Shredded Pork in Beijing Sauce, also called Peking Shredded Pork, is a dish from northern China, and it is a Beijing dish. This dish uses lean pork as an ingredient, you can use pork tenderloin or other lean cuts of pork. In this dish we will use a new sauce - 甜面酱 (tiánmiànjiàng), which in English is called sweet wheat paste, or sweet bean paste. This sauce is made by fermenting flour and beans. Shredded pork in Beijing sauce is a savoury (umami) and sweet dish. Peking shredded pork is eaten just like Peking duck, but this shredded pork is much easier to make in the home kitchen. We usually serve it with raw cucumbers and raw green onions. We put these ingredients in a thin pancake, like moo shu pancakes or spring roll wrappers, and roll them up to eat. In restaurants, this is a common dish. In Beijing it is just as popular as Peking Duck. Today, we will make a home version of Shredded Pork in Beijing Sauce, I hope you will like it.
Remove the seeds from the cucumber and cut into sticks about 5 cms long. Slice the green onion into 5cm long strips.
100 g cucumber, 40 g green onion
Shred the pork into strips about the width of a chopstick, cutting across the grain.
200 g lean pork
Steam the spring roll skin for 5-7 minutes and steam until cooked.
5 spring roll skins
Wash the shredded pork and drain. Add 3ml of salt, stir until sticky, then add 5ml of water and stir. Then add thick starch water and stir well.
3 ml salt, 20 ml thick starch water, 5 ml water
Fill the wok 1/3 full with oil and heat to 100° C, (212° F), then reduce the heat to low and add the shredded pork. Stir to separate the pork shreds, until the pork changes color, then remove. Pour the hot oil into a heat-proof container.
Add 15ml (1 tbsp) of oil to your wok over low heat, then add the sweet bean sauce and stir for 2 seconds, then add 30ml of water. Season with dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, and sugar and 2 ml salt(to taste).
2 ml salt, 4 ml dark soy sauce, 5 ml light soy sauce, 15 ml tiánmiànjiàng, 15 ml cooking oil, 30 ml water, 8 ml sugar, white (granulated)
Then add the shredded pork over medium heat. Remove from the wok once the broth is thickened to a sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
sesame seeds
Serve
Notes
This is the shredded pork in Beijing sauce that I ate in a restaurant.
Image credit: Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2023.
Since cucumbers and shredded green onions are eaten raw in this recipe, you need to use a clean cutting board and knife when cutting them. Cut them before cutting the meat, or you can use boiling water to disinfect the cutting board and knife after cutting the meat and before cutting the vegetables. This is for food hygiene and safety.
Soy sauces vary in saltiness. Add your soy sauce, then taste for flavor before adding any salt.