Today, I’m going to share with you a famous Nanchang local dish: stir-fried preserved pork with Artemisia selengensis. I’ll also use it as an example to help explaining an important Chinese philosophy of cooking, which is balancing theYin and Yang.
When winter comes, every family in Nanchang would treat pork meatwith salt for preservation. After a month or two sun-drying, these lovelyinch-thin slices start to look amazing: light amber-brown color with gorgeous golden luster. Winter in Nanchang is cold and humid, so the meat is not very dry nor hard, but rather still tender and bouncy. Artemisia selengensis is a common water plant grows in the Poyang Lake near Nanchang, the largest sweet water lake in China. It grows in abundance in March and April according to theChinese soli-lunar calendar. It is sweet, with a strong woody and earthy aroma,and delightfully crunchy, the ideal veg to go with the tender, springy andsavory preserved pork meat.
The dish is actually very easy to prepare, and can be cook in amatter of minutes. Roughly slice the preserved pork, bundle the Artemisia selengensis and chop them into inch-long lengths, roughly chop up a handful of garlic and ginger and some Chinese chives, finely dice some fresh red pepper, and then we are good to go.
Set the work, heat on, and in with some oil. For this dish, I prefer to use vegetable oil because it adds a fragrant woody flavor to the food.
Ginger, garlic and red pepper are the first to go, just to releaseall the flavors. Follows up the sliced preserved pork. Let the meat settle for a while before you flip it over to brown the other side. While it sizzles, add in with a tablespoon of rice vinegar to get rid of the unpleasant odor of the preserved meat and to create a sour and smoky aroma. When the meat gets crispy, gives it a drizzle of rice wine and a pinch of sugar for seasoning. At this stage you can add the chopped Artemisia selengensis. If you are into spicy food, sprinkle a bit of dried chili flake to give the dish an additional fiery kick. The preserved pork is already savory and salty, so you don’t need extra saltiness but a little light soy sauce. Finally, add into the work the Chinese chive and give the ingredients a good stir for about a minute before serve-up. Don’t overcook it because you want the veg to be fresh and crunchy.
This popular local dish in my hometown is a perfect explanation to the Chinese philosophy of cooking. Ancient Chinese people see two opposing forces, namely Yin and Yang, in everything, and we live by balancing these forces. When it comes to cooking, we also think ingredients have Yin and Yang(or cooling and heating) qualities. The Yin foods include most of the vegetables and aquatic lives, while Yang exists mostly in meat and spices; and grains and most of the eggs and seeds are the balanced.
In cooking, Chinese people always try to achieve a balance between the two opposing forces because our body takes in these energies from food, and toomuch Yin or Yang is detrimental to our health. In this dish, Artemisia selengensisis a kind of water plant, so it’s pretty Yin in quality, which neutralizes theYang from the preserved pork meat, ginger, garlic and chili. it's just perfect!
This also explains why traditionally, chefs, especially head chefsin China are all males. In Chinese culture, the cooking work is of Yin quality,which requires the Yang from men to balance out.