Pork in Soy Sauce

Name: Pork in Soy Sauce Recipe: Tender Braised Pork in 40 Minutes
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: Lean pork 0.5 kg; Soy sauce 2-3 tbsp; Dry white wine 100 ml; Lard 1 tbsp; Salt, black pepper, coriander to taste

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45 mins

One of the best-loved meat dishes of Asian cuisine is pork in soy sauce. Big pieces of lean pork are fried until golden brown, then braised in wine with natural soy sauce. Depending on how thick the sauce is, you can make pork with gravy or pieces of meat in a soy glaze. Pork in soy sauce goes well with vegetable side dishes.

Pork, rice, noodles, soy sauce, and hot pepper are among the staple ingredients of Asian cuisines. Frying in very hot oil is widely used everywhere. Among the many kinds of meat eaten in Asia, pork holds a special place, and it is cooked superbly by stir-frying in a wok, a round-bottomed cast iron pan. The most popular pork dish is sweet and sour pork.

A huge number of dishes are made with soy sauce. This thick dark liquid, produced by fermenting soybeans, is a natural mixture of many trace elements, amino acids, vitamins, and carbohydrates. Soy sauce brings out the flavor of food beautifully. Its history goes back more than three thousand years, and in ancient times fermented soybeans were a fairly expensive seasoning.

Unfortunately, modern industry mass-produces soy sauce not by natural fermentation but by hydrolysis, which affects the quality of the product.

Soy sauce is the constant ingredient of teriyaki, a wonderful sauce, marinade, and addition to many dishes. Pork in soy sauce and pork teriyaki are somewhat similar, but teriyaki is quite sweet, since it contains sugar and mirin.

Pork in soy sauce cooks quickly and needs no advance preparation. Lean pork, natural light or dark soy sauce, dry wine, and spices are really all the main ingredients.

More with pork

Roasted Pork Knuckle

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Buzhenina – Pork Roast Baked in Foil

24 h

Pork Patties with Corn (Boribori)

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Bulgarian Pork Kebab with Cheese

1 h

Kyufte: Grilled Pork Patties

1 h

Ingredients

2 servings

Lean pork 0.5 kg
Soy sauce 2-3 tbsp
Dry white wine 100 ml
Lard 1 tbsp
Salt, black pepper, coriander to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Pork in soy sauce turns out better if the meat is not too fatty. It is worth trimming the fat, since it is not needed. The meat needs no special preparation. Since meat is usually frozen, thaw it ahead of time. It is better not to rush the thawing, so the pork doesn’t lose its juices and moisture. Ideally, move the frozen pork from the freezer to the refrigerator, and the meat will thaw evenly and won’t leak.
Trim the pork of excess fat and membranes, then cut it into large pieces. Heat the lard in a saucepan and add the cut meat to the well-heated fat. Do not salt the meat or add any spices at the frying stage.
Fry the pork over high heat without covering the pan. Fry the meat, stirring from time to time, until it is clearly browned. It is important to form a browned crust that will keep the juices inside the pieces.
Now the pork in soy sauce really starts to cook. Reduce the heat under the pan. Season the pork with pepper to taste and add 1-2 pinches of ground coriander. Don’t add salt, since soy sauce is salty enough on its own, and you may not need to salt the pork in soy sauce at all.
Mix half a cup of dry white wine (100 ml) with the soy sauce. The amount of soy sauce for meat is usually no more than 2-3 tbsp. If the sauce is dark, you may need less. Pour the wine and soy sauce mixture over the well-browned pork.
As soon as the liquid starts to boil, reduce the heat under the pan to the minimum at which it still bubbles. Cover the pan with a lid and let the pork in soy sauce simmer over the lowest heat for 20 mins.
Then remove the lid and increase the heat to medium. A significant part of the free liquid needs to evaporate. Since there was not much of the wine and soy sauce mixture to begin with, this won’t take long. The sauce should thicken.
Taste the sauce and, if necessary, add salt to taste. But don’t get carried away with salt, since soy sauce is quite salty.
As a side dish I recommend rice with vegetables or stewed onions with carrots. These sides have a fairly neutral flavor, and pork in soy sauce goes with them perfectly.
Arrange the side dish on a large plate along the edge as a border, and put the meat in the center. Be sure to pour the sauce over the meat. Serve pork in soy sauce hot.