Cherry & Dennis Recipes
Japanese Pork Shogayaki
日式薑汁燒豬肉
Recipe overview
Japanese Pork Shogayaki is a classic Japanese home set-meal dish: 2–3 mm thinly sliced pork shoulder or collar is quickly seared with a fresh ginger sauce of Japanese soy sauce, mirin and cooking sake. It is not a thick pork chop, sweet heavy teriyaki pork, black-pepper pork or Chinese-style onion pork. Cook onions to translucent first, sear pork in single-layer batches, then briefly reduce the sauce at the end. The slices stay whole and moist with a thin amber coating and a little flowing sauce, served with shredded cabbage and hot rice.
01
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
- 600 g Thinly sliced pork shoulder or pork collar
- about 300 g onions,
- 35 g Fresh ginger
- 250 g Cabbage
- about 800 g Hot cooked white rice
Japanese ginger sauce
- 4 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons Mirin
- 3 tablespoons Japanese cooking sake
- 2 teaspoons Sugar
Pan-frying oil
- 2 teaspoons Cooking oil
Finishing flavour adjustment
- up to 1 teaspoon Japanese soy sauce
- up to 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
02
Tools
- 28–30 cm large non-stick frying pan
- wooden spoon
- silicone turner
- two sets of tongs
- Large bowl
- two medium bowls
- three small bowls
- measuring cup
- tablespoon
- teaspoon
- digital scale
- Sharp knife
- kitchen scissors
- raw-pork board
- ginger grater
- kitchen paper
- instant-read food thermometer
- four white dinner plates
03
Steps
Step 1
Thaw and inspect pork
Fully thaw frozen thin pork in the refrigerator. Reject sour smell, slime, grey-green colour, unusual liquid or an icy centre. Never rinse raw pork; separate raw and cooked tools.
Step 2
Prepare the slices
Confirm 2–3 mm thickness. For larger pieces with membrane, make two or three 1 cm edge snips with kitchen scissors to prevent curling; keep chilled.
Step 3
Prepare vegetables and ginger
Cut onions into 5 mm half-moons; finely grate fresh ginger and keep its juice; finely shred, wash and thoroughly drain cabbage, then chill it.
Step 4
Mix ginger sauce
In a medium bowl mix grated ginger and juice, Japanese soy sauce, mirin, cooking sake and sugar until mostly dissolved.
Step 5
Cook onions
Heat a 28–30 cm non-stick pan over medium heat with about 1 teaspoon oil. Cook onions 3–4 minutes until translucent and soft but still in strips.
Step 6
Remove onions first
Transfer onions to a clean bowl. Keep pan at medium heat and add only a little remaining oil if dry.
Step 7
Sear first pork batch
Place about one-third in one layer. Sear over medium-high heat 30–60 seconds per side until cooked-looking and lightly golden, then remove; never overlap.
Step 8
Finish remaining pork
Repeat in two or three batches and remove every batch promptly. Do not leave the first batch in the pan until dry and tough.
Step 9
Return everything
Return all cooked pork and onions only now; toss over medium heat for about 20 seconds to rewarm, without sauce yet.
Step 10
Add ginger sauce last
Pour in the prepared ginger sauce and toss immediately. Bring it clearly to a boil so mirin and cooking sake are thoroughly heated.
Step 11
Quickly reduce and test
Toss gently over medium heat for 1–2 minutes until a thin amber coating forms while a little sauce remains flowing. The thickest pork point must reach at least 71°C; do not judge by soy colour.
Step 12
Serve with cabbage and rice
Put drained shredded cabbage on one side of each white plate, add pork and onions with a little sauce, and serve immediately with about 200 g hot rice.
Common mistakes
- Pork is not fully thawed, causing uneven doneness. Using sour-smelling or slimy pork. Rinsing raw pork with water. Pork slices are too thick. Slice sizes and thicknesses vary too much. Membrane on large pieces is left unsnipped. Cutting slices into fine strips. Replacing all fresh ginger with old powdered ginger. Too little ginger loses the Shogayaki character. Onions are cut too thick. Removing onions before they soften. Burning onions black. Crowding all 600 g pork into the pan. Overlapping pork releases excess water. Keeping the first batch in the pan until the end. Searing pork until dry and tough. Cooking raw pork in sauce from the start. Not boiling mirin and cooking sake. Adding lots of teriyaki sauce. Thickening with cornstarch slurry. Reducing ginger sauce until dry and burnt. Judging doneness only by soy colour. Plating cabbage that is still very wet. Leaving cooked pork at room temperature too long.
Tips
Thaw pork fully only in the refrigerator. Reject off-smelling, slimy or discoloured pork. Never rinse raw pork. Use 2–3 mm thin slices. Pork shoulder or collar suits this better than very lean pork. Snip two or three small cuts into large edges. Keep pork chilled before it enters the pan. Use fresh ginger with its juice. Cut onions about 5 mm. Drain shredded cabbage thoroughly. Mix sauce before cooking. Cook onions to translucent first. Remove onions once cooked. Sear pork in two or three batches. Keep every batch in one layer. Thin pork needs only a short sear per side. Remove each cooked batch promptly. Return all pork only at the end. Add ginger sauce last. Boil the sauce after adding it. Reduce only 1–2 minutes. Thickest pork point must reach 71°C. No cornstarch thickening is needed. Leave a little flowing ginger sauce in the pan. Refrigerate leftover pork and rice promptly and reheat thoroughly.
