If you are looking for possibly the easiest way to make a delicious meal out of a couple of pork loin steaks, you just found it! Japanese Ginger Pork - Shogayaki as it is called in Japanese - is made in just about every home in Japan and there are some good reasons for that - it's easy to make, it's quick and everyone seems to love it.
So what do you need to create this dish? Along with some pork loin steaks, the key ingredient is fresh root ginger. I don't know about you, but I always have a decent sized piece of root ginger in the cool box of my fridge - I use it in cooking but also as a pick me up / remedy when I feel a cold coming on. Fresh ginger really works for this recipe but if you don't have any to hand, some ginger paste from a jar will work as a reasonable stand in. Don't try this recipe with ginger powder though as you won't get the same tasty result. Other than root ginger you'll need a couple of cloves of garlic, some soy sauce, a little sugar and some cooking sake to create your marinade. Again, if you don't have any cooking sake to hand, you can use the same amount of dry sherry as a subsititute - the alcohol will soften the pork and, in the case of the cooking sake, add a little umami depth to the dish. The final ingredient is a small onion that you cook sliced along with the pork.
Once you've made your marinade, you'll need to marinate the pork loin steaks. If you watch my Youtube tutorial, you'll see I advise marinading for 15 minutes but you should regard this as a minimum with 30 minutes to 1 hour being preferable to allow the pork to soak up some of the flavours from the marinade. On the subject of the pork, I tenderise the loin steaks by giving them a few whacks with the back of a large kitchen knife. I do this on both sides just to loosen the fibre up prior to marinading.
Once your pork loins are marinaded to your satisfaction, then it only remains to cook them. I fry the loin steaks for 3 minutes on each side, adding the sliced onion to the pan when I turn the steaks. Once the meat is done, I tip in the marinade and cook for another minute or two. Depending on the thickness of your loin steaks, you may need to leave the pork in the pan a little longer - just remember to test that they are cooked through before you turn off the heat.
As you can see from the picture above, I serve my Japanese Ginger Pork with rice and some salad leaves. Another neat way to serve would be as a "donburi" dish with the slices of pork and marinade served on top of a bed of rice but the choice is yours....
If you'd like to try out this recipe, you can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Japanese Ginger Pork or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below.
Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX
ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)
for the ginger marinade:
2 cm / 1 inch piece of fresh root ginger
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Japanese cooking sake/rice wine or dry sherry
1 tsp sugar
2 pork loin steaks
1 small onion
black pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 portions of cooked rice
some salad leaves of your choice
some cling film
how to:
peel and grate the ginger into a small bowl. grate the cloves of garlic into the bowl with the ginger
add the soy sauce, Japanese cooking sake/dry sherry and the sugar to the bowl. mix everything together well
cut the onion into slices
cover the pork with a sheet of cling film. using the back of a large kitchen knife, tenderise the pork by hitting it firmly in a criss cross pattern
give both side of the pork steaks a generous sprinkle of black pepper
place the pork steaks in a shallow dish and add the ginger marinade. place in the fridge to marinate for at least 15 mins but preferably 30 minutes to 1 hour
heat the tbsp of oil in a medium frying pan. once the oil is hot, fry the pork steaks for 3 minutes on one side. turn the steaks over and add the sliced onion. cook for another 3 minutes.
(remember you may need to cook longer depending on the thickness of your pork steaks)
add the remaining marinade to the pan and cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes more
remove the steaks from the pan and slice each into 5-6 pieces. place the steaks on serving plates and spoon over the marinade
serve with freshly cooked rice and a side salad
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