them into large pieces. Cut the white bok choy stems separately into ½” slices. Have all veggies at the ready by the stove.
Now go over and skewer the pork as evenly as possible onto your skewers (I do mine like a “Z” or snake, piercing meat 2-3 times for stability during grilling). I put 2 long strips on each skewer (3 smaller pieces on a couple skewers) using this “Z” method. I do make every attempt to put equal portions of meat on each skewer.
Prepare charcoal fire in your outdoor grill. When your coals are white hot, place skewers of meat directly over coals. Reserve the marinade for final recipe step. If coals are plenty hot, this meat will only take 2-3 minutes on a side to get done, provided it was cut as directed.
While someone is cooking/watching the meat outside, prepare the veggie stir-fry at your stove-top. Heat olive oil in skillet or wok over high heat. Add onion, cut up white bok choy stems and diced red bell pepper. Stir-fry until all just begin to soften. Add bok choy leaves last and cook the veggies until bok choy leaves just go limp. Finally, add in the reserved marinade, stir-frying, stirring continuously, long enough to insure the marinade juices are thoroughly cooked, for health reasons. Raw meat juices in the marinate MUST be fully cooked to be safe to eat (about 3-4 minutes). Plate the veggies alongside the grilled meat on your serving platter and serve. This would be tasty with some favorite low-carb dinner roll or bread.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 8 skewers. Each 2-skewer serving with 1/4 of veggie stir-fry contains:
437.5 cals, 26.3g fat, 8.35g carbs, 1.82g fiber, 6.53g NET CARBS, 39.72g protein, 561 mg sodium
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 