Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Japanese style Pork Rib Stew

Now I am in India, cooking Japanese has been a challenge. But, since I brought back my hubby's favorite Sake, I challenged on making what's called "Buta no Kakuni" type of dish. The only pork meat we could get that is similar to the texture of Kakuni would be the ribs (although all of them comes with sizable bones), so we did. And, instead of using Naganegi for the garnish, I used what's called "leak" here in India, which is different from the leak I know in the US. Anyway, it worked quite okay.



Ingredients:
Pork Ribs (approx 700g), white radish (Indian white radishes are small, so I used two), 2 carrots, 2 onions (cut into four big pieces), leeks for garnish, ginger for garnish, ginger paste (of course you can use real ginger, but in India it is easy to get a pack of ginger paste so I used it instead)
Sauce mix: 1 cup of cooking sake (which might be hard to get in India. You could substitute this with dry sherry), 2 tbs of soy sauce, 1 tbs of Mirin (nope you cannot find it in India, so you can skip this if you don't have it), 1 tbs of honey, 2 tbs of sugar.
Instructions:
In a pressure cooker, brown the meat (if they fit ^^). Add ginger paste or crushed ginger (I put in quite a bit), add sauce mix to the pot, add onions (leave a couple of slices), add just enough water to cover the ingredients, cover and simmer. Let them cook in the pressure cooker for at least 30 mins on medium heat.
Once the pressure is completely released, open the pressure cooker, add carrots, remaining onion (cut into 1/4 size). I also add two boiled eggs at this time. Cover and let them cook again for at least one whistle.
Open the pressure cooker (again, after releasing the pressure), simmer until the sauce gets thicker and reduced. And you are done!  Add some garnish (leek and finely sliced ginger) and enjoy!