Monday, June 21, 2010

hoikorou

Awhile back I tried to re-create a dish we had at a Chinese restaurant, but wasn't satisfied with the results.

I looked through a Chinese cookbook that I have and found a recipe for "hoikorou" (not sure of the spelling but this is the word phonetically.) It is a spicy miso stir-fry.

With my first try, I had used Japanese miso, but for this version I used tenmenjan (which is a red miso that is cooked with sugar) and used in Chinese cooking.

This version also uses tochijan (which is black bean sauce).

Here is the recipe for the sauce, add your favorite veggies and some protein.

Spicy Miso sauce : Adapted from Szechuan cooking "Tenyu"
Serves 2

1 tablespoon tobanjan (chili paste)
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1 teaspoon tochijan (black bean sauce)
1/2 teaspoon tenmenjan (chinese miso)
1 tablespoon sesame seed oil

Combine first five ingredients and mix well.

Heat 1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil in a pan and saute protein and veggies until well coated.

Add miso sauce and cook until veggies are cooked to your liking. I cooked mine until the protein and eggplant were cooked through.

I used 1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 zucchini
1 eggplant
1/2 onion
6 thin slices of pork

NOTES: This was good and really close to the one we had, but the next time I will cut back the tobanjan (chili paste) to half a tablespoon. The heat from the chili paste came from the back of your throat until it made its way to your lips and then stayed there for a bit. (I coughed several times)

This dish is especially nice with rice.

We had this dish with Anchor's Summer Beer, which I found at the gourmet supermarket, Seijo Ishii...399 yen (about US$3.99). It supposedly goes nicely with spicy foods.

Yamaya, which normally has an assortment of imported beers, seems to no longer be bringing them in (boo!)

We liked this beer, it has a nice foamy top and was kind of fruity.

The weather has been quite gloomy, hope your week will be a nice one!

14 comments:

Dennis K. said...

Darn I love hoikorou. I can eat three bowls of rice with it.

jalna said...

Looks ono!

Kirby said...

http://www.vancouvernewsblog.com/2010/06/japa-dog-grows.html

Japanese hotdog, anyone??

K and S said...

Wow 3 bowls, do you have a hoikorou recipe Dennis?

Thanks Jalna, was good but spicy!

No thanks Kirby, I'll stick to pork parts :)

Take care everyone.
Kat

KirkK said...

Hey Kat - Nice recipe, I like the redesign of the blog too!

PR said...

In Chinese, "huiguorou", twice-cooked pork. Usually made with a fattier cut of pork that is boiled first in a chunk, then chilled, sliced, and stir-fried. If you can find doubanjiang from Pixian, it adds flavour without much heat.

K and S said...

Thanks Kirk, I couldn't believe how easy it was to change the template of the blog :)

Thanks PR, will keep my eye out for doubanjiang, the tobanjan I used is Szechuan.

Take care you two.
Kat

Deb in Hawaii said...

Like the blog refresh--I keep meaning to do that. This looks good--I would probably have to turn the heat down for me--I am much wimpier than you are!
;-)

Anonymous said...

Wow. What a surprise when I clicked into your blog! I suppose I'm the last to see. Now I'll go back and read it. I love the fresh new look!

K and S said...

I was scared to try the new designer Debinhawaii, but just click on the one you like and voila! it updates everything, in the past, you had to go back in and edit (p.i.t.a.)!

Thanks Momiji :)

Take care you two.
Kat

Rowena said...

Wow! Total blog rehaul and I like it! At first I was a little bit confused (thought I had someone else's page) but soon recognized the hoikorou image that I had seen in google. This looks sooooo good right no! Last night was fun but I am paying for it now (overdid it on the champagne and wine...as usual).

K and S said...

Thanks Rowena, it was so easy to change with Blogger's new template designer thingy. I saw your party, way to go in the kitchen! coffee lots of coffee ;)

Take care.
Kat

Unknown said...

oooo the tobanjan version sounds delicious!

K and S said...

Thanks Rick, spicy but ono!

Take care.
Kat