Pork rolls with carrot, zucchini and enoki mushroom

 This dish is very typical of Japanese cuisine due to the sauce participants being soy sauce, sake and mirin at the golden ratio of 1:1:1, together with sugar to level up the sweetness. Other common spices of Japanese dishes are miso paste (light, medium, dark) and dashi broth (kombu, bonito, niboshi, ago, vegan shiitake).

Hon Mirin is a sweet alcoholic beverage produced and consumed mainly in Japan with an alcohol content of around 14%. It is made from glutinous rice, rice malt, and shochu (rice shochu/ brewer's alcohol), and is then matured and strained. It adds a subtle sweetness to the food, enhance the shiness and glossiness of the dish and prevent the food from breaking apart.

The sweetness in mirin is also believed to be healthier than sugar. GI is a measure of the speed at which blood glucose levels rise. Low-GI foods reduce the rapid rise in blood glucose levels and support a healthy diet. While the GI value of fine white sugar is 109, Hon Mirin has a low GI value of 15, making it a low-GI seasoning because it does not raise blood sugar levels. 

Sake has lighter sweetness and stronger alcohol flavor than mirin. Using cooking sake to prepare food has many advantages, such as enhancing the umami flavor of the meat, reducing strong odors in marinades, tenderizing meat as it cooks, and releasing antioxidants into the food. Both sake and mirin help suppress odors in the food and help all flavors sink in the food more easily, due to its content of alcohol.

Soy sauce is used in Japanese cuisine as commonly as fish sauce in South East Asian countries. It is not as strong and sharp as fish sauce, and it smells more pleasant. It has salt content, color impact, and generally healthier than salt. Despite soy sauce being high in sodium - about 870 mg per tablespoon - it's still substantially less than the 6,976 mg of sodium in a tablespoon of salt. 

Japanese people seem to adore the unami and the sweetness in their food, because it is common to see the combination of soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar, dashi, miso in their seasoning. In contrast, South Easi Asian people like Vietnamese prefer much sharper and saltier taste. In the off-putting smell that Western and East Asian people avoid, the South East Asian can feel its unbeatable taste, much like some cold drink for a summer day. 

Fish sauce is extracted from fish (or shrimp, crab, shellfish), while soy sauce from soy beans. Fish sauce is therefore more beneficial for the body thanks to its containment of proteins and fatty acids that are missing in soy sauce. Furthermore, there are some compounds in soy sauce that may have harmful health effects, such as 3-MCPD that may cause kidney damage, tumors, and decreased male fertility. Hence, European Commission has set a maximum limit of 3-MCPD as 0.02 mg/kg in soy sauce, while this limit in the US is 1.0 mg/kg and in Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) 0.2 mg/kg. Also, due to their high sodium, a recommendation for daily intake of fish sauce is 3 tsp and of soy sauce is 2 tbsp.

However, in this blog post I will not discuss much about health but I will concentrate on food recipes. All ingredients are equal in their contribution to the great food. (Agree?)

Today's dish is meat rolls, perfect for 2 people, made as follows:

Ingredients:

• 250-300 grams of pork belly slices (known as shabu shabu in Japanese)
• 2/3 carrot (about 100 grams)
• 1/2 zucchini (about 100 grams)
• 120 grams of enoki mushrooms

Sauce:

• 1-2 cloves of chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon each of soy sauce, sake, mirin, and water
• 1 teaspoon of sugar

Instructions:

Step 1: Slice the carrot and zucchini into small strips. Separate the enoki mushrooms using a fork. Keep the carrot strips thinner than the zucchini as carrots are firmer.

Step 2: If you have a long cutting board, spread all pork slices on it and sprinkle with a little salt, pepper, and potato starch.

Step 3: Place strips of carrot, zucchini, and enoki mushrooms onto the pork slices and roll them firmly with your hands. Gently press them in your palm at the end to prevent them from loosening.

Step 4: Heat a pan over medium heat. Add all the rolls and cook until browned. Pour in the prepared sauce and let it simmer over low heat. Stir occasionally. Once the sauce thickens, remove from heat. Sprinkle with black pepper or green coriander for added color.

Note:

This dish has a sweet flavor profile, so it may not be suitable for those who dislike sweetness. Northern Vietnamese people, for example, may prefer dishes that are salty and dry rather than sweet and saucy.

To Japanese people, this dish offers a balance of saltiness and sweetness. The flavors are well-penetrated, thanks to the alcohol in sake and mirin. Mirin also contributes to the glossy appearance of the dish.

Personally, I love this dish, which is why I've shared the recipe here for others to enjoy. I hope you like it too. Cheers!

Credit to Asuka Wada's cook book.