Travel by Food: simple Taiwanese minced pork you might be addicted to 家常台式肉燥

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This is a common folk dish in Taiwan and not difficult to make
Every restaurant/family may have their own recipes
I reference several versions to sum up this one
The ratio doesn't need to be very exact (see tips/notes after the recipe)
Because everyone's stove could be different
please monitor your simmer time accordingly
ideally to have moderate liquid left with the minced pork
basic ingredients (*see notes):
cooking oil 10~15 ml (or less if you use fattier pork)
ground pork 400~500 g (1 lb is fine)
*soy sauce (or mix with water) 200 ml
fried shallots 40 g (about 1/2 cup)
garlic 5 cloves (or store bought minced garlic)
rock sugar 1 tablespoon
ground white peppercorns 1 tablespoon (or less if you can't handle heat) - however, this is a must use key ingredient
optional ingredients - just add the one you can find:
**ShaoHsing (ShaoXing) wine 230 ml
dried Shiitake mushrooms 4 pieces
***Star Anise 2 pieces
****Chinese Five Spice powder
*Most soy sauce on the market is very salty
Although the recipe I use calls for 200 ml of soy sauce, you should thin it down especially if you use high sodium one or if you need to control your sodium intake due to health reasons
Some recipes I saw would use 60 ml soy sauce
I suggest you use less at the beginning
If it tastes too bland, you can add some soy sauce before the end of the cooking
I thin my soy with water to make a total 200 ml "soy water"
**if you cannot find ShaoHsing wine, I heard some use Sherry cooking wine instead. Although I haven't used it, you can give it a try.
***Star Anise could be broken in the cooking process (or even before you cook). If you're not sure you can fish them out at the end of the cooking, put the star anise into a disposable tea bag or a reusable herb/tea filter. Remove it before serving.
****You can just use either Star Anise or Chinese Five Spice powder. If you use both, avoid using too much Five Spice as it may taste too strong.
I just found this fairly recent clip from TaiwanPlus about an expert Taiwanese chef (also a consultant for Director Ang Lee), which you will see another pork dish I've never seen before:
• Asian Foie Gras Made b...
A Wiki page for your reference about this dish:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo_bah_png