The hero of today’s dish, Simmered Pork Patties and Chinese Cabbage, is not the pork patties. It is the Chinese cabbages. The cabbages are sautéed, then simmered with the pork patties in a lightly flavoured sauce until they melt in your mouth.
Simmered Pork Patties and Chinese Cabbage is a Japanese home-cooking dish that you will probably never see in restaurants. It looks very simple but is so delicious.
The original recipe for Simmered Pork Patties and Chinese Cabbage came from one of my oldest Japanese cookbooks. It is so old that the photo of the dish is even black and white.
So, it is possible that the colour of the sauce and patties might be slightly different from the one in my cookbook. But when I converted my photo into black & white, it looked similar!
I said the hero of today’s dish is Chinese cabbages but it can also be classified as a simple pork mince recipe.
Today’s dish is considered to be a winter dish because Chinese cabbage is a winter vegetable, as mentioned in my post Chinese Cabbage and Apple Salad. The thickened sauce is also often served in winter as it keeps the dish warm for a long time.
But if the shops are selling Chinese cabbages, I can’t see why you shouldn’t make this dish even in summer.
What’s in my Simmered Pork Patties and Chinese Cabbage
Other than a few ingredients to sauté the Chinese cabbage, there are ingredients to make pork patties and ingredients for the thickened sauce.
Pork Patties:
- Pork mince/ground pork
- Tofu – silken/kinugoshi or firm/momen tofu
- Shiitake mushrooms – finely diced
- grated ginger
- Cornflour/corn starch
- Soy sauce
- Egg
The pork patties are made with pork and tofu to make the patties slightly lighter. But if you prefer, you can make the patties without tofu.
Sautéing:
- Chinese cabbage – halved vertically, then diagonally sliced (sogi-giri, そぎ切り)
- Shallot (Aussie)/scallion
- Oil
- Sesame oil
By using the sogi-giri method, the large areas of the flesh of the cabbage pieces are exposed. This will allow the flavour of the sauce penetrate into the cabbage better. The photo below shows how to do sogi-giri with Chinese cabbage.
Simmering Sauce:
- Dashi stock
- Soy sauce
- Cooking sake
- Salt
- Cornflour/corn starch diluted in water – to thicken the sauce
How to Make Simmered Pork Patties and Chinese Cabbage
There are two major steps – making the pork patties and putting it all together, and simmering.
Pork patties:
- Press the tofu to remove some water out of it.
- Break the tofu into small pieces and mix well with all the Pork Patties ingredients.
- Make flat round patties of 5cm /2” in diameter.
- Cook the patties in a frying pan.
- Transfer the patties to a plate
Simmer:
- Using the same frying pan, sauté the stem part of the Chinese cabbage pieces first, then the cabbage leaves and shallots/scallions.
- Add the simmering Sauce ingredients, excluding cornflour/corn starch, and the patties to the pan.
- Cook until the cabbage pieces become soft, then add the cornflour/corn starch to thicken the sauce.
Since the patties are cooked in the sauce for a short while, you don’t need to worry if the patties are not completely cooked through before simmering.
You can make pork patties in advance and even freeze them. It is best to cook the patties before freezing. Defrost in the fridge or a microwave. Then you can make today’s dish in no time at all.
Yumiko
The hero of today's dish, Simmered Pork Patties and Chinese Cabbage is not the pork patties but the Chinese cabbages. The cabbages are sautéed, then simmered with the pork patties in a lightly flavoured sauce until they melt in your month. Simmered Pork Patties and Chinese Cabbage is a Japanese home-cooking dish that you will probably never see in restaurants. It looks very simple but is so delicious.
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 this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 350g / 0.8lb Chinese cabbage
- 1 stem shallot (Aussie)/scallions
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp oil
- 250g / 0.6lb pork mince/ground pork
- 100g / 3.5oz tofu (note 1)
- 30g / 1.1oz shiitake mushrooms finely diced
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 tsp cornflour/corn starch
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 egg yolk or ½ egg
- 200ml / 6.8oz dashi stock
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp cooking sake
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cornflour/corn starch diluted in 1 tbsp water
-
Halve the Chinese cabbage leaves vertically, then slice diagonally using sogi-giri method, perpendicular to the first cut, into large bite-size pieces (see the photo in the post).
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Cut the shallot/scallions diagonally into 5cm long.
-
Place a clean kitchen towel or kitchen paper on a cutting board and place the tofu pieces on it. Cover the tofu pieces with another kitchen towel/paper, then place a tray with a small weight, or a flat large plate upside down on top of it.
-
Tilt the cutting board, with the lower end to the sink so that the excess water drains into the sink. Leave for 10-15 minutes.
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Place the tofu in a bowl and break it into small crumbs by hand. Add all the remaining Pork Patties ingredients to the bowl and mix well.
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Wet your hands and take 1/15 or 1/16 of the pork mixture, and make a flat round patty of 5cm / 2” in diameter. Repeat and make 15-16 patties. (note 2)
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Add sesame oil and oil to a large frying pan and heat over medium heat.
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Place the patties in the frying pan and cook for about 1-2 minutes until the bottom of the patties become golden brown.
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Turn them over and cook further 1 minute or so until the bottom of the patties become golden brown. It's OK even if the patties are not cooked through. Transfer the patties to a plate.
