PORK: Making your own Mo Shiu pork and serving it with home-made Mandarin pancakes might appear to be too much work. But give yourself a challenge & dazzle your family with it one day.

MO SHIU PORK 木須肉:




½ lb. pork; cut into thin strips

3 tbsp. cooking oil

2 Chinese dried mushrooms

1 small bamboo shoot, sliced

5-6 pieces dried wood ear (black fungus)

3 beaten eggs

3 stalks green onion; cut into long pieces + 3-4 thinly-sliced ginger



Seasoning for pork:

1 tsp. dark soy sauce
1 tsp. rice wine or dry sherry
1 tsp. tapioca starch


sauce:

1 tbsp. rice wine
1 ½ tbsp. dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sweet bean paste



Soak mushrooms and wood ear in warm water until well softened. Drain and cut into thin strips. Marinate pork with seasoning ingredients for 30 minutes.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat 1 tbsp. oil over high heat until hot. Beat eggs with a little salt then pour beaten eggs into skillet. Rotate skillet to cover surface with egg. Cook until brown and set on underside; then flip it over to cook the other side. Remove from pan. When cooled, slice egg sheet into thin strips.

Add 2 tbsp. oil into skillet and heat it until very hot. Cook pork strips until no long pink. Remove with a slotted spoon. Add green onion, ginger, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and wood ear into pan. Toss together for 1 minute; then add in sauce ingredients. Return pork and egg and cook together until sauce has evaporated slightly and all the ingredients are well coated. Serve right away.


NOTE: Mo Shiu pork is traditionally served as fillings for mandarin pancakes. It can also be enjoyed as a dish to serve with rice.





MANDARIN PANCAKES: 簿餅



2 cups all purpose flour

¾ to 1 cup boiling water

3 tbsp. sesame oil



Put flour into a large bowl and gradually add boiling water, stirring continuously to mix water in with the flour. Continue stirring & mixing until dough is formed. When dough is cool enough to handle but still warm, knead dough with hand until smooth. Cover bowl with a towel and let dough rest for 30 minutes.

Cut dough in half. Transfer 1 portion to a floured board while keeping the other portion covered with a damp towel. Using a lightly-floured rolling pin, roll out the dough into ¼-inch thickness. Cut dough with a 3-inch cookie cutter into circles. Brush the top of 2 dough circles with sesame oil and stack them together, with 1 oiled surface facing the other oiled surface. Cover the pair with damp towel while continuing to make circle-pairs with the rest of the dough.

Roll out each pair of dough to a 6-inch circle. In a large lightly-oiled skillet over medium-high heat, brown each pair of dough on both sides. Remove from pan; then pull the two pieces of dough apart. Continue browning the rest of the pancakes.

Serve pancakes right away; or cool them completely, wrap well and freeze until needed.