Ingredients
|
About ¼ to ⅓ pound of very thinly sliced pork
-->the kind you would use for shabu shabu 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped About 2 inches of fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated 2t sake or other sweet wine, or even sherry A bit of canola oil 1 carton of chicken broth (4 cups) + 2 cups water or vegetable broth 2 bunches of fresh watercress, chopped lengthwise in half or thirds |
Optional
2 cups beef broth -->If you are making it for a lot of people to eat at once A pinch of dashi powder if you have it |
What To Do
Mix sliced pork, garlic, ginger and sake together and let sit for at least 30 minutes, all day if you can remember to do this in the morning.
Drizzle a tiny bit of canola oil into a dutch oven. Cook the pork until browned. Add broths and let simmer for at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle a bit of dashi powder if you have it and taste. Be very conservative, because dashi powder is very salty.
Toss watercress in at the very end, and just when the stems start to soften, serve steaming hot. This should only take a couple of minutes.
Drizzle a tiny bit of canola oil into a dutch oven. Cook the pork until browned. Add broths and let simmer for at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle a bit of dashi powder if you have it and taste. Be very conservative, because dashi powder is very salty.
Toss watercress in at the very end, and just when the stems start to soften, serve steaming hot. This should only take a couple of minutes.
Notes and Talking Story
- Take a very light touch on the quantity of pork. It is used primarily as a flavoring agent. More pork doesn't make the soup better, and in fact, makes it a little too oily.
- My Mom uses sake because in Hawaii, there is such a thing as cooking sake and it is cheaper than sherry. Use whatever sweet cooking alcohol you have. Mom says the alcohol is to take the smell out of the meat.
- Mom swears by Swanson's brand broths, but I've used the Safeway organic brand and everyone was happy.
- This is not a soup to be made in large batches and frozen for later because watercress loses its bright green color pretty quickly. Next-day leftovers still taste fantastic, but will look like pond water.
- We has since revisited a possible kale substitution and declared this to be for watercress only.
- I shared this on the Hawaii FB Group, and got some great suggestions of add-ins: tofu, aburage in strips, and squash (the Asian hyotan squash, NOT butternut, acorn, or kabocha). All sound ono!
