Gingered Pork

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ginger pork w wine_6319
This recipe is similar to one I’ve enjoyed often, but the method of preparing the thin slices of pork is ingenious. We’ve all heard about partially freezing meat to make it easier to slice thinly. In this recipe Ms. Shimbo has the cook use a mallet to pound pork cutlets thin. Pounding the meat means no need for knife skills!

I’ve made variations of this recipe, served with different vegetables, as donburi, as sandwiches, and they are all delicious! I even carried a bento with ginger pork on a plane to Florida—much tastier the the tiny packet of dry pretzels, though perhaps I’d advise leaving out the garlic…

Beef Donburi


Donburi meals are Japanese comfort food, served in fast food restaurants, available in ready to heat-and-serve packets, or cooked at home for family. Donburi (kanji: 丼; hiragana: どんぶり) are also the over-sized rice bowls themselves. Rice, usually white rice, is topped with meat, seafood, tofu, and/or vegetables. I wanted something a bit more hearty. I used a delicious nutty 6-Grain Rice mixture from Kagayaki.

Iwashi no Kabayaki

Iwashi KabayakiKabayaki is a popular Japanese cooking technique most often applied to eel (unagi). Eels are difficult to prepare at home—if I could even find one!! The eels are cleaned (apparently no easy task), boned, steamed and grilled, then basted with a sweet shoyu sauce. It’s like teriyaki for eel, rather than chicken. There has been a shortage of eel this year. This recipe makes a reasonable substitute. I had a package of frozen smelt in my freezer so I used them instead of sardines—smaller fish, but still delicious and they look very pretty.

Beef Donburi

gyu donburi Japanese beef and riceIn Japan, rice is usually served plain; a meal is not complete without rice!
However there are some dishes that are meals in a bowl: donburi! A donburi is a big bowl of rice topped with foods cooked in a savory/sweet sauce. You can eat donburi dishes at many casual and chain restaurants all over Japan; you can easily make donburi at home. When you want something to eat: FAST, you can’t go wrong when eating donburi! There are donburi toppings made with vegetables, seafood, beef, pork, or chicken.