What was the best way to get young Diana and her sisters to eat more rice? Make this dish and drizzle every single drop of that liquid gold from the steamed pork on top of the rice. Ooooooweeeeeee! So good!
Grant it, the pork cake is yummy too, marinated with everything but the kitchen sink, and complemented with the umaminess of the mushrooms and the extra texture from the chestnuts. Once steamed, the flavors from the salted fish also infuses the pork cake.
And with age, I now appreciate the pungent flavors from a small dose of the salted fish.
But to get us to be good Chinese children at the table and eat every single grain of rice in the bowl and even ask for seconds, that rice had to be seasoned with the residual awesomeness some people may gloss over.
Can you relate?
Adapted from The Woks Of Life’s Steamed Pork Cake With Salted Fish
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Steamed Pork Cake with Salted Fish (鹹魚蒸肉餅)
- Yield: 3 with lots of rice 1x
- Category: Mains
- Method: Steaming
- Cuisine: Chinese
Description
A dish to get Chinese children at the table to eat every single grain of rice in their bowl and even ask for seconds!
Ingredients
- 12 ounces of fatty ground pork
- ½ teaspoon of sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 1/8 teaspoon of ground white pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine
- 2 tablespoons of water
- 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon of grated ginger
- 1 stalk of green onion, white portion finely chopped, green portion chopped
- 1/3 cup of canned boiled water chestnuts, coarsely chopped
- 2 large dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated, squeezed dry, stems removed and finely chopped
- 3 half-inch slices of fermented, salted fish
- 1-inch knob of ginger, sliced into thin matchsticks
Instructions
- Marinate the pork. Add all of the ingredients except for the green portion of the green onion, salted fish, and sliced ginger into a large bowl. With your hands, combine the ingredients until a wet, sticky pork mixture is formed. Set aside for one hour or in the refrigerator overnight to marinate.
- Steam the pork. If you had marinated the pork overnight, bring the meat back to room temperature before cooking it, around 30 minutes. Place the meat in a deep dish and spread it evenly (to the dish’s edge if possible) to form a thin pork patty. Nestle the salted fish slices into the patty and sprinkle the sliced ginger and green onion all over. Place the deep dish in a pre-heated steamer and steam on medium-high for 10 minutes. Remove the steamer from the heat and keep the lid on. Allow the meat to rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately with rice drizzled with the residual liquid. It’s liquid gold!
