Cabbage and Dried Shrimp Skin Rice - 高麗蝦皮菜飯

My family has been feeding me too well since the first day I arrived in Taiwan. Over the past week, I haven't really cooked anything besides blanching some local green veggies. When I'm hungry, there're always some kind of stewed meat, a big pot of soup, and stir fry vegetables in the kitchen or in the fridge that's always overfilled with fresh ingredients and delicious homemade food.

As a result, I'm running out of my own recipe to share because mommy and daddy took over the cooking work. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind having this "tasty issue" for the rest of my trip. Solution? How about my mom's recipe? I guarantee the food will be at least 10 times yummier than my own!

Cabbage and dried shrimp skin rice 高麗蝦皮菜飯 -

Ingredients (about 6 to 8 portion)?

3 1/2 cups of uncooked white rice
1 big handful of dried shrimp skin
1 small cabbage
Some olive oil
Some ground pork
Some soy sauce
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some rock salt

How?

You can find dried shrimp skin at a Chinese supermarket -

It's not the same as "dried shrimp." Dried shrimps are meatier and tougher in texture. Dried shrimp skin is small and flat. Be careful not to be fooled when you see dried shrimp skin with vibrant orange color especially some sellers tend to add chemical coloring to get a better looking product.

Remove and discard the very outer layer of the cabbage leaves. Thoroughly rinse the remaining, drain well, and chop into smaller bite size pieces.

Drizzle some olive oil into a big pan and turn to medium high heat. Add in the dried shrimp skin and cook till the aroma comes out, about 2 minutes. Add in ground pork along with some salt and freshly ground black pepper.

My mom doesn't use any measurement while cooking, everything is done by gut feeling. That's actually the way I cook, I only jot down the amount of seasonings used when preparing for a blog post.

"Use a lot of black pepper," she noted.

Pour in some good quality soy sauce along the sides of the pan, that way the heat will bring out the aroma and adds more flavor to the ingredients. The amount of soy sauce? Enough to darken but not "browning" the meat.

You can also substitute ground pork with already cooked ones. In that case, perhaps reduced the amount of soy sauce to prevent over-seasoning. When the pork is fully cooked through and just slightly browned on the edges, add in chopped cabbage.

Just a quick stir, about 1 minute then turn off the heat.

My mom used long grain white rice and short grain white rice mixture, about 3:1 ratio. Wash the rice and transfer to a rice cooker. Pour in a little bit of water, just a little bit under the surface of the rice. Lastly, pour in previously cooked cabbage and pork mixture, close the lid and press the button to start cooking.

It might seem like there's not enough water added for the rice. However, cabbage contains lots of water and it'll all be released during the steaming process. That naturally sweet flavor will then absorbed by the grains.

Once done, gently mix the stir fried ingredients with the rice. Remember to close the lid again and leave the rice cooker on for about 10 more minutes. That way you'll get a thin layer of darkened crispy edges to munch on!

We usually serve it with other small dishes such as spicy sausages, stir fry shirasu, etc.

Some small dish recommendations:

Shirasu and vegetable pancakes
Spicy garlic chives and ground pork stir fry
Seared steak with spicy sacha sauce
Oven baked Matsuzaka pork marinated in red vinasse and white miso