Bah Kua (Do It Yourself)

Only two pieces left for me to take a snapshot of it. We used to drive 6 hours to Vancouver, B.C. Canada to buy authentic "Mei Jen Siang' Bah Kua. They are quite pricey as well. The store would vacuum pack for us and put a label that can go thru custom. However, our hearts still beat faster when we pass imigration for fear that we cannot bring this snack over to the US.

These days, when we have the crave, we make our own.

Ingredients:

1 lb minced meat, with some fats
1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
slightly less than 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking wine
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cooking oil

Steps:

Put minced meat in a big bowl. Add in seasonings. Use chopsticks and stir in one direction until meat becomes gluey.

Put the meat on SILPAT (as shown in photo) or parchment paper. Cover with a big plastic cling wrap. Use a roller to roll the meat to 2mm thick.

Place in baking tray and bake in preheated oven 257'F (125'C) for 20 minutes. After that, increase the temperature to 356'F (180'C) and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes. Then, remove the meat from the oven and flip over on a piece of parchment paper and continue to bake for about 10 minutes.

The time used to bake the meat depends on the thickness of the meat.

Here is a link to another version of Bah Kua. I haven't tried it out yet, but almost any recipes from Lily's website will taste good. http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2005/06/dried-pork-long-yoke.html