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Add the stem part of the Chinese cabbage pieces to the pan and sauté over medium high heat for 30 seconds, then add the rest of the Chinese cabbage pieces and shallots to the pan. Cook another 30 seconds.
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Add the Simmering ingredients, excluding cornstarch, and the patties to the pan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook with a lid on for about 10 minutes until the Chinese cabbage pieces become soft.
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Add the cornstarch to the pan and mix well. When the sauce thickens, turn the heat off.
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Serve while hot - individually or on a large plate to share.
1. Tofu can be either firm tofu (momen tofu) or silken tofu (kinugosh-dōfu). The very hard tofu/extra firm tofu is not suited for this.
If you prefer not to use tofu in the patties, you can replace it with 50g / 1.8oz of mince.
2. Depending on the number of servings, you may want to change the total number of patties you make.
3. You can make the pork patties ahead of time and even freeze them. To defrost, either naturally defrost in the fridge or use a microwave. Then you only need to do the Simmering steps in the instructions on the day of serving. You will need to add some oil to sauté the vegetables.
4. Nutrition per serving assuming 4 servings.
serving: 263g calories: 301kcal fat: 23g (35%) saturated fat: 6.4g (32%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 4.2g monounsaturated fat: 11g cholesterol: 92mg (31%) sodium: 757mg (32%) potassium: 567mg (16%) carbohydrates: 6.1g (2%) dietary fibre: 1.5g (6%) sugar: 1.5g protein: 17g vitamin a: 80% vitamin c: 68% calcium: 14% iron: 11%
Meal Ideas
A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, a couple of side dishes, a soup and rice. I try to come up with a combination of dishes with a variety of flavours, colours, textures and make-ahead dishes.
The protein in today’s main dish is a bit light, so I picked a soup with meat in it, i.e. Tonjiru (Pork and Vegetable Miso Soup). To give more colours to the meal as well as a different flavour, I think Pickled Chrysanthemum Radish and goma-ae are perfect side dishes. Instead of Pickled Chrysanthemum Radish, you could have a sunomono which is a vinegar-based dish.
- Main: Simmered Pork Pattie and Chinese Cabbage – today’s recipe, make ahead by cooking patties.
- Side dish 1: Pickled Chrysanthemum Radish – or other vinegar-based dishes such as Cucumber and Seaweed Sunomono (Vinegar Dressing)
- Side dish 2: Chrysanthemum Leaves Goma-ae (Sweet Sesame Dressing) – or other dishes with green colours in them.
- Soup: Tonjiru (Pork and Vegetable Miso Soup) – or Shrimp Balls (Ebi-shinjo) in Clear Soup or other soup with a small amount of protein.
- Rice: Rice with White Radish (Daikon Takikomi Gohan) – can be other Takikomi Gohan, or plain rice.
Nikkita says
A delicious recipe and very easy to make, even a simple dashi with bonito at home. My husband said if he got served this in a restaurant he would be very happy!
Thank you
Yumiko says
Hi Nikkita, ‘simple, delicious and happy diners’. What else can you ask for as a cook? Well done!
Kehaulani says
I made this for my family last night & we enjoyed it very much! I made moyashi as a side dish & we also had spicy Korean Kimchee. It was onolicious:) I think this will be a new staple in our house! It’s definitely a comfort food in my opinion!
Yumiko says
Hi Kehaulani, wow, 100% RecipeTin Japan meal! Thank you and I am glad you and your family like the dishes.
Jenny says
Terrific recipe. I had a surplus of home-grown pak choy so I used that instead of wombok cabbage, but it was still delicious.
Yumiko says
Hi Jenny, great substitute and home-grown is the best! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Wanda says
Mahalo for this ono (delicious) recipe. It was a very comforting meal and we enjoyed it very much especially during these coronavirus times.
Yumiko says
Hi Wanda, Noʻu ka hauʻoli.
David Moore says
Konichiwa Yumiko!
I made this tonight and followed your recipe exactly, measuring down to the gram…give or take.
I’ve never cooked with Dashi before…but now that I have a couple packets of Dashi broth granules, I’ll include it in broths for udon, etc. The broth had a fantastic aroma.
I plated the cabbage & pork with rice and was a little anxious about how it was going to taste, since I didn’t check it for seasoning during cooking.
IT WAS PERFECT! We loved it. Definitely making this again.
Thank you for the delicious recipe.
Dave
Yumiko says
Konnichiwa David-san! It’s great to hear the flavour was to your liking. And welcome to the world of dashi broth!
Jeanine says
Looks beautiful! I was wondering how you thought it would turn out if we were too hurried/lazy to make the pork into patties, and just fried/simmered the ingredients loose? Thanks!
Yumiko says
Hi Jeanine, I think it would work. Naturally, you don’t need binding ingredients to make patties. I would also omit tofu but you may use shiitake, either diced or sliced. When sautéing you may want to add a small amount of grated ginger. Please let me know how it went!
Natalia says
Made this one tonight and it was delicious! I forgot to add the egg into the patty mix but it still held together beautifully and wasn’t dry.
Thank you!
Yumiko says
Hi Natalia, you must have had the right type of pork mince! I am glad you enjoyed it.
Theresa says
A wonderful recipe. many thanks also, for showing the side dishes!
Yumiko says
Hi Theresa, you are welcome!