The first thing that came to mind after tasting my five-spice blend was: Babi Pangang. Babi means pig and Pangang (Panggang) means roasted. Roasted pig, it’s a #1 dish served in many of our Chinese-Indonesian restaurants.

There’s one tiny problem though: what meat and cooking technique to use. It varies. Some go for slow roasted pork belly (this is the more common way) while others stick to pork steaks and the crispy outside comes from deep-frying the meat for a few moments. It’s how a lot of restaurants prepare it as well.

No matter what preparation technique or meat you use, they’re both drizzled with a sweet and sour sauce. Drowned almost. There are a gazillion ways to make this sauce; this is the version we like best, after lots of tweaking.

I decided to put the two different cuts of meat and cooking techniques to the test to see which ones is tastier.

I’ll start with the pork steaks. These happened to be boneless, but you can also use (thick) pork chops.

 
Ingredients:
 

Babi:

4 pork steaks (1 1/2 pound)
3 tbsp oil
1 medium onion
1 thumb-size piece ginger
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp five-spice blend
4 tbsp kecap (sweet soy sauce)
1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp salt (twice)
1 liter peanut or canola oil
water

 
Sauce:

2 cups water
1 or 2 tsp oil
1 piece of onion (see Babi)
1 small garlic clove
1/2 to 1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp ketchup
3 tbs sweet chili sauce
4 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
4 tbsp brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 tbsp cornstarch

 
Directions:

Coarsely chop the onion. Keep one slice aside for the sauce.

Get yourself a big bowl and pour the oil in there.

This ABC kecap is sickly sweet. If you use a less sweet version feel free to add a tbsp (or two) brown sugar.

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon in there.

And grate the garlic and ginger in there as well.

Add 2 tsp five-spice blend and 1/2 a tsp salt.

Fit the pork nicely together in a casserole, or be stubborn and use a bowl. Divide the chopped onion over the meat.

Pour those lovely flavors all over the pork.

Dig your hands in there. Oh, come on, you know you want to! Cover the pork and let it marinate for an hour or 2.

Transfer the pork to a large, heavy pan (with a lid).

Pour every last drop of marinade in there as well. Including the onions.

Add another 1/2 a tsp salt and pour enough water in there so that the pork is just about covered.

Simmer it, over low heat, with the lid on for 50 to 60 minutes. Flip the steaks halfway through the cooking process.

 
Simply turn off the heat and allow the pork steaks to cool off in the cooking liquid. You can even simmer the pork steaks the night before you’ll be using them.
 

Finely mince the slice of onion you kept behind and grate the garlic. Heat the oil and sauté the onion and garlic until they soften. Don’t brown them.

Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute to sweeten it up.

Add the ground ginger, water, chili sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, ketchup, vinegar and salt. Stir well.

 
Simmer the sauce for 10 to 15 minutes. The color will deepen and turn more reddish. Taste to check the seasoning. There should be a perfect balance between sweet and sour.
 

Mix the corn starch with a tbsp water and pour it into the sauce. Simmer for an extra 2 to 3 minutes.

Dab the pork steaks completely dry with a clean paper towel. I don’t want you burning yourself later on.

Heat the oil (355F˚-180C˚) and fry the steaks for roughly 2 minutes. They will almost blacken. Don’t be afraid, it’s all good. I think.

Slice the pork. You’d think it would be dry after being abused like this: cooked, left to sit in hot water and deep-fried.

But it’s not. It’s super tender and moist, with a wonderfully crunchy exterior.

Serve over white rice with acar campur (Indonesian pickled vegetables) and sauce.