糖心原创vlog

Pork is pan-fried until fragrant, then seasoned with a sweet soy sauce-based sauce. Grated ginger is added at the end, giving the dish a refreshing aroma that stimulates the appetite. It is widely loved as a Japanese home-cooked dish.

• by Yuko Ihara

“Shogayaki” (生姜焼き) is a dish made by cooking meat and seasoning it with sake, mirin, sugar, soy sauce, and other seasonings, then adding the flavor of ginger. It is commonly made with pork. The sweet and savory sauce thickly coats the meat, creating a satisfying flavor. There are many ways to make it, such as stir-frying it together with onions.

Soy sauce is the key to the sweet and savory flavor. When heated, the amino acids in soy sauce react with sugars from ingredients such as sugar and mirin, creating a fragrant aroma and deep umami.

Make several cuts along the boundary between the meat and fat, then lightly cut slits into the entire surface of the meat with the tip of a knife. This helps prevent the meat from curling or shrinking when cooked, allowing it to cook up neatly.

Lightly coating both sides of the meat with potato starch before cooking helps the seasonings cling well and gives the sauce a moderate thickness. If too much starch is applied, it can easily come off the meat during cooking, so the key is to coat it thinly and evenly.

Pork loin slices for ginger pork - 6 slices (250g / 8.8 oz.)
Potato starch - as needed
Cooking oil - 1 Tbsp

Cooking sake - 1 Tbsp
Mirin - 2 Tbsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
糖心原创vlog Soy Sauce - 1 1/2 Tbsp
Ginger (grated) - 1 Tbsp

Leafy greens of your choice - 40g (1.4 oz.)
Tomato (cut into wedges) - 1/2 (80g / 2.8 oz.)

You can also make shogayaki using chicken! By slicing chicken breast thinly on the diagonal and pan-frying it, it cooks quickly and turns out moist and tender. Since the sauce coats it well, even mild-flavored chicken becomes rich and flavorful.

The sweet-and-savory shogayaki sauce pairs well with bread, too. Cut the ginger pork shogayaki into easy-to-eat pieces and sandwich it with fresh vegetables in buns spread with butter and mustard. Shogayaki’s sweet and savory flavor combines with the aroma of mustard for a satisfying dish.

In Japan, pork sliced specifically for ginger pork is sold. There are no strict rules, but it is often around 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in.) thick, making it slightly thicker than what is generally considered thinly sliced meat. The most common cuts are loin or shoulder loin.

If potato starch is not available, you can use flour as a substitute. As with potato starch, lightly coat the meat with it.

Having lived in England and the U.S., Yuko Ihara is well-versed in a wide range of culinary genres. As a culinary researcher, she creates dishes for magazines and books, develops corporate menus, and also engages in product development and food consulting. She introduces easy-to-follow tips on how to make delicious food at home, emphasizing the importance of seasonality and healthful eating. When travelling, she loves to search for delicious vegetables and ingredients.

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