Mu Shu Pork 木須肉

I had recently seen cloud ears when walking through the market, so i decided to try to make Mu Shu Pork one of my favorite Chinese dishes from when i was little. I want to try and cook a new dish every few weeks trying to use something i am not completely familiar with from the wet market.

I had a quick look at Wikipedia and supposably is a dish of northern chinese origin, possibly from the Shandong region. I think it must have some actual Chinese origins considering the use of cloud ears and daylily's in the recipe but a lot of Mu Shu Pork made today call for things like pre-made coleslaw mixes to save time on chopping, but as i have read i don't think that cabbage was used in the traditional recipe so i am staying away from cabbage and especially pre made cole slaw mixes of course.

Mu Shu Pork
Serves 2
250g pork loin
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 Chinese rice wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons corn flour
5 Shitake mushrooms
10 cloud ears, fresh or dried
40 pieces daylily
1 green chill, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons finely chopped ginger
3 spring onions
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
12 mandarin pancakes

*Adapted from mu she pork recipe from "a little taste of china" by Deh-Ta Hsiung

Pork
1. Finely slice pork into match stick size slices.
2. Put shreds of pork in bowl, add 1 Tablespoon soy sauce, 1 Tablespoon Chinese wine 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon of corn starch and toss lightly until coated, cover and set aside for 30 minutes.

The rest
1. If your cloud ears and daylily are dried soak for 30 minutes in cold water, if they are fresh rinse. Squeeze to remove excess water.
2. Finely slice the cloud ear.
3. In small bowl mix 2 Tablespoon soy sauce, 2 Tablespoon Chinese wine, 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon scorn starch and freshly ground pepper.
4. Heat wok over high heat add 2 Tablespoons of oil and heat until hot add pork and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until pork is cooked. Remove pork from pan discarding any liquid.
5. Clean pan, reheat wok to high heat and add 1 Tablespoon of oil scrabble eggs using chop stick to stir, remove from pan set aside.
6. Add 1 Tablespoon oil heat until very hot stir fry garlic and ginger. Add mushrooms, cloud ears, daylily, green chilli, cook for 1 minute. Add sauce from step 2. and simmer until thickened.

Dipping Sauce
1. Combine hoisin sauce with 1 Tablespoon soy sauce and 1 teaspoon water and stir.

Wrap mu shu pork in mandarin pancakes and dip in hoisin sauce.
(I tried to make gluten free mandarin pancakes, they need improvement so no recipe today) but follow this link to martha for a recipe for mandarin pancakes!