bento pork from molly

I’ve been meaning to write about this recipe for ages. It comes from the wonderful Molly at remedial eating and it regularly appears on our dinner table. It is quick to make and delicious to eat. I’ve changed up Molly’s original recipe a bit by reducing the sugar but otherwise it is the same. I buy 1 lb packages of ground pork when it is on sale, so I usually have 2 or 3 stashed away in my freezer at any given time so when I stumped as to what to make for dinner, this is a great go to. The hardest part of this recipe was finding the mirin (Whole Foods) – now I just keep everything on hand and this is a breeze.

Bento Pork (from remedial eating)
1 lb ground pork (not sausage meat)
6 tbsp soy sauce (use the dark version here, the light version doesn’t have enough flavour or heft)
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sake

Pour the soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar into a saucepan and heat over a medium high heat to blend. Add in the pork and break it up with a wooden spoon. Let the mixture come to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer and leave to cook for 20-25 minutes. When most of the liquid has been absorbed and is dark and rich looking, it is ready to serve. Molly makes rice bowls with this which I usually do with leftovers (it is delicious with peanut sauce) but on dinner nights I usually serve this as bento pork tacos. Our go to toppings include broccoli cole slaw mix, avocado slices and a smear of mayonnaise mixed with seafood sauce. Every time I make it I thank Molly for posting the recipe.

Cheers to Molly.