One of my favorite flavor combinations includes pork, eggplant, shiso leaves, and a ginger-based sweet soy sauce. Today’s recipe—Ginger Pork Rolls with Eggplant (茄子の肉巻き生姜焼き)—brings all these ingredients together in perfect harmony. The result is a homey and tasty dish that goes amazingly with rice.
A Favorite Japanese Home Cook Dish
Many of you have asked me what Japanese people eat at home that isn’t typically served in restaurants. Well, pork or beef rolls, like today’s recipe, are perfect examples of dishes we enjoy at home. They’re the kind of honest, comforting food that our grandmothers and mothers cook for the family.
Japanese people generally don’t consume large quantities of meat, so it’s uncommon to cook a whole chicken or a large cut of pork or beef. Instead, our meals usually include a variety of foods—rice or noodles for carbohydrates, plenty of vegetables, soy-based foods like tofu, seafood, and a small amount of meat.
This pork roll recipe is simple and easy to make, and I especially love that it is bento-friendly. The kids get both vegetables and meat in one dish, and thanks to the delicious savory sauce, the pork rolls remain tasty even at room temperature by lunchtime.
You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can prepare it and by the complexity of flavors it delivers!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Japanese eggplants — You can use long Chinese eggplants
- Thinly sliced pork loin (shabu shabu meat)
- Potato starch or cornstarch
- Seasonings: ginger, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar
- Garnish (optional): Shiso leaves and yuzu kosho (Japanese citrus chili paste) (More details below)
How to Make Ginger Pork Rolls
- Prep the ingredients and the sauce.
- Wrap eggplant sticks with thin slices of pork loin. Sprinkle potato starch or cornstarch on both sides of the rolls.
- Pan-fry the pork rolls in a frying pan until golden browned.
- Add the sauce to the pan, and coat the pork rolls well.
- Transfer the pork rolls on a plate and pour the sauce on top.
- Add the eggplant skin and a tiny spoon of miso to the same pan. Cook until tender, about 2–3 minutes. Place the skins on top of the pork rolls.
- Garnish with shiso leaves. If you like it spicy, serve with a dab of yuzu kosho. Enjoy!
Helpful Notes & Swaps
1) Thinly Sliced Meat
When you visit Japanese markets, you’ll find pre-sliced pork and beef that are as thin as paper. We call this cut of meat ‘usugiri niku (薄切り肉)‘, which means thinly sliced meat.
These thin slices can come from various parts of the animal. For example, at the Japanese grocery store I frequent, they offer pork belly slices, ultra-thin pork loin slices (for Shabu Shabu), and slightly thicker pork loin slices (for Sukiyaki). The same applies to beef cuts. In Japan, there are even more categories for thinly sliced meat.
If you can’t find thinly sliced meat locally, here’s the tutorial on How to Slice Meat Thinly (with video).
2) Shiso Leaves
Shiso (perilla leaves) is my favorite Japanese herb, which I often use to add extra zing and elevate a dish’s presentation. Although it’s an optional ingredient, it’s worth picking up if you live near a Japanese grocery store or are fortunate enough to find it at your local farmers market.
This herb is also very easy to grow and requires little maintenance. Many Just One Cookbook readers have successfully grown shiso from seeds (which you can purchase online from this company).
You can substitute it with mint or Thai basil, but keep in mind that their flavors are different from shiso. So, consider them as variations of this dish!
3) Yuzu Kosho
Originating from the Kyushu area, yuzu kosho is slightly spicy but packed with umami flavor.
I like serving Ginger Pork Rolls with Eggplant with a small drop of yuzu kosho. Feel free to skip it, but if you’re curious to try it, you can find yuzu kosho on Amazon. If you appreciate bold flavors, you’ll be glad to have it in your pantry—it’s truly a magical condiment.
Tips: How to Grate Ginger
Grating ginger can be a tedious task, which is why I love using Kyocera Advanced Grater. I’ve owned it for over a decade, and it makes grating so much easier! The raised central plate even allows the ginger juice to gather.
In my opinion, it’s the best tool for grating ginger, and you can find it on Amazon for $30.
Similar Recipes to Make at Home
When you make these Japanese Pork Rolls for your family, be sure to cook extra rice, as everyone will be going for seconds! It’s everything we love about home-cooked food.
On Just One Cookbook, you’ll also find various delicious meat roll recipes that use thinly sliced pork or beef:
- Teriyaki Steak Rolls
- Potato Salad Pork Rolls
- Mashed Potato Teriyaki Pork Rolls
- Baby Carrot Beef Rolls
Ginger Pork Rolls with Eggplant
Ingredients
- 2 Japanese eggplants (or 1 long Chinese eggplant; 10 oz, 280 g)
- ½ lb thinly sliced pork loin (1 package shabu shabu meat)
- 2 Tbsp potato starch or cornstarch
For the Seasonings
For Cooking
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
- ½ tsp miso
For the Garnish
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Grate the ginger and measure ½ tsp ginger (grated, with juice).
- In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for the sauce: 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 Tbsp mirin, 1 Tbsp sake, 1 tsp sugar, and the grated ginger.
- Peel 2 Japanese eggplants with a peeler and soak the peeled skin in water.
- Cut the eggplant into 2-inch (5-cm) pieces widthwise, and cut each piece in half.
- Then, cut each piece into 4 sticks and soak in water for 10 minutes to remove the bitterness and prevent from changing the color.
- Now cut the eggplant skin into julienne strips and continue to soak in water.
- Remove any moisture on the eggplant with a paper towel.
- Wrap 2 eggplant sticks with a thin slice of pork. Continue with the rest of the ½ lb thinly sliced pork loin.
- Sprinkle half of 2 Tbsp potato starch or cornstarch on the pork rolls and spread over the meat. Then, flip over and spread the remaining potato starch or cornstarch. Remove any excess starch.
- In a large nonstick frying pan, heat 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil on medium heat. Add the pork rolls.
- Cook them until all sides are golden browned.
- Cover the pan with a lid and cook on medium-low heat, until the eggplant is tender, roughly 2–3 minutes.
- Add the sauce to the pan.
- Coat the pork rolls well by rotating them and spooning the sauce over.
- Serve the pork rolls on a plate and pour the sauce on top.
- In the same pan (without washing), add the eggplant skin and ½ tsp miso.
- Mix well together and cook on medium-low heat until tender, about 2–3 minutes. Place the cooked eggplant skins on top of the pork rolls.
- Roll up 4 shiso leaves (perilla/ooba) and cut into chiffonade strips.
- Garnish the pork rolls with shiso leaves. If you like it spicy, serve with a dab of yuzu kosho (Japanese citrus chili paste). You can put a tiny bit of it on the pork roll and enjoy!
Nutrition
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on February 21, 2011. New images and step by step images have been added to the post in May 2019.
