The Sinosphere · Volume 32, The Stocking, the Shelter and the Spice Route
Minchi (免治)
Macau
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 40 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Macau's everyday table, and its children's favourite. Meat diced small the Chinese way, sautéed in onion the Portuguese way.
As tradition built it
Cecília Jorge's own recipe.
Serves 4. About 40 minutes.
Ingredients
- 750 g beef and/or pork, minced or finely diced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 5 to 6 medium potato, diced small
- 1 bay leaf
- to taste salt and pepper, to taste
- as available water, as needed
- 4 eggs, fried
- to serve white rice, to serve
Method
- Sauté the chopped onions, shallot and crushed garlic in the olive oil with the bay leaf.
- Once the onion begins to crackle, add the beef and/or pork, season with salt and pepper, cover the pan and cook gently, stirring occasionally, adding a little water if it looks dry.
- Separately fry the diced potato until crisp and golden, then stir through the meat, along with the soy sauce.
- Serve with white rice and a fried egg on top.
What a modern chef changes
A hard sear, not a simmer.
Rung 2, applied by analogy, and rung 6
Method
- Treat this as a fast, high-heat stir-fry rather than a simmered mince-and-gravy dish, using the Big Green Egg's flat plancha-over-charcoal setup to give the meat real Maillard colour before the potato and soy sauce go in.
- Fry the diced potato separately to a genuine deep-fried crispness, closer to a small, dense chip than a sautéed cube, since the textural contrast against the meat is the dish's own point.
- Finish with a soft, barely-set fried egg rather than a fully set one, so the yolk runs into the meat at the table, a small, deliberate technique choice rather than a departure from tradition.