Sichuan Pork in Garlic Sauce

Shredded pork stir-fried fast in a sauce that is sour, sweet and hot at once.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 400 g pork loin, in matchsticks
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 2 teaspoons cornflour
• 15 g dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked and shredded
• 1 carrot, in matchsticks
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon chilli bean paste
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon ginger, chopped

Sauce

• 2 tablespoons black vinegar
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• 4 tablespoons water

Method

1. Toss the pork with the wine and the 2 teaspoons of cornflour and leave it 15 minutes.
2. Stir the vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, the teaspoon of cornflour and the water together in a bowl and put it within reach of the hob. Everything from here happens in about four minutes and there is no time to measure anything.
3. Cut everything to the same thickness as the pork. In a dish this fast, a carrot cut thicker than the meat arrives raw.
4. Get the oil smoking, add the pork, and spread it in one layer. Leave it 30 seconds before moving it, then stir until it has just lost its pink. Lift it out.
5. Add the chilli bean paste to the pan for 20 seconds, then the garlic and ginger for 10.
6. Add the wood ears and carrot and stir for a minute.
7. Return the pork, pour the sauce round the edge of the pan, and toss everything until it thickens and clings — about 30 seconds. Serve at once.

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