“Meat Passed Through Oil” 过油肉 – Shanxi Province's Signatory Dish

过油肉 (pronounced guòyóuròu) is a dish often found in Shanxi province. Its meaning roughly translates to meat passed through oil, quite a literal name. I first tasted it while traveling to Pingyao and Datong and the reason it caught my attention, was the green, thin vegetable which I had neer seen before. As it turned out, this “veg” which reminded me a lot of shallots, but firmer and greener, were in fact scapes, or as the Chinese call them “garlic stems”. I do not know about you, but I had no idea, that anything but the garlic bulb is edible. In hindsight, I am really glad I found out - I love scapes! Searching for an online recipe, I noticed that there seems to be no English translation available yet, so here you go. This recipe is based on this Chinese cooking video.

“Meat Passed Through Oil” 过油肉: Ingredients

Since this is a Chinese dish and Chinese recipes are usually not very keen on measurements, the best thing to do is just play it by ear.

1 slice pork meat

1 egg

1-2 table spoons flour

A dash of salt

A dash of pepper

Even smaller dash of MSG (or Knorr Aromat)

1 tbsp Shaoxing Chinese Wine

1 garlic clove

6 scapes (garlic stems)

Mu’er Chinese mushrooms

Chinese Vinegar

Dark Soy Sauce

Corn starch dissolved in water

Sesame oil

“Meat Passed Through Oil” Recipe

• Cut the meat into slices and put in a bowl. Add egg (white & yolk), flour, salt, pepper, Aromat, Shaoxing wine and mix it all up.
• Add oil to the pan to deep fry the meat. Put it on kitchen paper to drain. Tip out most of the oil, leaving just a bit.
• Soak the Mu’er mushrooms for about 15 – 20 minutes.
• Crush the garlic with a knife and cut it into little pieces.
• Cut the garlic stems into short pieces (see picture).

• Cut up the mushrooms, getting rid of the knobbly heads.
• Heat up the pan and add the garlic. Add the mushrooms and garlic stems. Then add a dash of Chinese vinegar, Shaoxing wine and the dark soy sauce. Add some more Aromat to taste.
• Add the dissolved corn starch and a little dash of sesame oil.
• Done!