Saturday Dinner: Meat in the pouch
Tonight, we had some guests over at our apartment, so I made a tapa-style Japanese dinner. I'll just put a recipe for one of the dishes I made that can definitely be a main dish for any Asian dinner.
The "pouch" is fried tofu, called abura age. It's not like tofu though, so if you don't really like tofu, don't feel like you can't make this dish. Alternatively, if you can't find this fried tofu pouches, you can use broiled nappa cabbage leaves to stuff the meat.
Meat in the pouch (for 2-3 people - makes 12 little stuffed pouches):
Ground pork (3/4 pound) - You can also use ground chicken or turkey
Fried tofu pouches (6) - It's best to get ones that are small (like 2 by 2 inches)
Water chestnut (1/4 cup chopped) - This adds crunch
Dried shiitake mushrooms (1/4 cup soaked and chopped) - You should be able to get this at any Asian store
Soy sauce (1 tsp, 1-1/2 Tbsp)
Cooking wine (1 tsp)
Salt (1/2 tsp, 1/2 tsp)
Dashi no moto
Mirin (1-1/2 Tbsp)
Potato starch (1 tsp) - You can substitute corn starch for this
Water (2 cups)
1. Boil hot water and put it over fried tofu pouches in a strainer. This gets rid of excess oil on the pouches. You could also put tofu pouches on paper towel on a microwave-safe plate and microwave them for a minute.
2. Soak shiitake mushrooms in water for more than 5 minutes until they're tender enough to cut. Chop soaked shiitake mushrooms and water chestnut into small dices.
3. Combine, ground pork, chopped shiitake mushrooms and water chest nut, salt (1/2 tsp), cooking wine (1 tsp), soy sauce (1 tsp), and potato starch. Mix well.
4. Cut fried tofu pouches into halves and open them up so they're like pouches.
5. Stuff the pouches with the meat mixture.
6. Boil water and a dash of dashi no moto in a large pot or deep pan. Add soy sauce (1-1/2 Tbsp), salt (1/2 tsp), and mirin (1-1/2 Tbsp). Once the soup boils, put all the stuffed pouches in. Put the lid on and turn the heat down to medium low. Cook until meat is cooked all the way through.
7. Let it rest for as long as you can so the flavor gets absorbed into the pouches.
Serve it with rice and miso soup. Enjoy!
Technorati Tags:fried tofu pouch, water chestnut, shiitake
