This Cantonese steamed pork cake might be the least photogenic food I've ever made. Despite its humble appearance, though, it's packed with flavor and easy to make. As you might have guessed, this is true home style food. I have some vague memories of my grandparents making something similar, but it was so long ago that I'm not quite sure. The basic concept is a giant pork burger that is something of a blank canvas. This recipe mixes in ham, mushrooms, and water chestnuts. The Woks of Life has done versions with preserved vegetables and salted fish. I think Chinese sausage, sauerkraut, or even shrimp would work, too. Being cooked entirely by steaming, there is no browning and this dish relies on its ingredients for flavor. We get some umami bursts from the mushrooms and a little crunch from the water chestnuts.
This recipe is adapted from the Joyce Chen Cook Book, which is a very interesting piece of culinary history. Published in 1962, it predates even Pei-Mei's books. Chen understood very well that American cooks would have difficulty finding certain ingredients, and builds substitutions into the recipes. For example, she doesn't even bother with Shaoxing wine and goes straight to the sherry substitution. If you can get good Shaoxing wine, go with that, but if not, amontillado is my preferred alternative. It's also a bit odd in that everything is measured by volume, even the pork. I've converted some of the measurements to weight where it makes sense to do so.
The most notable ingredient here is the ham. Chen discusses this issue at length, saying that getting Chinese ham in the United States is nearly impossible. That is as true now as it was in 1962, especially in South Dakota. It might be possible to get good ham in a Chinatown somewhere, but I'm not sure. Chinese hams are dry cured, so some other similarly-produced ham is the best substitute. Chen recommends Smithfield ham, a dry cured ham from Smithfield, Virginia. The most accessible alternative might be prosciutto. I used regular supermarket ham, which didn't really add much to the dish other than some texture. As with many dishes, Chen also uses MSG here, which I didn't have. I compensated by increasing the soy sauce and mushroom a bit.
Joyce Chen had a huge role in spreading appreciation for Chinese food in the United States. Her influence was especially felt in Boston, where she ran several restaurants and had a short-lived cooking show with WGBH. Her rebranding of potstickers as "Peking ravioli" is particularly funny to me. Her recipe for Peking ravioli is pretty standard and quite similar to mine. However, it seems that Peking ravioli evolved in Boston Chinese restaurants into their own thing. Ariel says the dumplings she grew up eating are not quite what we make at home, but couldn't quite pin down the difference. When she took her first bite of this pork cake, she exclaimed that it tasted just like Peking ravioli. Next time we find ourselves in Boston, I'll be doing some research, by which I mean eating dumplings!
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground pork
- 1/2 oz. dried black mushrooms (about 10 mushrooms)
- 2 oz. water chestnuts, drained and minced
- 2 1/2 oz. minced ham (dry cured, if possible)
- 1 1/2 Tbs. light soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp. brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt (to taste)
- 1/2 tsp. Shaoxing wine or amontillado
- 2 tsp. minced ginger
- 1 green onion, finely chopped
Instructions
Soak the mushrooms in warm water for about 30 minutes and mince when softened. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with hands. Transfer to a heatproof dish or plate and gently press into an even cake. I use a square casserole dish that fits perfectly in my wok.
Prepare a wok with a rack and fill with water so that the waterline is just below the rack. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and steam for 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cake. When done cooking, the cake will shrink away from the edges of the dish and there will be liquid all around. Serve right in the dish or transfer to a serving plate and pour the liquid over the cake.
The grannies definitely made this dish. It was steamed in a shallow round slightly beat up dull yellow enamel dish. I am guessing they skipped the ham but it was packed with flavor. I'm not sure what happened to the dish during the move but I still have a couple boxes downstairs of stuff dad wasn't ready to get rid of so we my still have it.
ReplyDeleteThis was often served when I grew up as our servant knew I liked it so she made it often. My childhood version did not have the water chestnuts or the ham. The dried black mushroom was the flavor driver. I must also say that I had never had this dish served outside of the dish in which the pork is steamed. That way, the original juice is sort of steamed out so the ground meat sits in a bit of running juice which goes over white rice very nicely. I have never seen this dish "decanted".
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