Japan: Pork Shogayaki

(aka Ginger Pork)

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I USED

I'd never heard of this prior to researching Japan and, boy, was I missing out on some good eats! This was really tasty!!!

The actual cooking part is pretty easy, you just fry the pork strips and then stir in some sauce and let it reduce.

The prep work, however, is time consuming. I had to buy a pork loin and slice it down into thin strips. (Partially freezing it prior to slicing made it much easier to slice those thin strips.) Grating a tablespoon's worth of ginger took a bit of time as well. Squeezing juice out of the grated ginger also took some time but it was all worth the effort! This was also the first time I'd ever cooked with saké and it was a pleasant surprise. I'm going to look for more recipes incorporating it!

The recipe shows it served with cabbage, tomatoes, and broccoli and I did eat it with those but I didn't think the broccoli worked very well with it. I like broccoli but the flavor combination just wasn't great. The author of the recipes says this is always served with shredded cabbage and the cabbage* was okay but I didn't feel like it enhanced anything, it was just kind of there. The tomato and pork together turned out to be a surprisingly good combo! I also made a side of jasmine rice to go with it and that played well with the pork.

I would definitely make this again but I would skip the broccoli and maybe try seasoning the cabbage a bit.

*The cabbage was not as fresh as one might like so that may have been part of my issue. Living where I do, getting super fresh produce is difficult, especially in November.