Beijing Shredded Pork
京酱肉丝
English: Beijing Shredded Pork
Chinese: 京酱肉丝
Pinyin： Jing jiang rou si
Literal: Capital sauce shredded pork
Some complain that Beijing’s food is plain and sure, if you look at any single dish, you might be tempted to agree: a pile of steamed mantou buns, a clear broth of pork and winter melon, an ear of corn served as it is or a plate of slippery boiled dumpling might seem a bit dull. But to judge the capital’s food this way is to miss the bigger picture: the picture being a dining table balanced perfectly with mild and calming dishes alongside a few big and bold, rich and fatty. A meal that was nothing but the latter would quickly tire out anyones palate.
One of these dishes is the classic Jing Jiang Rou Si ((京酱肉丝) - thin slivers of marinated pork, tossed quickly in a hot wok until they are coated in a glossy sauce the colour of dark mahogany. The punch comes from on ingredient: Sweet Flour Sauce (tianmian jiang). It’s made by fermenting wheat flour with salt, sugar and sometimes soybeans until it becomes dark, running and intense - a wallop of salty umami. If I were renaming this sauce, I might leave out the ‘sweet’ from the description, which is quite misleading - there’s nothing much sweet about it. Tianmian jiang is one of the key flavours of Beijing’s food. It finds its way into a number of dishes, from humble zhajiangmian noodles to an extravagant Peking Duck dinner.
In fact, Jing Jiang Rou Si feels like an poor man’s Peking Duck. The pork takes the role of the duck, the sauce is already worked through the meat, and instead of delicate wheat pancakes, there are sheets of tofu skin ready to wrap around the filling. Crisp cucumber or spring onions are slipped inside, just like a duck pancake, right before you take a bite.
Just note, the fiddly bit of this dish is cutting the pork. Pork tenderloin is, well, tender and flops about under the knife. Many cooks pop the loin into the freezer for an hour or so, until the meat firms up. Then you can slice it into matchstick ribbons ready for the marinade.
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
For the marinade
200g pork tenderloin
1 small egg - white only
1 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon white pepper
1 gloves garlic
2 spring onions - green part only
½ tablespoon ginger - finely chopped
For the sauce
70g tian mian jiang
½ tablespoon sugar
½ tablespoon light soy sauce
½ tablespoon dark soy sauce
½ tablespoons Shaoxing wine
3 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon cornstarch + water (might not need)
For the rolls
Tofu skin
1 cucumber - julienned
5 spring onion - julienned
Method
I suggest putting the tenderloin into the freezer an hour or so before cutting. This will firm up the meat so that it’s easier to cut, but it’s not essential. When ready, cut the meat into slabs about 1-2cm wide, then cut the slabs into ‘matchsticks’ about 1-2cm wide.
Place the meat into a large bowl and add the marinade ingredients and mix well. Leave in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, longer if you want.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl until the sugar has dissolved and set aside for later. Use this time to prep the veg for the rolls too, by julienning the cucumber and spring onion, and laying the tofu skin onto a plate (sometimes the skins stick to each other and need prizing apart).
Heat a wok over a medium heat. Add a tablespoon of oil, and then hot, add the meat and marinade. Stir the meat until it’s just cooked - you don’t want to overcook the meat as it will turn rubbery - perhaps 3-4 minutes.
Pour the sauce over and stir-fry everything, mixing until the meat is coated. Let the sauce bubble for 30 seconds. It should start to thicken from the cornstarch. You want a glossy sauce that is still a bit runny. To check, slide a wooden spatula across the base of the wok, the sauce should take a second before it flows into the gap. If it looks too runny, add ½ teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with water.
Serve immediately with the tofu skin and vegetables on the side, letting guests make their own rolls. This dish doesn’t reheat well. When it cools down, the sauce becomes gloopy and reheating the dish overcooks the pork, so it’s best eaten fresh.
