Steamed mushroom and minced pork ‘meat cake’

This dish is a classic Cantonese home-cooked dish that was a staple on my dinner table growing up. The addition of water chestnut provides a lovely contrast in textures to the pork mince, however, is not an essential addition. Ensure you use a sufficiently deep enough dish to catch any juices released from the pork while steaming.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• serves

  4

• prep

  40 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 8 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 8 frozen water chestnuts, thawed
• 400 g lean pork mince
• cooked rice, to serve
• 2 spring onions, green part only, thinly sliced, to garnish

For the marinade 

• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp corn flour
• ¼ tsp white pepper
• ½ tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Marinating time: 20 minutes 

Instructions

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in warm water for at least 30 minutes, until they are soft. Drain, squeeze out the water, then roughly chop. Pat the water chestnuts dry with a paper towel, then roughly chop.

2. In a large bowl, combine the mushrooms, water chestnuts and pork mince with the marinade ingredients and mix well to combine. Allow the mixture to marinate in the fridge for 20 minutes.

3. When you’re ready to cook, pour enough water to steam into a wok or a large frying pan with a steamer insert and lid, and bring to the boil. Press the marinated pork mince into a heat-proof steaming dish to form a ‘meat cake’. Steam the ‘meat cake’ for 12 minutes, or until cooked through. Sprinkle with the spring onion and serve immediately with rice.

Photography by Jiwon Kim.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Stream free On Demand

Chinese Soul Food

Watch the full episode here

G

Watch the full episode here

G