Beijing Pork

Shredded pork in a dark sweet sauce, rolled up at the table with raw spring onion.

Pork, Egg, Tofu. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 400 g pork loin, in fine matchsticks
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 2 teaspoons cornflour
• 1 egg white
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Sauce

• 3 tablespoons sweet bean sauce
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

To serve

• 6 spring onions, in fine 6 cm shreds
• 12 thin pancakes, or sheets of tofu skin

Method

1. Toss the pork with the wine, cornflour and egg white and leave it 20 minutes. The egg white is what keeps matchsticks this fine from drying out in a hot pan.
2. Stir the sauce ingredients together. Sweet bean sauce is thick and will not loosen in the pan, so the tablespoon of water goes in now.
3. Shred the spring onions and drop them into cold water for 10 minutes, then drain. They curl and lose their raw bite without going soft.
4. Get the oil hot, spread the pork in one layer, and leave it 40 seconds before stirring. Cook it until it has just turned from pink, about 2 minutes, then lift it out.
5. Turn the heat down, pour the sauce into the pan and let it bubble for 30 seconds until it darkens and thickens.
6. Return the pork and turn it through the sauce for 30 seconds, no longer.
7. Serve the pork, the spring onions and the pancakes separately, so each is rolled at the table. Assembled in the kitchen the pancakes go limp before they reach anyone.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes