Foodie Fridays - Classic Japanese Pork Stew ~ We are the DinoFamily 我們是恐龍家族

I cooked the Classic Japanese Pork Stew some time back after my Kasutera Cake in support of Mama Sue's What's Cooking blog train but never have a chance to post it till now. We love the beef or pork stew served in the restaurant but the stew sauce is usually a tad too sweet for our liking. I thought I'd try to make this at home plus the recipe looks easy and one pot dish are usually failure proof.

Or so I thought... I had a hard time understanding plus gathering the ingredients. For a start, I am clueless what is a Devil's Tongue Jelly... Is it a type of jelly or tongue of some kind of jelly fish (yikes!) but then jelly fish has no tongue!

It turned out that devil's tongue is actually a plant and devil's tongue jelly or Konnyaku as its known in Japan, is a hard jelly made from the root of the devil's tongue plant. Consisting of 97% water, konnyaku is rich in minerals such as calcium and potassium and is an excellent source of dietary fibre. With no distinctive taste of its own, konnyaku absorbs the flavour and taste of other ingredients it is cooked with. As it has next to no calories, it is an ideal food for those who are watching their weight.

So the mystery of the devil's tongue jelly is solved, now where can I get this and the other ingredients like mirin, sake, shouyu and the garland chrysanthemum??? I thought I could grabbed the devil's tongue jelly, mirin and shouyu from the Daiso in my neighbourhood but I could only get shouyu. I went around the supermarkets hunting for mirin and the garland chrysanthemum but couldn't find them. Finally, I headed down to Meidiya and managed to get all but the garland chrysanthemum. Luckily without the garland chrysanthemum the taste was not compromised at all. The stew still taste as delicious and as authentic or close to those that you order from the Japanese restaurant but its less salty.

I'm so proud that I can now add Japanese cuisine under my "I can cook" category even though its a simple one pot stew.

Classic Japanese Pork Stew

by Jennifer Lim

Prep Time: 45 mins

Cook Time: 25 - 30 mins

Keywords: Stew pork Japanese

Ingredients (serves 4)
* 1 block grilled firm tofu
* 1 packet mushrooms
* 300g Devil's tongue jelly
* 200g thinly sliced pork (you can use beef too)
* 300g sliced onion
* 200g garland chrysanthemum
* 10g minced ginger

Gravy
* 250ml water
* 2 tablespoon sugar
* 2 tablespoon mirin
* 4 tablespoon sake
* 4 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce (Shoyu)

Instructions
1. Cut the tofu into thick strips, pan fry all sides then set it aside.
2. Trim away the hard base from the mushrooms, divide them into small bundles,
3. Boil a pot of water and blanch the shredded devil's tongue jelly for 30 secs. Rinse under running tap water and drain well. Cut them into 8cm lengths and set aside.
4. Combine the ingredients for gravy in a pot and bring to boil.
5. Add the pork and cook till the meat changes color. Remove from pot and set aside.
6. Add tofu, onions and devil's tongue jelly into the pot, cover it with a lid and bring it to boil.
7. Lower the heat and simmer till the onions are soft.
8. Add in the mushrooms and cook for about 1 minute.
9. Return the pork to the pot and add garland chrysanthemum.
10. Cook for about 30 secs, remove from heat and serve warm with rice.

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