Roast Pork & Mushrooms

A quick Chinese stir-fry that turns leftover roast pork into a completely new meal. Thin-sliced pork loin gets tossed in a hot skillet with fresh mushrooms, ginger root, and scallions, then coated in a glossy sauce made from soy sauce, sherry, chicken broth, and cornstarch.

The ginger root is used as an aromatic, not a main ingredient. Stir-fry the sliced ginger with the scallions for two minutes to infuse the oil with its sharp, warm flavor, then pull the ginger out and discard it. What’s left is a subtly perfumed cooking oil that flavors everything else without any fibrous ginger pieces in the finished dish.

Slice the pork on the diagonal into thin strips, about a quarter inch thick. Since the pork is already cooked, it only needs one minute of stir-frying to heat through and pick up some color from the hot oil. The mushrooms and chicken broth go in next, get a quick covered simmer for two minutes, then the cornstarch slurry (mixed with sugar, white pepper, soy sauce, and sherry) goes in to thicken everything into a clingy, glossy sauce in about one minute.

Pro Tips

• Pre-mix the cornstarch slurry with all its seasonings so you can pour it in one shot
• Keep the mushroom stems on; they add texture and there’s no need to waste them
• Use white pepper instead of black for a sharper, more traditional Chinese flavor
• Stir the cornstarch mixture right before adding; cornstarch settles fast

Variations

• Vegetables: Add sliced water chestnuts or bamboo shoots with the mushrooms
• Spicy: Stir in chili garlic sauce or a pinch of white pepper
• Chicken version: Substitute sliced cooked chicken for the pork