Name: Yu xiang rou si Sichuan pork strips
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 3 portions
Ingredients: 400 g pork tenderloin; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 1 tablespoon cornstarch; 1 tablespoon rice wine; 100 g carrot; 60 g chinese mushrooms; 80 g bamboo shoots; 3 stems spring onion; 3 cloves garlic; 15 g ginger; 2 tablespoons chilli paste; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 1 tablespoon rice vinegar; 2 teaspoons sugar; 1 teaspoon cornstarch; 1 teaspoon sesame oil; 3 tablespoons vegetable oil; 240 g rice

Step by step process

Marinating the pork

1
These Sichuan pork strips start with the meat. Cut the pork loin along the grain into thin slices. Then cut those into strips about half a centimeter thick. An even size matters here. The meat cooks only briefly. Uniform strips cook through quickly and stay tender. Put them in a bowl. Add a tablespoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of starch, and the rice wine. Toss until each strip is coated. Let the meat rest for 15 minutes. It will take on the seasoning and stay juicy.
TIP:
Before quickly stir-frying in a wok, marinate the meat in soy sauce, wine, or another liquid with a little starch. It creates a delicate coating, keeps the meat juicy, and lightly thickens the sauce.
2
Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Cut the carrot, bamboo shoots, and soaked Chinese mushrooms into fine strips. Keep them the same size as the meat. Everything then cooks evenly. Mince the garlic and ginger. Cut the scallions into shorter pieces. Separate the white part from the green. You add each one at a different stage of cooking, so keep them apart.

Sauce and stir-fry

3
Take a small bowl for the sauce. Add the chili paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, a teaspoon of starch, and sesame oil. Pour in 2 tablespoons of water. Stir until smooth. This mixture gives the dish its sweet, sour, and spicy profile. Thanks to the starch, it turns into a glossy sauce in the wok within moments.
4
Heat the wok with vegetable oil until almost smoking. Add the marinated meat. Stir-fry hard for 2 to 3 minutes. It should change color and start to brown. Move the meat aside onto a plate. This keeps it from overcooking in the later steps.
5
Add the garlic, ginger, and white part of the scallions to the wok. Stir-fry for a few seconds until fragrant. Take care not to burn the garlic. Add the carrot, mushrooms, and bamboo. Stir over high heat for about 2 minutes. The vegetables should stay crisp.
6
Return the meat to the wok. Pour in the prepared sauce and stir quickly. Wait until the sauce thickens and coats everything. Then stir in the green part of the scallions. Take it off the heat right away so the aromatics stay fresh. Serve with hot steamed rice.
TIP:
Dissolve cornstarch in cold water to create a smooth slurry, then slowly add it to the hot sauce while stirring continuously. The sauce will thicken within 1-2 minutes without lumps.

More tips:

You can fine-tune the Sichuan flavor to your taste. If you like a bolder heat, add a teaspoon of Sichuan pepper briefly toasted and crushed to the sauce, which brings the signature tingle on the tongue. For a milder version, reduce the amount of chili paste and add a tablespoon of stock so the dish keeps its depth of flavor without the sharpness.

To keep the vegetables crisp and the meat juicy, prepare all the ingredients in advance and keep them within reach of the wok. Stir-frying goes very fast and there is no time to chop anything mid-cook. Heat the wok until it is really smoking hot and work in smaller batches, otherwise the temperature drops, the ingredients start to steam in their own juices, and lose the texture you want.

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