Thursday Dinner: Steamed pork with plum sauce

My mom sent me a tube of plum paste from Japan, so, tonight, I made steamed pork with a refreshing taste of plum. I went to a local Chinese store to look for a bamboo steamer, but they didn't have it, so I just used microwave, and it worked really well.



Steamed pork with plum sauce (for 2 people):
Pork butt (1/4 pound) - Use it half-frozen so you can slice easily
Japanese picked plum (umeboshi) (2 Tbsp paste, about 4 plums)
Shiso leaves (Japanese mint) (4) - You can get this at a Japanese or Asian store. It might say "Ooba" rather than Shiso.
Enoki mushroom
Salt (a pinch)
Soy sauce (1 tsp)
Mirin (1 tsp)
Honey (1/2 tsp)

1. Slice pork about 1/4 inch thick.
2. If you can't find plum (umeboshi) paste at a local Asian store, you can just get whole picked plums/umeboshi and chop them up finely until they are mushed up like paste. Mix the paste with soy sauce, mirin, and honey.
3. Roll up shiso/ooba leaves and slice them like you would to basil leaves.
4. Take 2-3 slices of pork (on top of each other) and put a thin layer of the plum paste on one side. Place them on a large microwavable plate. Take 2-3 more slices, put a thin layer of the paste on one side, and place next to the first 2-3 slices of pork with the pasted side and non-pasted side attached. Basically, you just want to make layers of pork and plum paste. Keep going until you use all the pork.
5. Put the shiso/ooba leave strips over the pork.
6. Cut off the end of enoki mushroom and wash it well. Using your hands, separate the bunch of mushrooms into small bunches. Place them around the pork.
7. Sprinkle some salt (just a pinch) over enoki mushrooms.
8. Cover the plate with plastic wrap loosely and cook in the microwave for about 8 minutes. Depending on how thick your pork is, you may need to increase the cooking time.
9. Check to make sure meat is cooked all the way through and serve!

I served this dish with a side dish of cooked hijiki (Japanese seaweed) and rice. Because picked plums are really salty, I put honey in to make the taste milder. I used pork, but you can totally use chicken breast if you're not a big pork fan.

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