Our clan fell in love with the classic Chinese dish Mu Shu Pork believe it or not when camping at Gros Ventre campground out of Jackson a few decades back.
It became a must-do ritual to drive up from SLC, set up camp as quickly as possible, and then beat it back to town for dinner at the Lame Duck. The little hole in the wall place was down East Broadway, past the hospital almost to the end of the road where the branch to the Elk Refuge peels off. I don’t know how many times we ate there with the kids as they grew up; we even got to know one of the waitresses pretty well one summer.
The Duck’s long gone now, a victim of Jackson’s (unfortunate in many ways) transformation, though the memory of great dinners past lingers. They had the best sizzling rice soup any of us have ever tasted, and among many other delights – a great Mu Shu Pork.
We’ve tried over the years to recreate the dish; we’ve come close but never hit it on the money and haven’t tried for years now – until this quick (kinda’ve a cheater) version came across our radar a few weeks ago.
She Who Must Be Obeyed has been out of town all week on business (allowing me a few practice rounds) and I can knock this entire prep out in under 20 minutes now, given how it’s based off using an (at least partially) pre-seasoned commercial sausage you bring to life with some minced ginger and garlic.
With decent knife skills you can slice and dice through the veg prep like a ninja, then basically sauté everything up in a big, ideally cast iron, skillet. I bet you’ve even got everything in the pantry already (if you don’t, you need it anyway).
We’ve gone low carb this year and this dish fits the bill perfectly, you can even sub in low carb tortillas (5 grams!) for the Mu Shu cakes and never miss a beat.
Adapted from the April issue of Bon Appetite with the cooking genius of Chef Libby in Austin.
1 lb commercial hot Italian sausage (casing removed)
1 to 1.5 inch piece of peeled fresh ginger, minced
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
Vegetable oil of choice
6 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, sliced thin
2 ounces wood ear mushrooms, sliced thin
8 cups Napa cabbage, thinly sliced, divided
1 bunch green onions, trimmed and sliced into 1-in pieces, reserve 1/3 of total
1 can bamboo shoots, drained and cut into matchsticks
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp good soy sauce
2 tsp sesame seeds
2 tsp toasted sesame oilTo Wrap: Flour tortillas or Mu Shu wraps, Hoisin sauce, Sriracha
Mince the fresh ginger and garlic and add to the sausage in a small bowl; work in evenly with your hands.
Heat a couple of tbsp of vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet over med-high heat and brown the sausage mixture well, breaking it up as you go. When it’s done, remove to a clean plate, reserving the drippings in the skillet.
Keeping the heat where it is, sauté the mushrooms in the drippings, you want them to release a bit of liquid, then brown and crisp up a bit (4 to 5 minutes should do it).
Now add half the cabbage, the bamboo shoots and 2/3s of the green onions: keep things moving until the cabbage is wilted. Now add the rice vinegar and soy sauce and simmer quickly until the liquid is for the most part reduced (won’t take but 2 or 3 minutes).
Remove from the heat and add the remaining cabbage and green onions, sprinkle the sesame seeds and oil over and stir it all in.
Serve hot in the wrap of your choice slathered with Hoisin and / or Sriracha.
Hot damn. Enjoy.
