This was a happy accident.

I had a lot of ginger. I ordered some from our neighbor, and she sent over giant pieces! So I was trying to figure out what to do with them. I looked up ginger and pork, and I found this Japanese recipe. Happily, I had most of the ingredients, so I gave it a try.

OMG it was heavenly. Paired with oven-roasted bell pepper and freshly cooked rice, yum!

Ingredients

• Ginger – peeled and chopped
• Pork – We boiled this a few days before to make sure it was tender. Best to use a thin cut of meat. I think this would be great with beef too.
• Soy sauce
• Sake – We had some lying around, a gift from a few Christmases ago.
• White wine vinegar – The original recipe called for mirin, but I didn’t have any, so I substituted this.
• Black pepper
• Sesame oil
• Butter

Procedure

1. In a container, mix equal parts soy sauce and sake. Add about a teaspoon of white wine vinegar, and black pepper. Add as much ginger as you like.

2. Add the meat. Make sure all the meat is covered by the marinate. Let it sit in the fridge for at least three hours.

3. When you’re ready to cook, heat up a pan with butter and sesame oil.

I used a cast iron pan. I made sure the pan was very hot.

4. Keeping the pan on high heat, fry each piece until each side is brown and seared.

5. When all the pieces are cooked, turn down the heat and pour the marinade in. Bring to a boil. Remove the ginger pieces. You can put this in a bowl and use it as a dipping sauce.

Best with oven roasted bell pepper! For this, just arrange thinly sliced bell pepper in a baking dish, Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes.

Enjoy!