Chinese barbeque marinade

Play around with these ingredients - I regularly use variations of this on both pork and chicken. The longer you leave the meat in, the tastier it gets, and the more tender the meat - great with summer salads, or with rice and stir-fry vegetables in winter.

• Take your pick from
• Dark soy sauce, or tamari if you prefer
• Hoi sin (this is great as it makes everything sticky)
• Chinese five-spice (I use the pots of paste; these keep well and have more flavour than powdered spices)
• Garlic, either crushed cloves to be removed before cooking, or paste
• Ginger - fresh is best; slice or chop, then pound in a mortar and pestle to release the flavour
• Aniseed (take it easy though!)
• Honey - thickens, makes everything stickier
• Lemon juice
• Sesame oil
• Black pepper
• Salt to taste (although I rarely bother, as the soy sauce tends to taste salty enough as it is)

Throw all the ingredients in a bowl. I've been taught (by my dad, who I generally trust to know his stuff) never to use a metal spoon with a marinade, as the mixture is so intense it can react with the metal. Mix well, throw in cubed meat, strips of meat, whole chicken breasts or pork loin steaks - whatever you fancy.

Cubes go well on skewers; brush with the marinade before putting under the grill or on the barbeque, maybe a little extra sesame oil for good measure. If cooking in a wok, you can either drain the meat first or throw the marinade in with it for an intense sauce. I like to add sesame seeds if I'm doing this. Do make sure the meat is cooked through though, it can take a bit longer than usual if cooking it in the sauce - and be aware that it may do funny things to your wok, as there's quite a bit of residual stickyness in the sauce from the hoisin and/or honey.

Marinades can easily be made the day before, and the meat left in overnight - I've even made a marinade and let the pork steaks defrost in it (in the fridge, obviously), ready to cook when I got home from work, delicious and tender as could be!