How to Make Asian Charcuterie Board
This post may contain affiliate links.Asian Charcuterie Board is a beautiful board filled with Asian barbecue, char siu, crispy pork belly, spring rolls and traditional snacks. This will surely be a great attraction for your guests!
What is Charcuterie?
Charcuterie board is a wooden board displaying meats, various types of cheese, fruits, crackers, and maybe some jelly or jam. It is an art of preparing and assembling cured meats and other food products that are paired with different condiments.
The term charcuterie comes from French words ‘chair’ (flesh) and ‘cuit’ (cooked). It is pronounced ‘shahr-kyu-tuh-ree’.
Maybe you have seen charcuterie boards all over Pinterest and they are all beautiful. It is a perfect appetizer display for a party.
How to Prepare Your Own Board
First thing to prepare is the board itself. I choose my big wooden board that I use for displaying cakes. The size is 41×28 cm which I think enough to display the food selection I have chosen.
You can use whatever wooden board you have, even a non-rectangular shape can be a nice choice. Be creative, a round wooden plate with handle can also make a good display.
You may need small dishes for jelly or jam or condiments. Find a simple design, choose white color so the attention is not focused on the small dishes.
Maybe you can use little wooden spoons or small bowls for jam or dips.
Typical Charcuterie Board
Typical charcuterie board may display these things below:
- Cured meats
- Various cheeses
- Olives and Nuts
- Fruit
- Dried Fruits
- Crackers or small slices of bread
- Jelly or jam or dips
Rules for Charcuterie Board
You can always follow this 3 3 3 3 rule for charcuterie board. You can have three kinds of meats, three types of cheeses, three carbs options, three accompaniments such as fruits, nuts, or veggies.
I think you can get creative. Mix the cured meats with savoury snacks and end the culinary journey with sweet stuff.
Asian Inspired Charcuterie Board
Asian people are not so keen on cheese, as far as I know. They love meats, savoury snacks, and some nice desserts.
Charcuterie board is a fun way to bring all the guests to the table and enjoy the food display before choosing which one to pick first.
How Many Types of Food to Display?
Here is a guideline I use for my Asian charcuterie board.
- 3-4 different kinds of meats
- 3-4 types of snacks
- 3-4 types of sweet desserts
This board will act as an appetizer, so I will now make my guests full before they continue with the main course. They can always go back to the snacks and desserts displayed on the charcuterie board.
If you have a bigger board and want to serve everything on the board, you need to pair it with some carbs such as rice or steamed buns. Add some Chinese stir fry vegetables to complete the meal.
Meats Selection
There are many kinds of meats in Asian culinary world that you can display on the board.
Crispy Pork Belly
This comes first in my mind because it is dry and creates little mess. Another consideration is because almost everyone loves crispy pork belly!
The second thing that comes to mind is Char Siu Pork. This is the second best thing in Asian barbecue. I just need to prepare them in a more dry version, need to clean up a bit.
Meatballs are Chinese people favorites. They are dry and a good choice to display on the board. If you want to display chili sauce, put it in a small dish next to the meatballs.
Chicken or pork meatballs or shrimp meatballs are perfect for display.
Chicken or beef satay
Satays are a bit more complicated to display than meat barbecue. Separate the peanut sauce or soy sauce. This can be a little bit tricky for the guests to eat. Maybe you need a separate dish for the sauce that is placed outside the board.
Sausages or Luncheon Meat
Sausages can be perfect. Slice the sausages and line them up. Chinese sausages like lap cheong can be either small or big. Small ones can be lined up and big ones can be on skewers.
You can cut luncheon meat in bite sizes and put them on skewers with pineapples or green, yellow, and red bell peppers.
Meat Jerky
Pork or chicken jerky can be displayed nicely on the board. Cut the jerky in small sizes or cute round shape. Line them up or stack them nicely.
Asian Snacks Selection
Spring Rolls
If you choose to display spring rolls, you’d better prepare frying them 15 minutes before so they are still crunchy.
Krokets are perfect choice to display on the board because they are small and dry.
Risoles
Lemper can be wrapped with banana leaves or just open up the wrappers so they are easy for the guests to pick up.
Sweet Desserts
For the sweet desserts, I chose the authentic traditional snack that everyone knows of and fond of. And all my guests happily picked up the sweet desserts and wanting more of them.
Kuih Seri Muka is a combination of salty glutinous rice cake and sweet pandan custard. Cut the cake in small attractive sizes.
Wajik is also glutinous rice cake with palm sugar. It can also be served in small sizes. They are a little bit sticky.
Because of its irregular shapes, you can put the ongol ongol on a banana leaves or just put them on the board.
Steamed rice cake or apem cake is a nice sweet dessert. It is an authentic traditional snack that everyone loves.
Talam is a traditional snack in Indonesia. It is a steamed tapioca cake with pandan flavor and palm sugar.
Tips on Food Selection
- Choose food that doesn’t go brown or oxidize after some time.
- Nothing too sticky or too saucy. Chicken potstickers, Shumai dumplings or fried wonton can be great options.
- Have some of the food ready that are not displayed on the board. When you run out of food on the board, you can always refill them.
If you do your own Asian Charcuterie Board, please feel free to tag me on my Instagram! I would love to see your creation.
