Cabbage Stir-Fry with Shio Koji (鹽麴高麗菜)

Talking about shio koji, one of the most popular ways to utilize this ingredient is making it into a marinade, usually for chicken, fish, or cucumber. This time, I'm going to use it in a cabbage stir-fry.

Cabbage stir-fry with shio koji -

Ingredients?

• 1 small cabbage
• 6 shiitake mushrooms
• 1 medium sized carrot
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons shio koji
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice cooking wine 米酒
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

How? 

Tear the cabbage into large bit size pieces. Peel and slice the carrot. Cut the shiitake mushrooms into thick slices, one mushroom can cut into 3 slices. Peel and slice the garlic cloves.

Drizzle some oil to a pan, add in garlic, salt, and black pepper. Turn to medium high heat and sear till the garlic turns slightly golden but not burnt. 

Turn to high heat and quickly add in the mushroom and carrot, cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

Transfer all the cabbage over and drizzle some Chinese rice cooking wine. It might pile up like a tiny mountain but will soon wilted down. Once wilted a little, add the shio koji and give it a quick stir. Taste and adjust with salt if needed.

Keep cooking till the cabbage reaches desired texture. Some like it crunchy and with a distinct wok hei when cooking with high power heat/fire. Sometimes I prefer my cabbage with a softer bite like the one shown in these images. 

Once heated, shio koji releases its aroma into the dish. So instead of the natural sweetness from the cabbage, you also get a mellow, deeper note of sweetness from the fermented rice, but only to an extent. It is still a savory dish after all, but one well-seasoned veggies stir-fry. 


Other recipes using shio koji:

• Shio koji marinated chicken seared to perfection (香煎鹽麴雞)
• No fuss cooking and healthy eating recipe - shio koji marinated salmon fillet