Sichuan¹ Ginger-flavoured Pork

Recipe from Lawrence C.C. Chu

This dish is also called "fish-flavoured", but there is no fish in this recipe. The unique flavour of the spicy sauce is quite similar to one used with hot-braised fish, hence the association and name. Many ingredients go into this dish, to make it sumptuous.

Yields:

6-8 servings

Time Required:

• 2 hrs. cooking time

Ingredients:

• 1 large tree mushroom²
• 1 lb. (0.45 kg.) pork shoulder butt, boned and cut ⅛ by ⅛ by 1 ½" (3x3x38 mm)

Marinade

• 1 Tbsp.³ (15 mL) soy sauce
• 2 tsp. (10 mL) dry sherry
• 2 tsp. corn starch (US/Canada), aka cornflour (UK/other)⁴
• 1 Tbsp. (15 mL) oil

Sauce

• 3 Tbsp. (45 mL) soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. (15 mL) dry sherry
• 2 tsp. (8 g) sugar
• ½ cup (120 mL) chicken broth⁵ (optional recipe below)
• 1 Tbsp. (15 mL) red rice vinegar⁶
• 1 Tbsp. (15 mL) cornstarch paste⁷

• Vegetable oil, for blanching

• 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed⁸
• 1 tsp. (2.7 g) minced fresh ginger
• 1 Tbsp. (15 mL) chili paste
• ½ cup (65 g) shredded bamboo shoots
• 1 green onion, split lengthwise and cut in 1" (2.5 cm) pieces
• 5 water chestnuts, coarsely chopped
• ½ tsp. (2.5 mL) sesame oil

Preparation:

Soak mushroom in warm water for 20 mins.; drain, remove stem, and chop. In a bowl, combine pork with MARINADE ingredients in order listed; set aside. Combine SAUCE ingredients and set aside.

To oil blanch, set wok over high heat for about 1 min. until hot. Add 3-4 cups vegetable oil, and heat to 300°F (150°C). Stir in pork and blanch for about 1 ½ mins., until redness is gone. Remove and drain.

To stir-fry, remove all but 2 Tbsp. (30 mL) oil from wok. Stir in garlic, ginger, and chili paste; cook until fragrant. Add pork and bamboo shoots, and continue stir-frying for 2 mins.

Add mushroom, green onion, and water chestnuts; stir for 30 secs. Stir in sauce, until thick. Sprinkle with sesame oil, and serve.

Author's Notes

Jicama, available in most supermarket produce sections, may be substituted for water chestnuts; the flavour of both vegetables is quite similar.

Ginger, garlic, and green onions are very important ingredients to this dish. Make sure you cook them long enough to bring out their fragrance, during stir-frying.

Rich Chicken Broth

A good, rich-tasting chicken broth is essential to Chinese cooking, so, in my restaurant, I make no exceptions. I always use 4-5 lb. (1.8-2.3 kg.) chickens, because I'm preparing food in such volume, but you can use a regular broiler-fryer, if you prefer. I firmly believe a good broth needs no additives. So, why not take a little time (and not much effort), and prepare this chicken broth?

Yields:

8 servings

Time Required:

• 1 ½ hrs. cooking time

Ingredients:

• 1 roasting chicken (4-5 lbs., 1.8-2.3 kg.) or about 4-5 lbs. (1.8-2.3 kg.) chicken bones (wings, neck, back, carcass)
• 4 qts. (3.8 L) water
• ½ white onion, cut up
• 4 knobs fresh ginger, crushed

Preparation:

To par-boil, place chicken (or bones) in an 8-qt. (7.5 L) stockpot. Cover with boiling water, and cook for 5 mins., to get rid of the scum. Pour chicken into a colander, rinse under cold water, and return chicken to pot.

To cook, add water and vegetables. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for about 1 hrs. Occasionally skim surface as needed. Remove from head and cool, then strain well before using.

Author's Notes

As I mentioned, this recipe produces a rich broth that is the basic stock for many of my other soups. If you prefer not to make it, or you don't have the time, always use chicken bouillon (cubes)³ in water, rather than the less flavourful, canned chicken broth.

Save your chicken bones. You can use them to make broth, instead of a whole chicken.

Since the vegetables are added only for flavour, use tips and ends of onions and knobs of ginger root. I mention this since I was once told by a student that she couldn't find "knobs" of ginger at her market.

If you make broth several hours ahead of serving time, let it cool with the bones still inside. If made several days in advance, try freezing it in ice cube trays; when frozen, store cubes in a sealed freezer bag (1 ice cube equals ¼ to ⅓ cup broth).

