Not familiar with shio koji? Here's my blog post few years ago with simple description and an image of this healthy Japanese fermented rice. Since then, I've made stir-fry leafy veggies and seared meat with shio koji. This time, shio koji was added to soy sauce based seasoning for a veggie pork roll recipe, adding more depth to the whole picture.
Shio koji flavored vegetable pork rolls (鹽麴豬肉捲) -
Ingredients?
- 12 pork slices
- 1 small/medium carrot
- 1 small bundle string beans
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 tablespoons shio koji
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
- Some corn starch
- Some olive oil
How?
Check the width of pork slices first. Peel and cut the carrot into strips that's about the same width of pork slices. Take the tougher ends off string beans and cut in half, or about the same length as carrot strips. Peel and grate one garlic clove.
Lay out the pork slices, transfer some carrot strips to one end along with one or two string bean sections. Roll up the pork.
Prepare a plate with some corn starch. Dust the pork rolls with corn starch and set aside, make sure sealed side (end of the pork roll) down.
Prepare a non-stick pan and drizzle some olive oil to evenly coat the bottom. Turn to medium high heat, once warmed up, transfer the pork rolls one by one. It doesn't matter if sealed side down first or not, the pork roll shape should be set by now and enclosed securely with corn starch.
Sear the pork rolls till all sides turned slightly browned. Move the rolls to one side of the pan. If too oily, take a kitchen towel and wipe the bottom of the pan to absorb some excess pork fat, but not all of it.
To the free space, add the soy sauce, shio koji, grated garlic, and sugar. Give it a quick mix and move the pork rolls over. Make sure all sides of the pork rolls are coated with the sauce. Reduce a little if needed.
Plate and serve. Cut a couple rolls in half to show that colorful center veggie sticks arrangement.
Usually there are some veggies strips left, just use the same pan with remaining pork fat and seasoning to stir-fry all the leftover ingredients. That's why do not wipe out all the pork fat during the searing process. Add some salt and black pepper if needed, then you'll end up with one extra healthy dishes on the table.
Other recipes using shio koji:
Prepping savory dishes and making desserts are like two completely different realms. I might be somewhat good at cooking daily meals (say so myself and my forever supporter Mister), but bringing sweets to the table doesn't always go as planned.
Obstacles need to be challenged, so I searched online for help, and came across Just One Cookbook's matcha Swiss roll recipe. The blog was well presented with detailed information, images, and even a video showcasing the entire cake-making process. So here it is, my very first try of making a Swill roll.
End result wasn't perfect, and definitely rooms for numerous improvements. Texture-wise, I need to be more careful about whipping up egg whites and creamy filling, so my sponge cake can get fluffier. Skill-wise, I need more practice so the matcha cream can stay in between sponge cake instead of being squeezed out while rolling up the cake, oops. But most importantly, taste-wise the cake was pretty darn good.
(Waiting for the sponge cake to cool down)
Despite all these defects, Mister and I are happy with my first Swill roll trial and the cake was gone in no time.
Is there anything need to be changed from the reference blog post? Nope, I think the flavor was great so that means the proportion of the ingredients were right. My cake was filled with elegant tea aroma with just the right amount of sweet touch. As for the last remaining cream, perhaps some got absorbed by the sponge cake along the way, was luscious and addictive. It's me who needs more practice. Next time it should be better, it will get better.
*By the way, the matcha Swill roll tastes even better when paired with brown sugar flavored milk.
Other dessert recipes:
