Shio Koji Flavored Vegetable Pork Rolls (鹽麴豬肉捲)

Not familiar with shio koji? Here's my blog post few years ago with simple description and an image of this healthy Japanese fermented rice. Since then, I've made stir-fry leafy veggies and seared meat with shio koji. This time, shio koji was added to soy sauce based seasoning for a veggie pork roll recipe, adding more depth to the whole picture.

Shio koji flavored vegetable pork rolls (鹽麴豬肉捲) -

Ingredients?

• 12 pork slices
• 1 small/medium carrot
• 1 small bundle string beans
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tablespoons shio koji
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
• Some corn starch
• Some olive oil

How?

Check the width of pork slices first. Peel and cut the carrot into strips that's about the same width of pork slices. Take the tougher ends off string beans and cut in half, or about the same length as carrot strips. Peel and grate one garlic clove.

Lay out the pork slices, transfer some carrot strips to one end along with one or two string bean sections. Roll up the pork.

Prepare a plate with some corn starch. Dust the pork rolls with corn starch and set aside, make sure sealed side (end of the pork roll) down.

Prepare a non-stick pan and drizzle some olive oil to evenly coat the bottom. Turn to medium high heat, once warmed up, transfer the pork rolls one by one. It doesn't matter if sealed side down first or not, the pork roll shape should be set by now and enclosed securely with corn starch.

Sear the pork rolls till all sides turned slightly browned. Move the rolls to one side of the pan. If too oily, take a kitchen towel and wipe the bottom of the pan to absorb some excess pork fat, but not all of it.

To the free space, add the soy sauce, shio koji, grated garlic, and sugar. Give it a quick mix and move the pork rolls over. Make sure all sides of the pork rolls are coated with the sauce. Reduce a little if needed.

Plate and serve. Cut a couple rolls in half to show that colorful center veggie sticks arrangement.

Usually there are some veggies strips left, just use the same pan with remaining pork fat and seasoning to stir-fry all the leftover ingredients. That's why do not wipe out all the pork fat during the searing process. Add some salt and black pepper if needed, then you'll end up with one extra healthy dishes on the table.


Other recipes using shio koji:

• Cabbage stir-fry with shio koji (鹽麴高麗菜)
• Shio koji marinated chicken seared to perfection (香煎鹽麴雞)