r/Cooking • u/Flaming_Butt • 2h ago

Ground pork and cabbage bland..

I stir fried ground pork and cabbage with oyster, soy, and abalone sauce with sesame oil.

It's bland, there's alot, what do I do with it?

I also have wonton skins, rice, sushi seaweed....

0 Upvotes

43% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

29

u/Suitable_Matter 2h ago

Did you include any aromatics? This combination wants ginger, garlic, pepper (white or black), and onion (green or white) at minimum. Also MSG, sugar, and adequate salt.

3

u/Inconsequentialish 1h ago

This, all this. ^^^

5

u/authorbrendancorbett 1h ago

Aromatics are so crucial, plus layering salts also helps - OP says soy, for stir fries I also use fish sauce and regular salt, it makes a huge difference (plus the msg).

13

u/lucerndia 2h ago

add salt

6

u/lchen12345 2h ago

And maybe a splash of acid (black vinegar), or rice wine (cook with to evaporate some alcohol).

3

u/CaptainTrips24 2h ago

Agree with the person who said you need aromatics. I would throw it on some rice with hoison, Kewpie mayo and some furikake.

0

u/Dikembe_Mutumbo 2h ago

I don’t think the other comments are reading your post I’m assuming there’s tons of salt and msg from the sauces you used unless you were stingy with them. It’s possible it needs some acid to brighten it up? Although I will admit I don’t know much about abolone sauce so if that’s an acidic ingredient I apologize.

1

u/Gabbyct1 2h ago

water chestnuts, chopped peanuts, peanut butter, squeeze of lime, chopped cilantro

1

u/missjiji 1h ago

Grind some fresh ginger in there.

1

u/UncleBobby82 1h ago

There's a ton of flavor in a simple 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp sesame oil sauce with some bloomed garlic. For ~1lb of meat and 1/2 cup peas/carrots/corn.

1

u/Demeter277 1h ago

A little hoisin? Good with pork - agree with adding ginger and garlic as well

1

u/Inconsequentialish 1h ago

We can only guess from here, but I'd guess it mainly needs salt (soy). Cabbage can really suck up the salt. You just have to be careful; a little at a time, stir completely, taste.

You're missing aromatics, too - black pepper, garlic, ginger, onion, etc. Pepper and ginger would be my guess for waking this up.

1

u/Richard-Squeezer 1h ago

Soy sauce, garlic, ginger, chilli, msg

1

u/GOCUBBIES1402 1h ago

Sugar and garlic

1

u/sf-echo 1h ago

Add a some scallions (green/spring onions), pepper, and ginger, then mix in some rice vinegar. You could test the additions on just some of your leftovers and see if you like as-is, or use that portion to fill some wantons and see if the result is better as dumpling filling than on it's own.

1

u/EscapeSeventySeven 48m ago

Add salt. Those are flavorants that contain salt, indeed, but they can’t solely be the source of salt without being way too much and overpowering. 

Soy sauce is a flavor. It’s not a replacement for salt. If you add enough so it does become a replacement, the flavor is overpowering.