¹ Chef Chu's spelling was "Szechwan", following the 19th Century Wade-Giles romanisation system predominant in 1980, when Chu's cookbook appeared, In today's now-preferred Hanyu Pinyin system, the name of that province on the upper Yangtze River is rendered "Sichuan".

² Tree mushroom: I think Chef Chu intends what is now called an oyster mushroom (genus Pleurotus). In any event, do not under any circumstances forage for wild mushrooms, on trees or elsewhere, unless you're an expert mycologist. It's not worth your life. Misidentification is often fatal.

³ Quarts, pints, cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, and fl. oz. are as defined in US Customary Units, not to be confused with differing British imperial, "legal", "coffee", Commonwealth of Nations, Canadian, Latin American, Japanese, Russian, or Dutch definitions — further proof that everyone needs the metric system.

⁴ "Corn starch" is powdered starch processed from the New World grain maize (from Spanish, orig. from Nahuatl), which grain the USA/Canada call "corn", unlike the rest of the English-speaking world, which reserves "corn" to mean cereal grains generically. This starch product, needed here in its customary role as a thickening agent, is called "corn starch" in the US/Canada, but "cornflour" in the UK and most other anglophone lands — not to be confused with whole maize grain: That product — not a thickening agent — is called "polenta", "corn meal", or "corn flour" in the US/Canada, depending on how finely milled, and called "maize flour" in the UK and most other places. Australians should beware that their "cornflour" is starch extracted from wheat kernel, sometimes more-helpfully labelled as "wheaten cornflour". As if that weren't confusing enough, the maize-based thickener may be labelled (in Australia) either as "corn flour" or as "corn starch", so beware. Further, the maize flour product, there, is labelled as "cornmeal".

Note that whole-maize grain is traditionally, in Meso-American cultures of origin, wisely soaked in alkaline solution ("nixtamalised") to increase bioavailability and thereby prevent niacin deficiency (pellagra), among other important benefits, yielding "masa" (lit. dough) aka "masa de maíz" (lit. maize dough), also available in dried & ground form as "masa harina" (lit. dough flour) aka "harina de maíz" (lit. maize flour), and in its unground form, hominy. As further complication, Americans distinguish "corn flour", meaning prepared from maize endosperm only, from "maize flour" for use of whole maize — the former, neutral-flavoured; the latter, much more nutritious.

Origin of the naming mess: Originally, North America shared with Mother England the language's original meaning of "corn" to mean cereal grains generically (from Old English "corn" meaning single seed of any cereal plant, orig. from Proto-Germanic "kurnam" meaning small seed). The colonists got the gift of maize from native peoples, therefore at first calling it "Indian corn". Later, in the USA and Canada, "Indian corn" got worn down to just "corn", while the original meaning of "corn" was lost, locally. "Maize" is thus now the least-ambiguous term in international contexts, though many Americans either don't know that word or reserve it for variants from Latin-American (and Spanish) cooking.

⁵ For easy bouillon, consider Summit Hill Foods's "Better Than Bouillon Base" paste, dissolved in hot tap water. It's fairly high quality, available in large 8 oz. (227 g) jars, and (the main point) a heck of a lot better than any bouillon cubes. Flavours: roasted chicken, roasted beef, turkey, ham, and vegetable.

⁶ Chinese vinegar comes in three forms: Black Rice Vinegar is used with braised dishes and as a dipping sauce. Red Rice Vinegar is with sweet and pungent dishes and for dipping steamed crab. White Rice Vinegar is used for sweet and pungent dishes.

⁷ Cornstarch paste is a thin paste made from equal parts of cold water and corn starch. It's essential in many Chinese dishes (but be careful not to over-thicken). Stir just before using. Store covered in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.

⁸ Minced is better. Crushing vegetables breaks all of the constituent cellulose-rich cells' walls and has unfortunate consequences to the food's tastes, particularly in the case of garlic, the crushed paste of which easily becomes bitter, lacking flavour nuance, and sometimes picking up a metallic aftertaste.

So, think of this as your motivation to get a nice, really sharp 8" (20 cm) chef's knife for mincing (producing ¹⁄₁₆" = 1.5 mm cuts), and a good cutting board.

---

Collected and re-published at http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/recipes/ by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> on xxx. xx, 2026. Individual recipes are free from copyright. Share and enjoy!

(If I have any copyright title in my own very minor contributions to this page — not my intention — they were created in 2026 by Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> and licensed for use under CC0. I have thereby waived all copyright, compilation copyright, and related or neighbouring rights to this work. This work is published from: United States of America.)