Quick and easy braised pork made with regular ground pork rather than the traditional pork belly. Rich and flavorful and makes wonderful leftovers. Comfort food!

In a rare nod to the expectations of most recipe sites, I am going to include an actual real personal anecdote with this recipe. When I was a student living in dorms, I would travel to the nearby asian mall and order a shockingly delicious and affordable dish simply titled "pork rice" from a little Japanese cafe. It was served with a sliced hard boiled egg and pickled diakon radishes. I loved it, so as a budding cook I decided to learn out how to make it at home.

I began googling variants of "Japanese pork rice" and attempting to make them. None of them were what I was getting from that cafe. It became an almost weekly endeavor for me to attempt yet another "experimental pork rice" dish for dinner. I never did find anything that was close, and only after the cafe had closed down did I think of asking them for more info about the dish.

Many years in the future, I was trying out a new restaurant in the city and saw Taiwanese Braised Pork on the menu. This was the same dish from so many years ago, my comfort food! Now that I knew the correct language, I was able to easily find many recipes to make my own version.

• Large deep frying pan or wok
• A lid or similiarily sized pan to act as a lid
• A pot to cook eggs in

• 1 package regular ground pork
• 1 package fresh shiitake mushrooms (or dehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms)
• 1 cup shallots
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon ginger paste
• Small amount of vegetable oil
• A couple grinds of salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine (I use Tastie brand)
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Chinese five spice powder
• 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
• 1 star anise, preferably still connected
• 1 bundle of green onions
• 3 cups of water.

• 1 1/2 cups of white jasmine rice
• 1 1/2 cups of water

• 4-5 eggs

• If using dried shiitake mushrooms rehydrate them in cold water for at least 2-3 hours. I put them in a mixing bow filled half with water and weighed down with a plate to ensure they are fully submerged. If they are not fully rehydrated, the mushrooms may have a chewy wooden texture.
• If you prefer, you can per-make the soft boiled eggs. Me and Ruby prefer a jammy egg, so we make slightly too runny softboiled eggs in this case, as they will continue to cook in the sauce later. (recipe to follow elsewhere). If we are making fancy ramen in the same week we will make extra ramen eggs and use them in this dish as well.

1. Dice the shiitake mushrooms into small bite sized pieces. If the mushrooms are on the larger size it may be necessary to remove the stems if they are still tough at this stage.
2. Peel and mince the shallots and garlic.
3. Cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of vegetable oil and fry the garlic ginger and shallots for 2 minutes over medium high heat. Stir in the mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
4. Increase the heat to high and add the ground pork with a couple grinds of salt and pepper. As this is regular ground pork, there should be no need for additional oil. Spread the pork out and let it sit for a minute or two to get a sear on one side before stirring it all together.
5. Once the pork is opaque stir in the Shaoxing wine to deglaze the pan. If you don't have access to cooking wine, sake or a couple of tablespoons of vinegar will work as well although this will alter the flavor a bit. The important step here is to deglaze the crispy pork/shallots/garlic/ginger from the bottom of the pan.
6. Mix together the soy sauces, oyser sauce, brown sugar, five spice powder and white pepper before adding to the pan and stirring well. Add the star anise.
7. Add 3 cups of water and bring the pan to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium, set a timer for 20 minutes and cover with a lid or similarly sized pan. Our makeshift lid lets a lot of steam escape so I add extra water. 2 cups of water should be sufficient for a pan with a proper lid.
8. While the pork is cooking, this is a good time to make soft boiled eggs if you didn't do it earlier.
9. This is a good time to make the rice. In our instant pot, starting now will result in it having time to cool down just in time for the pork to be done.
10. After the 20 minute timer has gone off remove the lid from the pan, remove the star anise, add the eggs and enough water to partially submerge the eggs. Simmer uncovered for about 10-12 minutes, turning the eggs so they absorb the sauce on all sides. The sauce will continue to reduce. I sometimes have to add more water or reduce it farther depending on how fast it is cooking at this point. The end goal is a rich slightly sticky sauce.
11. As the sauce is reducing, wash and chop the green onions. Mince the white portion and add immediately, cut the green portion into thumb sized chunks and add them right before serving.
12. Serve the pork, sauce and eggs over rice. Paired with Quick Pickled Daikon Takuan, sesame seeds and hot sauce if desired.

Makes 5-6 servings depending on how hungry everyone is.

• I made a small version of this dish in parallel for a friend who does not enjoy mushrooms. Even without the shiitakes, the sauce is flavorful and rich.

• Paired with Quick Pickled Daikon Takuan, sesame seeds and hot sauce if desired.

The Woks of Life