Little Foodies Japan - Ginger pork and Sushi

Buta no shogayaki with Kimpira - Ginger pork with sauteed green beans (we had broccoli too). This was absolutely delicious and as Hubby had to come home early to take the cat to the vet (long story) we were all able to have dinner together. We all had seconds!

There are a few versions of these dishes, but we decided to do our own take on these two from The World Cook Book Collection - Japan. It's part of a collection of books sold in conjunction with The Times newspaper back in 2005. I never saw the series then but found it in a discount bookshop a month or so ago, and knew we would be doing Japan at some stage. It cost me the grand sum of £1.00 and for the above meal alone it was worth it.

Ginger Pork
1 large pork loin, very, very thinly sliced (I must get some new knives!)
1 thumb size piece of fresh ginger, finely grated (I used a microplane)
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and bashed about a little (This wasn't in the recipe but we wanted garlic!)

Mix the soy sauce, ginger and garlic - pour over the sliced pork. Mix it up and let is sit for 15 minutes. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and then tip the pork and the juices into the frying pan. Lay the pork pieces out flat and turn after a few minutes. Cook through. Because it is so finely sliced it shouldn't take long to cook. Serve with rice (we used sushi rice, prepare and cook as per instructions on the packet) and the green beans and broccoli below.

Sauteed green beans and broccoli
1 large bag of green beans, cleaned and trimmed
We also used broccoli spears
2 tablespoons of sunflower or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

Mix the sake, soy sauce and sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves.
Gently saute the green beans and broccoli for 2-3 minutes.
Turn the heat up and add the sake and soy mix. Let it bubble for a minute then add half a cup of water. Put a lid on and let it bubble away for approximately 4-5 minutes.

Children can make sushi...

Our first attempt at making sushi wasn't as adventurous or neat as the shop bought supermarket variety - see below. But it was fun!The boys have both tried sushi before. Little will eat it sometimes, Small has never liked it! They seem to like the rice and the other bits but they don't like the seaweed wrapper. It was fun to try and make our own but I was the only one who liked the taste. In the end we only did the fish sticks sort as they didn't want to waste the smoked salmon. Little struggled with rolling it so I didn't get Small to attempt it (you have to manage expectations when cooking with children). I let him play with some sticky rice and bits and pieces though - I'm still finding bits of rice all over the house this morning. We might attempt making some more but with the egg wrappers or toasted sesame seeds around the outside.