Japanese Eggy Piggy Stew

One of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had was in an unassuming, traditional Japanese izakaya in Tokyo called Robata. While every dish we tried was awesome, the one which stuck out the most was a tender pork stew that came complete with a hard boiled egg. I’ve been hunting for a recipe that could reproduce that meal ever since, but sadly to no avail. So after a bit of experimentation, I’ve adapted one which came closest. Although it’s still no patch on the original, I think it’s a worthy alternative; and it’s a sinch to make. If you’re ever lucky enough to be in Tokyo you should definitely make the effort to hunt the place down, as it’s one of the tastiest things you can hope to eat.

For this recipe I use pork leg, although the original used pork belly. Leg is much, much leaner, belly is much, much more tasty. You takes your choice, but belly should probably be cooked a bit more before hand, and you definitely won’t need to add any extra oil! I also used a homemade dashi – a unique Japanese stock made from seaweed and flaked fish. I’ve also made this from powdered dashi stock, but if dashi is too difficult to get hold of a combination of fish/vegetable stock could probably work as an alternative. Sake and mirin can’t really be substituted.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp goundnut oil (or veggie oil)
• 900g diced pork leg (Waitrose sell 450g packs specifically for stewing)
• 100g ginger (peeled and roughly chopped)
• 500ml dashi stock (or half fish, half vegetable stock)
• 170ml sake
• 60ml mirin
• 125ml soy sauce
• 80g dark brown sugar
• 6 medium free range eggs
• corn flour or potato statch
• spring onions

Heat oil in a large sauce pan, and cook the diced pork for about 5 minutes. It probably won’t brown, but it shouldn’t be pink on the sides. Around half way through, throw in the chopped ginger. Add the liquids (stock, sake, mirin, soy) and sugar, bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer on a low heat for 3 hours. The pan should never get dry – in fact, there should be ample liquid at the end of cooking in which to make sauce. So if a drought threatens the pan, then add a small amount of water.

While the pork is cooking, partially hard boil six eggs (add eggs to cold water, bring to boil and cook for 6 mins), carefully remove the shell and cool in cold running water.

When the pork is tender (the pieces should fall apart) remove the chunks from the liquid and put aside. Add the eggs to the liquid and cook for a further 10 minutes, so that the eggs take on a bit of the flavour of the gravy. There should be enough liquid to almost cover the eggs – add a touch more water if necessary. Remove the eggs, and place with the pork. Thicken the gravy with about a teaspoon of corn flour or potato starch (let down first with a few drops of warm water) until the sauce is a good consistency. Return the pork and eggs to the pan to reheat in the thickened sauce for a couple of minutes.

Serve immediately with freshly chopped spring onions sprinkled on top. This makes enough for six medium sized portions at around 355 calories each. A small helping of rice on the side goes down well, as does a small amount of chilli sesame carrots.

Chilli Sesame Carrots

Jullienne one medium-large carrot per person. Place in a bowl with a small amount of water, and microwave for 3 minutes until the carrots are cooked but still have bite. Drain any remaining water, and to the bowl add a small drizzle of sesame oil, a few drops of rice wine vinegar and small splash of dark soy sauce. Finally add a sprinkle of sesame seeds, a pinch of chilli powder (to taste) and combine. Serve topped with a small amount of freshly chopped spring onions.