I’ve seen this “fish-fragrant” description on the Sichuan restaurant’s menu we often go to and never knew what the whole dish was all about. So, we decided to give it a try and really liked it. After a success in trying to “mimic” the Shui Zhu Yu dish and the Twice-cooked pork, I decided to give this one a try too.
Apparently though, fish-fragrant is one of the most popular cooking styles in Szechuan. The term fish-fragrant is used because usually the cook will use ingredients that are usually used to cook fish dishes, such as garlic, ginger, scallions, chili, and wine. We were completely blown away by how good this fish-fragrant pork or known as yu xiang rou si / 魚 香 肉 絲 turned out. As expected, the flavor is sophisticated if you asked me. I kinda thought that I was having a fish dish, but it wasn’t, it’s a pork dish. Please don’t let me confuse you when I said what I said earlier, it didn’t mean that the whole dish turned out fishy. In fact, I really love this dish. The whole combination of using fish-fragrant style with the pork just works REALLY well!
Sichuan Yu Xiang Rou Si (Fish-fragrant pork/ 魚 香 肉 絲)
Ingredients
- ½ lb boneless pork loin (cut into long strips)
- ½ cup bamboo shoot strips (blanch in water with 1 tsp of sugar and then discard the water)
- A handful of dried ear mushrooms (soaked in water for 30 minutes until they are plump and then thinly sliced them)
- Salt
- 3 Tbsp cooking oil divided
- 3 cloves garlic (finely minced)
- 2 tbsp ginger (finely minced)
- 3 tbsp chilli bean sauce (less if you don't want it too spicy)
- 3 tsp Chinese black vinegar
- 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 2 scallions (finely chopped)
- 2 tsp sugar
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns
- 1 Tbsp corn starch mix with 1 Tbsp of water
Instructions
- Preheat your wok and then add in the oil and heat it until it's really hot. Add in the chili bean sauce and stir-fry until fragrant. Add in the garlic and ginger and continue to stir fry until fragrant. Add in the pork strips and cook until the pork started to turn color
- Add in the blanched bamboo shoots and the mushrooms and stir fry for another minute. Splash in the wine, black vinegar, sugar and pinch of salt. Stir everything to mix, then have a taste, it should be spicy, salty, just a bit sweet with that hint of sourness from the vinegar. Adjust the seasoning to your liking
- Give the corn starch mixture a stir and then pour into the wok and stir to mix and you will see the whole thing started to thicken up. Turn off the heat. Add in the chopped spring onions and Szechuan peppercorns. Bring to the table and enjoy with a rice and other dishes if you like
2 comments
Marvellina, I would have assumed fish would be in that dish also. Thank you for the excellent clarification. Now I am excited to try it! The ingredients look very flavorful. I like a little spice, so I will add the entire 3tbs of chili bean sauce. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Katie, the title is kinda “tricky” ha..ha..! Chili bean sauce sure makes this dish delicious !!