Steamed Pork Cake with Salted Fish (咸鱼蒸肉饼)
Steamed Pork Cake with Salted Fish (Hom Yee Jeng Yook Baeng in Cantonese) is a dish my mother used to cook for us often growing up. It's a popular Cantonese dish among older Chinese folks who usually love the salted fish!
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 12 ounces fatty ground pork (340g)
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon ginger (grated)
- 1 teaspoon scallion (the white portion only, finely minced)
- 1/3 cup water chestnuts (chopped, optional)
- 4 to 6 thin slices of fermented salted fish (about 2 ounces total)
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger (finely julienned)
- 1 scallion (finely chopped)
Instructions
- Chop the ground pork finely with knife or cleaver and transfer to a bowl. Add sesame oil, salt, white pepper, baking soda, Shaoxing wine, water, cornstarch, grated ginger, minced scallion, and water chestnuts (if using) to the meat. Use a fork and mix everything together vigorously until the pork mixture becomes sticky and smooth––almost like a paste. Set aside to marinate for 1 hour.
- Transfer the meat to a deep dish plate, forming a kind of thin patty. You must use a deep dish because liquid will pool in the bowl (it's almost like a thin broth or sauce, and it's great over rice!).
- Distribute the slices of salted fish on top of the meat. If you put a lot of fish on top, then you may want to eliminate or reduce the salt from the ground meat in the previous step. If you put only a few slices of salted fish, then the fish will likely provide enough salt for the dish. It’s definitely about personal preferences when it comes to how salty you like it!
- Spread the julienned ginger across the top of the meat and salted fish and then sprinkle the chopped scallion evenly over the top. Steam for 10 minutes starting with a pre-heated steamer. You'll see quite a bit of liquid in the plate after cooking. Turn off the heat and let the dish rest for 2 to 3 minutes. Some of that tasty liquid will be reabsorbed into the meat. Spoon the sauce over the top of your pork before servings and enjoy!