Savory, fresh, sweet, sour, and spicy—flavors that unfold in layers, with tender meat and crisp bamboo shoots.
This dish was originally made from meat trimmings. What are trimmings? When cutting whole pieces of meat into slices or shreds, the uneven edges are trimmed off to make the cuts more uniform, and those leftover scraps are the trimmings. Instead of wasting them, a chef developed this dish, which became so popular that it turned into a star menu item. This just goes to show that with the right cooking technique, even irregular scraps of meat can become a standout dish. It pairs perfectly with rice—pour the meat and sauce over steamed rice, and you get an irresistible combination of flavors!
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
200 g pork shoulder (blade steak)
This dish is best made with tender cuts of meat, such as pork shoulder or pork tenderloin. Pork shoulder, with its slight marbling of fat, will be more flavorful.
Additional Ingredients
Bamboo shoots and wood ear mushrooms, to taste
If green bamboo shoots are unavailable, winter bamboo shoots or fresh bamboo shoots can be used instead.
Marinade
Salt to taste
5 g (about 1 teaspoon) Shaoxing wine
a small amount of egg white
to taste cornstarch
Seasonings for the Yu Xiang (Fish-Fragrant) Sauce
10 g (about 2 teaspoons) yellow wine
15 g (about 1 tablespoon) soy sauce
15 g rice vinegar (about 1 tablespoon)
20 g (about 1.5 tablespoons) white sugar
to taste cornstarch
Other Seasonings
Pickled red chili peppers, 30 g (about 1 oz)
Scallions, ginger, and garlic - to taste
To highlight the fish-fragrant flavor, use a ratio of more scallions and garlic with less ginger. If pickled ginger is available, it will enhance the taste even further.
Instructions
Instructions
Preparation
① Cut the pork shoulder into thin slices about the size of a fingernail (Image 2). Season the meat by adding salt, Shaoxing wine, egg white, and cornstarch in that order, mixing well after each addition. Set aside to marinate (Image 3).
*The meat should be cut into small, thin pieces so it cooks quickly and absorbs flavor well; if cut too large, both the taste and texture will suffer.
Step 2: Pour all the seasonings for the Yu Xiang sauce into a bowl and stir continuously until the sugar is completely dissolved and the cornstarch is evenly mixed into the liquid with no lumps; set aside.
*Because pickled chili peppers are quite salty and soy sauce also contains salt, there's no need to add extra salt separately.
The flavor of the meat largely comes from the coating of sauce, so use enough starch to help it cling, but be careful not to make it too thick or it will turn into a paste—finding the right balance is key. Different brands of starch vary in quality, so it takes repeated practice to master the proportions.
Finely chop the pickled chilies, and mince the scallions, ginger, and garlic (Image 4). Slice the asparagus lettuce and wood ear mushrooms into small pieces, blanch them in boiling water, then set aside (Image 5).
*The finer the pickled chilies are chopped, the more red oil they release and the better the flavor. If you have a meat grinder, you can use it to grind the pickled chilies.
*Do not skip blanching the asparagus lettuce and wood ear mushrooms, as this prevents them from lowering the pan's temperature when added later, allowing the entire dish to be cooked quickly.
Stir-fry the sliced meat
Stir-fry the meat slices in a wok with enough oil heated to around 350°F (medium-high), using high heat to quickly separate them, about 5 seconds.
When stir-frying raw meat, use a bit more oil to prevent the slices from sticking together, which would not only look unappealing but also compromise the texture.
*When initially stir-frying the meat slices, the oil temperature should not be too high, otherwise the meat will easily become tough and the pickled chilies will burn. An oil temperature of about 60% hot (around 350°F/175°C) is ideal, as it allows the meat to cook through slowly while letting the pickled chilies release their flavor more fully.
*High heat is essential to bring out the aromas, especially for this dish. Since home stovetops have relatively lower heat output, be sure to keep the heat on high throughout the entire cooking process.
⑤ Immediately add the finely chopped pickled chilies and stir-fry until the oil turns red, about 10 seconds (Image 6). Once the meat slices turn white, add the minced ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant (Image 7)—note that the scallions should not be added yet. Then add the green bamboo shoots and wood ear mushrooms (Image 8) and stir-fry for about 10 seconds. Finally, pour in the prepared Yu Xiang sauce, stir to combine, add the scallions, and cook until the sauce thickens and coats the ingredients. Remove from heat and serve (Image 9).
*From the moment the pickled chilies go into the pan, add the seasonings strictly in order, or the flavor will be off. The minced scallions are key to achieving the classic Sichuan "fish-fragrant" taste, and adding them only at the very end makes that aroma more pronounced. Also, do not overdo it with the asparagus lettuce and wood ear mushrooms.
A clever shortcut for busy cooks
Sichuan cuisine emphasizes the "one-pot cooking" technique, where ingredients are stir-fried directly in the pan without being blanched in oil first, resulting in more flavorful dishes. However, the sliced meat tends to stick to the pan, so if you're unsure of your technique, you can briefly blanch the meat slices in oil before stir-frying.