[唐辛子ポーク]

Pork togarashi: Juicy grilled pork slices, marinated in soy sauce with a flavorful pepper mix.

Today’s featured ingredient is Shichi-mi tōgarashi (七味唐辛子, seven-flavor chili pepper), also known as Nana-iro tōgarashi  (七色唐辛子, seven-color chili pepper): a spice mixture containing seven different ingredients.

Shichimi’s main ingredient is red chili pepper. While the other six components may vary, the spice mix usually features sanshō, tangerine peel (Chenpi), sesame seed, seaweed, ginger, hemp and poppy seeds.

When I first tried shichimi togarashi, I was still in Brazil – the Japanese descendant community in São Paulo is really big and this particular togarashi spice blend from SB is a common item in local Japanese food markets. The experience left a huge impression on me.

Now that I’m in Japan… I am still a big togarashi fan. For example, lunch break time with soba/udon noodles usually equals pouring a generous amount of it – such scene terrifies my co-workers…

My togarashi pork recipe is a dish inspired by a lunch set meal in a small izakaya close to Fudō-mae Station (不動前駅). It was so simple and delicious that I had the urge top eat something like that again.

Since it takes only five items to prepare this dish, I would suggest investing on a good quality togarashi for better results. I used pork shoulder slices, the same cut you probably saw me using while preparing shogayaki. You may use steaks with a thicker cut or even replace the type of protein.

By the way, besides using a flavorful spice mix, the magic in this dish is the shoyu marinate. Yes, something magic happens when you marinate meat in soy sauce for a very short period…

1. 200g of pork meat slices
2. 4 tbsp of shoyu
3. 1 tbsp of flour to coat
4. 2 tbsp of oil
5. Shichimi togarashi to taste

1. Trim down the extra fat from the pork slices.
2. Marinate the pork in shoyu, briefly (5-10min max).
3. Dust the pork in flour.
4. Add 1tbsp of oil to a frying pan and set it on medium heat. After that, fry both sides of the pork slices.
5. Plate the pork, sprinkling lots of shichimi togarashi on top of it.
6. Serve the dish with a portion of shredded cabbage and rice.

Adjust the marinate time accordingly to the thickness of the pork slices. Be careful to not over marinate the meat otherwise you will end up with an excessively salty dish.