pork
pork with celery
猪肉絲炒芹菜
celery
- 2 tbsp. oil
- 2 c. celery, sliced on a mandoline
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. Chinese cooking wine
- ¼ c. stock
pork
- ¼ lb. pork loin
- ¼ lb. Chinese sausage
- 1 tsp. Chinese cooking wine
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. oil
This was a good recipe to try out with Chinese sausage because the sugars in Chinese sausage provide a counterbalance to celery’s harsh umami. Chinese dried sausage, Xiang Chang, is seasoned with sugar and rice wine, and anything from five-spice to rose water. It’s really just sweet salami. I recklessly grabbed Intenational Provisions Inc.’s Chef Brand fish sauce-flavored sweet pork sausage at the market. I hate to say it was good—loaded with MSG, of course. I should have checked out their web site ahead of time—that place looks some kind of corporate meth lab. I think we’ll make our own sausage next time.
To attack the sweetness of the sausage we used Pearl River Bridge Superior Light Soy Sauce, a bright, less malty variation. It unexpectedly turned into a fantastic dish, and I hope you try this.
Key to getting this one right is in the slice. We cut the celery on a mandoline at a 45° angle to get uniform 1/16″-inch arrows. Then we sliced the sausage at the same angle and thickness. A boneless pork loin chop was used, cut in cubes along the grain; then each cube was sliced against the grain, 1/16″-inch with a sushi knife. Uniform cooking, uniform presentation. As we’ve said before, the final flavor will depend a lot on your oil and the seasoning of your wok/pan.
Slice up your sausage and pork; then mix it with the cooking wine, soy sauce, and cornstarch.
Get your wok smoking and then add the oil. When the oil is starting to smoke, add the sliced celery and wok until cooked but still crunchy, about a minute. Add the soy sauce, cooking wine, and stock. Stir it all up until well-combined on the high heat, and then remove it.
Get the pan smoking again, add the next 2 tbsp. peanut oil and heat until smoking. Add the pork mixture and wok it up until the loin meat is cooked, and the sausage has caramelized a little. About 4 minutes, or to your preference.
Recombine with the celery and serve on rice. While I like this recipe, I’m not sure if would be that stoked if it were the only thing for dinner. I might put it along side Chicken and Tomatoes or Sweet & Sour Pork. It all cooks so quickly, why not?