Sounds and looks gross, BUT this is the taste of home for me.
This is my comfort food. Anyone who come from a Chinese family knows what this is and it's what we eat at home. It's not something you typically serve to guests, it's what you eat when you're with the people you love the most. This is completely authentic.
1 lb. ground pork (lean i like, but medium is ok too)
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 egg
3 Shitake mushrooms (chinese kind, it's dried and it's black, usually packaged from cellophane
1 tbsp dried shrimp (chinese kind, also dried, and also package in cellophane)
2 tbsp of Shiitake mushroom soaking liquid
Prepare Ahead: (I usually do this part before work and when i come home it's ready to go; i think it probably takes 3 hours to soak.)
- The Shiitake mushrooms need to be soaked until they are thoroughly soft and soaked through. Preserve the soaking liquid
- The dried shrimp also need to be soaked until soft. No need to keep the liquid for this.
- Once the soaking process is done, take the mushroom or shrimp (they are treated the same way) squeeze out the liquid, and chop into small cubes.
Set up your steamer. For me I use either a steaming basket or a steaming "platform" (i.e. a little metal stand that goes into the pot you do the steaming in). Tip: make sure that before you start to heat up the water that your steamer stand/steamer container will fit! It isn't fun to try to fit a steamer over boiling hot water! Make sure that the water is boiling as you place your pork loaf onto the steamer.
Mix all the ingredients together, Steam for 15 minutes
Serve with Rice! Ta-da, how easy was that?
Aside: The Smell Test
So since the meat is raw -- the question is, how do you know it's seasoned properly? Give it a smell. I don't mean the wafting technique from chemistry class -- I mean, put your face to the dish and give it a good wiff. The way it smells is the way it should taste. It's not exactly the same (just b/c we're human and no two senses do the same thing) but it's pretty close. Just a trick from my mom to me to you!
The consistency is less dense than traditional western meatloaf and much more savoury. We've just had the most perfect Chinese Porkloaf and just wanted to share this recipe with you!
Enjoy!
