Pork and Preserved Radish Stir-Fry
菜脯炒肉（Cai Pu Chao Rou)
The pantheon of Chinese cooking includes many dishes which combine meat with some kind of tofu product. This might seem odd to Western ears, as in the west, tofu is most often seen as a substitute for meat. In many Asian cuisines, however, tofu products are often used to supplement meat in dishes, providing not just additional protein, but also additional textures.
This straightforward stir-fry, a favorite of our grandparents, features pork, bean curd (豆乾, dou gan)[1], and preserved daikon radish (菜脯, cai pu or chai poh)[2]. Fried shallots and shacha sauce help to round out this savory dish—perfect with a fried egg and a steaming bowl of rice!
Ingredients
8 oz Taiwanese minced pork, cooked
8 oz dried bean curd (dou gan)
4 oz preserved radish
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp shacha sauce
2 tbsp fried shallots
2 scallions, chopped
Vegetable oil
We will be using some prepared Taiwanese minced pork for this recipe. Make a batch first, or pull some out of your freezer!
Prepare the preserved radish, first rinsing them and then dicing them into ¼ inch pieces. Because these radishes are preserved through salting, they are quite salty. We want to remove some of this salt by soaking the diced radish in a bowl of water for 10 minutes. Once the radish is done soaking, drain the water. Meanwhile, dice the bean curd into ¼ inch cubes.
Heat about 1 teaspoon vegetable oil in a pan or wok over high heat. When the oil is up to temperature, add the cooked Taiwanese minced pork and the diced bean curd, along with the brown sugar and the shacha sauce. Shacha is a savory and slightly spicy Chinese condiment made from garlic, shallots, chili, and dried shrimp [3]. You can find shacha sauce in most Asian grocery stores, and even some western supermarkets!
Stir-fry the pork and bean curd, tossing continuously, for about 5 minutes. Then add the drained preserved radish pieces and the fried shallots to the pan, and continue to stir-fry for 5 more minutes, or until the bean curd is fully cooked through. To finish the dish, toss in the chopped scallions and serve.
Substitutions
To make a vegetarian version of this dish: omit the pork, double the amount of bean curd, and use a vegetarian shacha sauce (as standard shacha sauce contains shellfish). If you can’t find bean curd, an extra-firm tofu can work.
[1] Bean curd, or dou gan (豆乾), is a pressed tofu product that is denser and has a lower moisture content than regular tofu. It is often flavored with Chinese five spice and soy sauce, giving the exterior of the curd a brown color.
[2] Preserved radish is also known as “蘿蔔乾”(luo bo gan), which means “dried radish.” In English, this ingredient is translated very inconsistently. I’ve pretty much seen every possible combination of the following words: preserved/salted/sun-dried/pickled radish/turnip/daikon. Unfortunately, there are so many different types of Asian pickles and preserved foods made with daikon or other radishes that if you are not a Chinese speaker, you may be best off going by a combination of look and the ingredients list. High quality preserved radish should be made of daikon radish, salt, and maybe a bit of sugar, with no other flavorings and minimal preservatives.
[3] Shacha sauce is used in soups, stir-fries, and dipping sauces, especially for hot pot. It is a descendant of Southeast Asian satay sauce, as the name suggests, but has evolved into a very different sauce with few ingredients in common.
Recipe
Prep Time: 5 min Cook Time: 10 min Total Time: 15 min
Difficulty: 1/5
Heat Sources: 1 burner
Equipment: pan or wok
Servings: 4
Ingredients
8 oz Taiwanese minced pork, cooked
8 oz dried bean curd (dou gan)
4 oz preserved radish
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp shacha sauce
2 tbsp fried shallots
2 scallions, chopped
Vegetable oil
Instructions
1. Dice the preserved radish into ¼ inch pieces, and soak them in cold water. Dice the bean curd into ¼ inch cubes.
2. Heat about 1 tsp vegetable oil in a pan over high heat. Add the cooked pork and the bean curd, together with the sugar and the shacha sauce. Stir-fry these ingredients together, tossing continuously, for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the drained preserved radish and fried shallots to the pan and fry for another 5 minutes, or until the bean curd is cooked through.
4. Toss in the chopped scallions and remove from the heat. Serve over rice.
