This simple and quick pork and coriander stir-fry dish comes from Northern China, just south of Beijing – from Shandong – and is part of the Lu cuisine (which is why it’s not a stew this time!)

Sometimes it has been modified to a spicier dish (by adding chilli), but the original version only uses salt, soya sauce, cooking alcohol, ginger and spring onion for flavouring. My family never made it with chilli peppers, so this is what you’ll find here.

The best cut of pork for this stir-fry is the fillet (aka the tenderloins). The cheapest pork I found during my shopping trip was already cubed, so that’s what I’m using. To make up for the cut, I’m cutting these into smaller pieces here. The aim is for it to cook very rapidly, so the prep time is roughly 10 minutes, but it should only cook for around 5-6 minutes.

This version of the recipe serves 2.

Ingredients
200g of pork
1 egg
1 tbsp of plain flour
4-5 spring onions (small)
2 slices of ginger
1 tbsp of soya sauce
1 tbsp of Shaoxing rice wine
200g of coriander
Salt to taste
2-3 drops of sesame oil

Yes, that’s not a typo, you really do need 200g of coriander!

Step 1: cut the pork into thin strips of around 2-3cm in length. As I’m using a less tender cut of pork, I’ve cut mine into really thin strips of 1cm in length.

Step 2: mix the egg and flour, and drop the pork into this mix. Mix well.

Step 3: separate the white and green parts of the spring onions. Chop the white parts into roughly 2-3cm sections. Chop the green parts into finer sections.

Step 4: add a generous amount of olive oil into a wok and heat it on the highest heat for just under 1 minute. Add the ginger and white parts of the spring onions into the oil .

Step 5: once the oil is sizzling, add the pork to the oil. Add the soya sauce and rice wine and stir. It should take no longer than 2-3 minutes for the pork to look cooked (i.e. not pink).

Step 6: temporarily remove the pork from the pan. Don’t worry, it will be cooked again briefly.

Step 7: chop the coriander into very large chunks. You should only need to cut it 3 times across. It will shrink when you stir-fry it.

Step 8: make sure the wok is dry, then add a tiny dash of oil to the wok again. Add the coriander and sprinkle lightly with salt. Go easy on the salt. It will help the coriander to shrink, but you can add more to taste later. Stir-fry for 1 minute.

Step 9: add the pork, green parts of the spring onion and a few drops of sesame oil and stir-fry 1 minute. Remove and serve!

Coriander is a great source of vitamins A and C, and you’d usually only add a sprinkle of it instead of actually cook with it like a veg. If you try this recipe, let me know if you enjoyed the taste!

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