About the Recipe
Apart from the mighty tonkatsu, I can't think of a more popular Japanese pork dish than this one - shogayaki - (which simply means fried ginger.) Every Japanese mum has this one in her locker. This recipe involves marinating the pork - you can do this in advance of cooking - the longer you marinate, the better the result!
Ingredients
for the ginger sauce:
2 cm /1 in piece of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Japanese cooking sake/rice wine or sake
1 tsp sugar
1 small onion
2 pork steaks
black pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 portions of cooked rice
some salad leaves of your choice
30cm / 12 in square of cling film
Preparation
peel and grate the ginger & garlic into a bowl
add the soy sauce, Japanese cooking sake and sugar and mix well
slice the onion
cover the pork steaks with the cling film and tenderise lightly on both sides either with a meat mallet or the spine of a cooking knife. (you don't need to flatten the steaks, just open up the fibres for cooking)
sprinkle both sides of the pork steaks with pepper
place the steaks onto a plate and pour over the ginger marinade. marinate for at least 15 minutes in the fridge
heat the oil in a medium frying pan. fry the steaks for 3 minutes, then turn over. add the sliced onion and cook for a further 3 minutes
(if your pork steaks are thick, you will need to cook them longer - adjust the heat, so that the steaks don't burn.)
add the remaining sauce to the pan and cook over a medium heat for another 2 minutes
slice the pork steaks into 5-6 pieces and place on a plate. pour over the onion and ginger sauce
serve with some rice and salad