Cooking with Xianyitang dried ingredients
Tender steamed pork is dotted with crisp jade wood ear and water chestnuts, gently seasoned with ginger, spring onion and savoury sauces. Spoon the juices over rice for a Cantonese-style family meal. This four-portion side dish uses 10 g dried jade wood ear.
Times and yields are estimates. Allow for soaking, cooling and waits shown above, and check the state and doneness described in the method.
Recipe illustrations; measure ingredients using the written quantities.
Pick over and rinse 10 g dried jade wood ear. Soak in 500 ml lukewarm drinking water for about 15–30 minutes until expanded and soft through the thickest parts. Allow longer if needed; keep room-temperature soaking within 2 hours, refrigerating for longer waits. Discard the water and rinse. Cover with about 1 litre fresh water, bring to the boil and simmer for 40–60 minutes until fully cooked with no dry, hard centre. Drain, cool slightly, trim tough bases and chop into 3–5 mm pieces. The later pork-steaming stage does not replace this pre-cooking.
Drain the water chestnuts, lightly crush with the flat of a knife and chop small. Finely chop ginger and spring onion whites. Use the chilled mince without rinsing it. Clean hands and utensils after handling raw pork. Reserve about 5 g spring onion greens for serving.
Mix pork with light soy, oyster sauce, sugar, white pepper and cornflour. Work in the 30 ml cold water gradually until just cohesive. Fold in sesame oil, half the neutral oil, cooked wood ear, water chestnuts, ginger and onion whites without overworking. Lightly oil a heatproof shallow plate about 22 cm across and spread the mixture evenly, no thicker than 2 cm. Use two plates if yours is smaller.
Bring a steamer to a steady boil with a stable rack and water below the base of the plate. Add the plate, cover and steam for about 18–22 minutes. Use a clean food probe in the thickest centre: it must reach 75°C for 30 seconds. Steam longer and recheck if necessary; surface colour and elapsed minutes alone are not enough. Top up steamer water with hot water if needed.
Lift out with oven gloves and rest for 2–3 minutes. Add the reserved spring onion greens and portion with a clean spoon, serving the juices with rice. Take care with the hot plate and liquid.
Contains soya, sesame and molluscs in oyster sauce. Soy sauce and some oyster sauces contain wheat; check labels. The Xianyitang dried-ingredient packs state that they are packed in a facility also handling peanuts, tree nuts, sesame and soya. Check the actual labels of every brand used.
Keep raw meat and rehydrated fungi refrigerated at 5°C or below and follow meat-pack use-by instructions. Keep raw and cooked utensils separate. Cool cooked leftovers promptly in shallow containers, refrigerate within 2 hours, and eat within 48 hours or freeze. Reheat only once until hot throughout.
