The Japanese name for this dish translates as Ginger Pork Sauté. This recipe is kind of a mix of various ones that I found in my cookbook collection when I lived in Japan.
It is incredibly simple, and incredibly delicious and became one of my favourites that I cooked while living in Japan. The test of whether I thought it went well was the question, “would I be game enough to serve it for some Japanese friends?” The answer for this one was a definite yes.
Butaniku shoga yaki 豚肉しょうが焼き
Keep the pork as a cutlet, or slice into bite size pieces. I prefer pieces so that you can pick them up with chopsticks. And then the other question is what to serve it with. I like it just the way it is, with steamed rice on the side, but you will often find this served on a bed of finely sliced cabbage and maybe a couple of other veges, like a couple of tomato wedges and a slice or two of cucumber.
Ingredients
- 200g pork loin, thinly sliced into cutlets or pieces
- 1 tsp ginger juice*
- 1 Tbs sake
- 1 tsp mirin
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 4 large shiitake mushrooms
- oil
Directions
- Slice the mushrooms and set aside.
- Mix the ginger juice, sake, mirin and soy together and set aside.
- Heat the oil over high heat and fry the pork until it’s browned on one side. Then turn the heat down low, and turn the pork. Cook like this for a couple of minutes and then set aside. Keep it warm.
- Remove most of the fat from the pan and add the ginger/sake/mirin/soy sauce mixture. Cook over medium heat and make sure you stir up any little crusty bits left behind from the pork. They are flavour.
- After a couple of minutes add the mushrooms and cook for another couple of minutes until they are just a little softer. They don’t need to be/shouldn’t be mushy.
- Put the pork on a plate and pour over the sauce and mushrooms and serve immediately.
Nomadic Feast 