Shredded pork with bean sprouts
Those who have been to a ‘chop suey’ type of Chinese restaurant will have found that almost every single dish served there contains the ubiquitous bean sprouts. It is true that bean sprouts are one of the most common ingredients in China since they are not seasonal, but they are regarded there as an everyday, homely type of food which one would not expect to find on the menu of a restaurant, however humble, except as an ingredient in a few particular dishes. The only explanation I can offer for their popularity abroad is that perhaps in earlier days, when authentic Chinese food was rather hard to come by, bean sprouts were so easy to grow that the restaurant cooks, who were not skilled professional chefs in the strict sense, had to rely heavily on bean sprouts to give their dishes the exotic touch that most customers expected. Thus perhaps developed a kind of vicious circle which continues to this day.
What amazes me is that even though fresh bean sprouts are readily available almost everywhere nowadays, thanks to the flourishing of ‘chop suey’ Chinese restaurants and take-aways, some cookery writers still advise their readers to use canned bean sprouts in their recipes. This is unforgivable, as it is easy to grow your own if you cannot get them fresh from your local supermarket. Canned bean sprouts do not have the crispness of texture which, apart from their high content of vitamin C, is the main characteristic of fresh sprouts.
Although I must confess that I have never attempted growing them myself (the need never arose), I have often sampled excellent bean sprouts grown by my mother and her friends. You can obtain packets of mung beans from many shops and health food stores, with detailed growing instructions.
1/2 lb (225 g) fresh beansprouts
1/4 lb (100 g) lean pork
3-4 tbsp oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine or sherry
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Method
Wash and rinse the beansprouts in cold water and discard any husks that float to the surface. Shred the pork into thin strips and stir-fry it in a little warm oil. When the colour of the meat changes, add soy sauce, wine and sugar, blend well, and when the juice starts to bubble, dish it out and put it aside.
Next, wash the wok or pan and heat up some more oil. This time wait for it to smoke, then add the salt, followed by the bean sprouts. Stir vigorously so that every bit of sprout is coated with oil. Now return the pork to the pan and cook all together for about 1 minute, stirring constantly. When the bean sprouts start to become transparent and the juice starts to bubble, the dish is done; even slight overcooking will make the sprouts lose their crispness.
© Deh-Ta Hsiung and reproduced with his kind permission.
