Pork Steak in Shio-Koji Paste

Chef Tohru Nakamura is the creator of this dish. I've already cooked many of his recipes.

The Shio-Koji paste was easy to come by. I ordered it online and it even produced here in Germany. Shio means salt- Koji is fermented rice. I marinated the pork steaks for 10 hours.

The next full moon is tomorrow. Sleeping through the night is difficult for me short before full moon. I was awake 2 AM, could not get back to sleep and went in the kitchen at 2:30 AM and started marinating the pork. 

The koji paste makes the pork softer. It needs a lot less heat in the pan to cook.

Recipe:

225 g pork neck steak

4 tsp shio-koji paste

1 tsp grapeseed oil, 1 tbsp sesame oil

1 Dikon or Radish

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, pepper, 1/2 lime

150 g sugarsnap peas, sesame oil, salt

Bowl of hot shortgrain rice

10 hours before cooking, spread the paste all around the steak. Put in a container in the fridge. An hour prior to start making lunch, get the container out of the fridge to get back to roomtemperature.

Peel the Dikon and grate it on a boxgrater. Wash in cold water 3x. Squeeze out some liquid.

The peas can get in the microwave with a little water at 800W for 2,5 min. Season with salt and sesame oil later.

Cook the rice.

Put a pan on medium heat and add both oils. Sear the steak on both sides and cook on medium low until done. Take out of the pan and cut in slices to eat with chopsticks later.

Melt the sugar in the pan. Add vinegar, lime and soy sauce.

On a plate lay the steak chunks in a row. Put sauce over them. Then top with radish and top that with ginger.

Serve with bowls of rice and peas.