Chinese Cabbage Stir Fry with Pork

Chinese Cabbage Stir Fry with Pork is a stir fry dish but it’s not very oily. The simple soy-based flavour is quite addictive, and you can eat a lot without realising it. This is a versatile, simple stir fry and you can add different vegetables without failing.

Today’s recipe, Chinese Cabbage Stir Fry with Pork, is based on one of the recipes in my very old cookbook – Osōzaifū Gaikoku Ryōri (おそうざいふう外国料理). This means Foreign Cuisine in Japanese Home Cooking Style.

This cookbook was first published in 1972. At the time, Western-style dishes could only be eaten at restaurants. This book was created thinking that anyone could make foreign cuisine dishes at home to suit the Japanese palate.

My very old cookbook – Osōzaifū Gaikoku Ryōri (おそうざいふう外国料理).

Well, it certainly impacted my home cooking. When I first flipped through the cookbook, I was amazed at the many different cuisines included in it. About 50% of the recipes are Chinese dishes but it also contains many other cuisines from all over the world.

There is French onion soup, Hungarian goulash, Vienna schnitzel, Spanish-style scrambled eggs, minestrone soup, Irish stew, chowder, etc.

Since I had never tasted these dishes in the country of origin at that time, I thought the dishes I made by following these recipes were pretty close to those you found in the respective countries…until many years later.

When I read the recipes in this book these days, I sometimes smile and think ‘that’s so Japanesey…’. But this cookbook is one of my treasures and it reflects one aspect of the culinary history of Japan.

Today’s dish, Chinese Cabbage Stir Fry with Pork is almost a direct translation of the recipe in this book. I said ‘almost’ as the original recipe called for Ajinomoto MSG powder to add a bit of flavour but I did not use it.

What’s in Chinese Cabbage Stir Fry with Pork

The list of ingredients to go into today’s dish is quite short for a stir fry dish. Chinese cabbage (the star of the dish), sliced pork, dried mushrooms and a couple of stalks of shallots/scallions.

The Chinese cabbage leaves are cut in a particular way to allow them to be cooked evenly. Here is the photo showing how to cut the stems of Chinese cabbage leaves.

Firstly, remove the green and yellowish part of soft leaves so that the stem becomes pointy at the top like a spear head. Cut the stem in half vertically, then diagonally slice each piece into  large bite size pieces. By slicing the stem diagonally, it cooks faster and evenly.

Green/yellowish soft leaves are simply cut to 4-5cm/1½-2” long.

Simple Flavouring of Chinese Cabbage Stir Fry with Pork

It uses a combination of oil and sesame oil to give a slight nutty flavour when stir frying. Other than that, the flavouring comes from just soy sauce, sake and a little bit of vinegar at the end.

After stir frying the meat, simply add soy sauce, sake and cook. Then add Chinese cabbage and shiitake mushrooms. For 500g of Chinese cabbage, you only add 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce and sake. But as you can see in the photo, you end up with a quite saucy dish. This is because of the water from the Chinese cabbage stems.

The original recipe says that you can add sliced daikon or other vegetables if you wish. Since it is a simple flavouring, vegetables with a neutral flavour suit it best.

Yumiko

P.S. Don’t forget to see the section ‘MEAL IDEAS’ below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and the new recipe in this post that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

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Chinese Cabbage Stir Fry with Pork

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

7 mins

Rehydrating dried shiitake

8 hrs

Total Time

17 mins

 

Chinese Cabbage Stir Fry with Pork is a stir fry dish but it’s not very oily. The simple soy-based flavour is quite addictive, and you can eat a lot without realising it. This is a versatile, simple stir fry and you can add different vegetables without failing.

Prep Time does not include the time to rehydrate dried shiitake mushrooms. 

Recipe Type: Main, Side

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: Chinese cabbage, Pork, Shiitake Mushrooms, stir fry

Serves: 4 as side, 2 as main

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 500g/1.1lb Chinese cabbage
• 150g/5.3oz pork , sliced to thin bite size pieces (note 1)
• 5 dried medium size shiitake mushrooms , rehydrated overnight (note 2)
• 2 shallots/scallions , finely chopped
• 1½ tbsp oil
• ½ tbsp sesame oil

Flavouring

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sake
• 1 tsp vinegar
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Remove the soft green/yellowish part of the cabbage leaves so that the white stem becomes a spear head shape. Cut the soft leaves to 4-5cm/1½-2” long.

2. Cut each white stem in half vertically, then slice each piece diagonally, perpendicular to the vertical cut, into large bite size pieces (see photo in the post, note 3).

3. Cut each shiitake mushroom into quarters or into three pieces (note 4).

4. Heat oil and sesame oil in a frying pan or a wok over high heat.

5. When it just starts smoking, add shallots and pork pieces. Stir fry until the pork is cooked through (about 1-1.5 minutes depending on the thickness of the pork).

6. Add soy sauce and sake to the pan/wok and stir vigorously (note 5), then add Chinese cabbage and shiitake mushrooms. Add a pinch of salt.

7. Stir to coat the sauce over the cabbage until the cabbage pieces become wilted.

8. Turn the heat off, add vinegar and quickly stir. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

1. Any cut of meat other than stewing meat should be OK, e.g. tenderloin, belly, loin. Slice very thinly so that the pork cooks fast and does not become chewy.

2. Adjust the number of mushrooms depending on the size. See my recipe Simmered Shiitake Mushrooms for the correct way to rehydrate dried mushrooms.

If you don’t have time, add boiling water to a bowl with dried mushrooms to rehydrate quickly.

3. When slicing the stems diagonally, place a knife on a flat angle so that the surface of the cut area becomes large. This will allow the flavours to absorb into the cabbage pieces more effectively.

4. If your mushrooms are large, you may want to cut each mushroom into 5-6 pieces. If very small, you may not even cut the mushrooms. The size of the mushrooms needs to be well balanced against the size of Chinese cabbage pieces (see the photos in the post to get an idea).

5. Unlike Chinese stir fry, it’s OK to overcook a bit.

6. In this recipe, the liquid from the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms is not used. But you can keep it and use it as dashi stock for a vegetarian dish if you wish.

7. Nutrition per serving as a side.

serving: 210g calories: 181kcal fat: 13g (2-%) saturated fat: 2.6g (13%) trans fat: 0g polyunsaturated fat: 2.3g monounsaturated fat: 7g cholesterol: 25mg (8%) sodium: 577mg (24%) potassium: 549mg (16%) carbohydrates: 5.1g (2%) dietary fibre: 1.9g (8%) sugar: 2.1g protein: 10g vitamin a: 112% vitamin c: 94% calcium: 11% iron: 8.6%