Tianjiangyou and Pork Cutlet Donburi

Today, I made the Tianjiangyou (sweet soy sauce) recipe in Iron Chef Chen's Knockout Chinese book. He describes it as a "soy sauce with a sweet flavor and thick consistency."

You will need the following:

2 1/2 cups soy sauce; 8 oz sugar; 1/2 c Shaoxing Wine or Sake (I used Japanese Sake); 1 3/4 oz thinly sliced ginger; 1/8 oz of the following: cinnamon stick, orange peel, Sichuan peppercorn and star anise. Mix all together into a sauce pan until the sugar is disolved and then simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The final result was as described and will show up in future recipes.

We also had Chen's Pork Cutlet Donburi, from the same book (I doubled it as the recipe as written is only for 1 serving)

Here is what you will need:

1 serving cooked rice/ 1 pork loin cutlet 1 tbsp Sake pinch of salt

flour, beaten egg, panko to coat the pork

oil for frying
1/4 onion
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 tbsp veg oil
1/2 rsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp Doubanjiang (Chinese chili paste)
1/3 c soup stock
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp each of sake and soy sauce
Dash of Japanese soup stock (I used a Japanese vegetable bouillon cube)

Coat the pork with the flour, egg, panko mix then fry till crispy. Slice the onion thin and saute in veg oil, then add the sesame oil and chili paste. Then add the stock, sugar, sake and soy sauce to the onion mixture and simmer until the onions are tender. Add the cooked pork to the pan and simmer briefly. Then add the eggs and cook until half cooked. Put the mixture on top of the rice.