Japanese Pork Stew

Cook Time 2 hours and 30 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

300g pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt
1 onion, roughly chopped into chunks
1 carrot, roughly chopped into chunks
4cm piece ginger, cut into thin rounds
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3-4 tbsp sake
2 turnips, cut into sixths
About 10 shiitake mushrooms, halved
1 tsp honey
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup mirin
1L dashi broth
3 strips orange peel
1 cup Chinese cabbage, roughly chopped
Sliced spring onions, to garnish
Steamed rice, to serve

Method

Toss and coat the pork in the cornflour. Heat the oil in a sauté pan then season the pork with a pinch of salt, and sear, in batches, for a few minutes until golden brown on each side. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add the onion, carrot, ginger and garlic to the pan with the oil used to cook the pork. Deglaze the pan with the sake, and allow the alcohol to cook off before returning the pork to the pan. Add the turnips, mushrooms, honey, soy sauce and mirin, and stir to coat.

Pour in enough broth to cover everything, add the orange peel, then cover the pot with some baking paper and place a lid on top. Cook, covered, on low heat for about 2 hours until the meat is falling apart. Add the Chinese cabbage about 10 minutes before the end of cooking.

Garnish the stew with spring onions and serve with steamed rice.