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Pork with wood ear mushrooms recipe
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Pork with Wood Ear Mushrooms (Mù'ěr Ròu Piàn 木耳肉片)

Pork with wood ear mushrooms is one of the most popular everyday dishes in Chinese cooking: tender, velvety pork slices and crunchy wood ears stir-fried with garlic and chili. Slicing takes a moment, but the stir-frying is done in under 10 minutes.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time35 minutes
Servings: 2

Ingredients

  • 150 g lean pork or pork tenderloin about 5 oz, thinly sliced
  • ⅓ cup dried wood ear mushrooms soaked beforehand
  • 1 long chili cut into pieces
  • 4 cloves garlic sliced
  • neutral oil for shallow-frying (a 2–3 cm / about 1-inch layer)
  • pinch of salt
  • ½ tbsp light soy sauce

Marinade

  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
  • ½ tbsp light soy sauce
  • 4 tbsp water or chicken stock
  • ¼ tsp ground white pepper
  • ½ tbsp oyster sauce
  • 3 tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 tsp neutral oil

Instructions

  • Rinse the dried wood ear mushrooms 2–3 times and soak them in warm water for 15 minutes or in cold water for 1 hour.
  • Slice the pork thinly. Add the salt, rice wine, white pepper, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Massage the meat with your hands until it turns sticky (about 2 minutes). Add the water, then keep mixing until it's fully absorbed. Add the cornstarch and mix. Set aside for 10–15 minutes.
  • Add the 2 teaspoons of cold oil and mix well to separate the pork slices. This keeps them from sticking to the bottom of the wok.
  • Heat a wok or pan and add enough oil to make a 2–3 cm (about 1-inch) layer – don't be stingy. As soon as the oil is warm, spread the pork across the pan and fry quickly, just until the pieces turn pale. Remove immediately and set aside.
  • Pour off the excess oil (you can reuse it for stir-frying vegetables), keeping about 1 tablespoon in the wok. Fry the garlic and chili until fragrant. Add the mushrooms, a pinch of salt and the soy sauce for a base seasoning. Toss well.
  • Return the pork slices to the wok. Toss quickly and thoroughly. Serve hot!

Notes

The pork is briefly shallow-fried ("passed through oil") before the final stir-fry, so you'll need more oil than the 1 tablespoon left in the wok for the aromatics. Strain and reuse the leftover oil.
Some wood ears contain grit, so rinse them carefully after soaking and trim any hard attachment points.