Fish-Fragrant Pork Slivers

Ingredients

• 350g pork loin or shoulder, cut into thin matchsticks
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 2 tsp potato starch, for the marinade
• 1 egg white
• 10g dried wood ear mushrooms
• 80g bamboo shoots, cut into matchsticks
• 1.5 tbsp pickled chilli paste, chopped
• 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
• 1.5 tbsp finely chopped garlic
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced
• 3 tbsp neutral oil
• 1.5 tbsp sugar
• 1.5 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 3 tbsp chicken stock
• 2 tsp potato starch, for the sauce

Before you cook

• Cut the pork into even matchsticks about the thickness of a pencil lead
• Mix the pork with the salt, Shaoxing wine, egg white and two teaspoons of starch, and leave it for fifteen minutes
• Soak the wood ear mushrooms in hot water for twenty minutes, then trim and shred them
• Whisk the sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, stock and remaining starch into a sauce and set it by the stove
• Line up the chilli paste, ginger, garlic and spring onions within arm's reach of the wok

Steps

1. Heat the oil in a wok over high heat until it just begins to shimmer.
2. Add the marinated pork and spread it out, letting it sit for fifteen seconds before you stir.
3. Stir-fry until the slivers have separated and turned pale all over, about ninety seconds, then scoop them onto a plate.
4. Lower the heat to medium and add the chilli paste to the wok.
5. Stir until the oil turns red and smells sweetly fermented, about thirty seconds.
6. Add the ginger and garlic and stir for fifteen seconds.
7. Add the wood ear and bamboo shoots and stir-fry for one minute.
8. Return the pork to the wok and toss everything together.
9. Stir the sauce to recombine the starch and pour it in around the edge of the wok.
10. Toss briskly for about twenty seconds until the sauce thickens and coats everything.
11. Throw in the spring onions, give one final toss, and serve immediately.