Shogayaki — Japanese Ginger Pork with Cabbage
Thin pork, a serious amount of grated ginger, and a cold mound of shredded cabbage to cut through it.
Why it works
Ginger juice does the tenderising, so the pork needs no marinating window — it goes into the pan dry and meets the sauce only at the end. Pouring the sauce into a hot, already browned pan lets it reduce to a glaze in a minute instead of steaming the meat pale. The rice goes on before anything else and sits covered off the heat, so it is steaming and rested by the time the last slices come out of the pan.
Method
- Boil the kettle. Start the rinsed rice in a small pan with the salt and boiling water, bring it back to the boil, lid it and cook 10 minutes on the lowest heat. Leave it covered off the heat until you serve.
- Stir the ginger, soy, mirin, sake and honey together in a small bowl.
- Shred the cabbage and grate the carrots. Pile them onto four plates, sprinkle with the vinegar and a pinch of salt, and put them somewhere cold.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Lay in half the pork in one layer and cook 60–90 seconds a side, until the edges are browned and no pink remains. Move to a plate and repeat with the rest.
- Return all the pork to the pan, pour in the sauce and let it bubble hard for a minute, turning the slices, until it thickens enough to cling.
- Fork the rice loose and spoon a bowl of it beside each mound of cabbage. Slide the pork and its sauce over the cabbage, scatter with spring onion and sesame seeds, and serve with lemon wedges.
For the toddler
Lift a few slices of pork onto a separate plate at the end of step 4, before the sauce goes into the pan at step 5 — it is soy, mirin and honey, and honey is not for a baby under one, with maple syrup as the stand-in. Take a little cabbage and carrot before the vinegar and salt at step 3. Chop the pork finely and crush the sesame seeds if any go on.
How the toddler notes workChef’s notes
Chicken thigh, opened out flat, takes 3 minutes a side. Thick aubergine slices work with an extra spoon of oil.
Buy pork ready-sliced for shabu-shabu; it cooks in 40 seconds a side. Three 250 g pouches of microwave rice save the pan and five minutes.
Miso soup made while the pan heats, and a saucer of pickled ginger or shop-bought cucumber tsukemono.
2 days chilled. Chop and fold through the leftover rice with an egg for a fast fried rice.