Food steamers are perfect for cooking Chinese food and this method is
used quite often. In Chinese cooking steamers are used for vegetables,
egg rolls, dumplings, chicken, fish and even eggs and more. This recipe
is for steamed pork and bok choy. It’s basically a meat loaf but it’s
not packed quite as tightly as a regular loaf. In fact, it’s a bit like
a meat pie.
Simple Steamed Chicken and Asparagus
Ingredients:
500-600g of lean ground pork
2 tablespoons of fresh ginger
2 small or 1 large head of bok choy (Chinese cabbage), roughly 2
cups
1 large egg
¼ cup of soy sauce
Procedure:
This dish is best prepared with a cleaver, but a good sharp knife and
a mallet or rolling pin will do.
Put the ground pork in a good sized heat-resistant bowl. The bowl is
going to go into the steamer, pot or wok that you use to steam the food.
If you prefer you can use a mixing bowl and then use a different bowl to
put the pork loaf into the steamer. The bowl you use should have some
depth, but also needs to have some width so you can spread the meat
mixture out.
Place the ginger on a cutting board. Take the side of the cleaver and
place it over the ginger and hit it hard with your fist or palm to crush
the ginger. Crush it well then chop it up very finely. Place it in the
bowl on top of the ground pork.
Chop up the heads of bok choy well and place them in the bowl on top of
the pork and ginger. Break the egg over the bok choy.
Use a fork to mix the ingredients in the bowl together. It doesn’t have
to be perfectly blended. The object is to get the egg mixed in pretty
well.
Once you have done that, turn the bowl over and empty the ingredients
onto the cutting board. Take your cleaver or knife and start chopping
the ingredients again occasionally folding the loaf back over onto
itself to ensure everything is getting mixed and chopped well.
Use the side of the cleaver or a spatula to lay sections of the pork and
cabbage mixture in the bowl. You don’t want to pack the loaf tight, but
you want it to be uniform in the bowl with no gaps. Again, it’s going to
resemble a pie – about 2 inches thick or so.
After you have the pork loaf in the steaming bowl, pour the soy sauce
over it taking care to distribute it equally.
Place the bowl that the pork loaf is in on a flat rack in a food
steamer, large pot or a wok. Bring about 2 inches of water to a boil and
steam the loaf covered for about 15 minutes. Serve over white steamed
rice.
