Miso Pork, KangKung & Japanese Rice

As some of you may already know,
I'm what you would call a "Bento Affectionado".

I keep up with this wonderful blog: http://justbento.com/ and on it I saw a recipe for miso pork chops. Decided, I went to the asian store to buy some kangkung "Ipomoea aquatica", also known as Filipino Spinach and some rice as I had already bought my meat at the butcher's this morning at the outdoor market.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the concept of bento or kangkong,
here is a short explanation:

• Bento (弁当 or べんとう) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento is readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box. (Thank you Wikipedia!)

Bento Lunches

My favorite thing about bento boxes is that you can have a themed lunch, as there is so much creative options on how to decorate your lunch box and arrange your food.

• KangKung (Ipomoea aquatica) is a semi-aquatic tropical plant grown as a leaf vegetable. It is known in English as Water Spinach, Water Morning Glory, Water Convolvulus, or by the more ambiguous names "Chinese spinach" and "swamp cabbage". It has many other names in other languages. It is found throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world; it is not known exactly where it originated. Ipomoea aquatica grows in water or on moist soil. Its stems are 2–3 metres (7–10 ft) or more long, rooting at the nodes, and they are hollow and can float. The leaves vary from typically sagittate (arrow-head-shaped) to lanceolate, 5–15 centimetres (2–6 in) long and 2–8 centimetres (0.8–3 in) broad. The flowers are trumpet-shaped, 3–5 centimetres (1–2 in) diameter, usually white in colour with a mauve centre.

            Kangkung

I tried Kangkung for the first time a few months ago and I thought it was really delicious!

My favorite way to prepare it is to sauté it with a little bit of olive oil,
a lot of garlic and one red hot chili pepper.

Yummylicious!

• Mirin (味醂 or みりん) is an essential condiment used in Japanese cuisine, consisting of 40%–50% sugar. It is a kind of rice wine similar to sake, but with a lower alcohol content 14% instead of 20%. There are three general types. The first is hon mirin (lit. true mirin), which contains alcohol. The second is shio mirin, which contains alcohol as well as 1.5% salt to avoid alcohol tax. The third is shin mirin (lit. new mirin), or mirin-fu chomiryo (lit. mirin-like seasoning), which contains less than 1% alcohol yet retains the same flavour. In the Edo period, Mirin was drunk as a sweet sake. It should not be used in excess however, as its flavour is quite strong. It is sometimes used as a sushi accompaniment. Mirin is used in teriyaki sauce.

All the ingredients described above can be found in most asian stores.

I buy my meat from the butcher. I recommend buying it there if you have one in your town as you can ask for the best cuts. (This recipe is for one person. Add double the ingredients for two.) So, back to my miso pork project, I started by buying 4 thin slices of pork (neck).

Once home, I then took a ziplock bag and filled it with:

1     crushed garlic clove

2     grossly sliced pieces of ginger (crushed them with my knife)

2     tsp of white miso paste (works fine with red too!)

1/2  cup of soy sauce

I then placed my meat inside the ziplock bag for 5 hours. (ideally you would let it marinate overnight or for a full day) Why 5 hours? Well because I put my meat to marinate during my lunch break and I wanted to eat it tonight. So if you are lucky like me and work fairly close to home (or from home if you're luckier than me) you can marinate anything during the second half of your day and have it ready for dinner!

I then hard boiled 1 egg in a little bit of vinegar water. (Vinegar keeps the egg from leaking if its shell is cracked due to the heat of the boiling water. It helps keeping it's shape.)

I then peeled and cleaned my hard boiled egg under some cold water. I took another ziplock bag out and poured some soy sauce and placed the hard boiled egg to marinate in the fridge.

So, once home, after setting up the rice cooker, washing the rice and letting the machine do the work, I set out my pan with a little bit of sunflower oil and my chopped garlic.

I then added the washed kangkung that I chopped in 4 sections.

I left the kangkung to simmer on med-high heat until it started to look like half-cooked spinach.

(You don't want it to be too limpy as it needs to have a certain crunch.)

 

Pan cleaned, I placed it back on the stove and set the temperature on high heat. I added the marinated meat and it's marinade in the pan and left it to sizzle and reduce. After the meat browned a little, I sliced it to check if it was cooked thouroughly. I took it off the stove and left the pan and marinade reduction and turned the heat to medium. I set the meat aside and went to get my trusty Sake (Japanese rice wine). I poured just a little bit of sake in the pan with 2 drops of mirin. 

Dressing of the plate:

well first off I used a very wide and shallow bowl. I layed the kangkung first in a corner of the plate and decorated it with a red hot chili, I then placed the meat next to the kangkun and I finished by cutting my egg in half and placing it gracefully in between the kangkunk and the meat. I then used the sauce I just finished to cover some of the meat. I served the rice in a small rice bowl next to the plate.

I hope you try this recipe and have as much fun then me eating it!

Bon Appétit!