Moo Shu Pork

Like spring pancakes, this dish originates from the Shandong province, but Chinese American chefs have adapted it to locally available ingredients. The Chinese version is made with pork, egg, bamboo shoots, day lily, wood ear mushrooms, and seasoned with soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger, while the Chinese American version replaces the cucumber and day lilies with cabbage and carrots. In China, Moo Shu pork is not traditionally served with spring pancakes (click here or see below for recipe) as it is in America. There is a tendency to call older traditions “authentic” and newer or adaptive traditions “inauthentic.” This can serve to protect the integrity of a dish against low quality imitations, but in this case, Chinese American food is an authentic cuisine in its own right, with a rich culinary history dating back more than 150 years, when the first Chinese restaurants opened in San Francisco.

Ingredients

Scale

1/2 lb thinly sliced pork loin or tenderloin
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 C rehydrated wood ear mushrooms, sliced thin (black trumpet or morel make good substitutions).
1 C chopped daylilies or bamboo shoots
3/4 C summer squash or cucumber in 1/4 inch half rounds
1 C finely shredded green cabbage
1/2 cup julienned or grated carrots
2 scallions
5 oz of grated ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp s soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking rice wine

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Instructions

This is a simple stir fry. Prep all your ingredients ahead of time, as they only need to cook for a few minutes.
I prefer to cook my eggs separately and set aside.
Start with the carrots, then add the mushrooms, cabbage, and squash.
Add the soy sauce and cooking wine, finishing with the scallions and pork so as not to overcook. As these go in, remove pan from heat. Allow several minutes for the carry over cooking to finish the pork.
Adjust seasoning to taste; you can add a little hoisin if you want to bump up the flavor.

Author: Ben Lester