Stir Fried Bamboo Shoots and Ground Meat
created by Iron Chef Chinese I, Chen Kenichi
Battle Bamboo Shoots
reverse-engineered by David J Rust

Ingredients:

Steps

1. Boil all bamboo shoots until tender. Remove from water and drain.

2. Take the thinly sliced pieces of bamboo shoot and make a small sheet out of 3 of the slices. Repeat until you have a total of 6. With a sharp knife, make horizontal slices along the grain of the bamboo from about 2/3rds of the way down to the end, making a brush-like pattern.

3. In a blender, combine the egg whites, ice fish and rehydrated shrimp and puree until you get a thin, mayonnaise-like consistency.

4. With a rubber spatula, spread the fish puree over the 6 sheets of bamboo.

5. Roll the bamboo sheets along the cuts with the fish puree in the center, forming a thin tube shape with the frayed ends of the slices showing.

6. Steam the asparagus stalks until cooked but still with some body. Discard the lower half of each stalk.

7. In a hot wok, stir-fry the pork in the sesame oil until browned. Add the Tian-Mian-Jiang sauce, large wedges of bamboo shoots, and the minced Chinese pickles. Stir-fry for 4 minutes and remove to a serving platter.

8. In the same wok, stir-fry the crushed Japanese peppercorns for a minute or two and add the soy sauce at the end. Pour it over the pork and bamboo shoot wedges.

9. Place the stalks of asparagus evently around the edges of the serving platter and place one of the small, rolled-up bamboo-shoot "brooms" on top of each. Serve immediately.

Serves 6 as a medium entree.

Iron Chef Notes:

Chen was not shown adding the dried shrimp; I only know it was there since Fukui-San mentioned it during the final presentation of Chen's dishes. Since it would probably be over-powered by the peppercorns and stir-fried pork, I'm guessing that it was pureed along with the egg whites and fish.

Ok, I'm at a loss for this one. We didn't see the puree getting prepared; we only saw it in its finished state. From this, I had to guess at the amounts included, but the proportions of fish to egg white are a mystery. You may have to tinker with it to get it right for your tastes. Also, what in the world are "Ice Fish"? I'm not terribly sure, so I'm going to guess again that any cold-water ocean fish will do.

When Chen made the small "brooms" out of the thinly sliced bamboo shoots, he had a thin band of some red vegetable around the base of each. I could not tell what it was; feel free to speculate and add something of nice color and complimentary flavor.

Cooking Notes:

In America, most people use canned bamboo shoots in their recipes; only a few stores will actually carry this ingredient fresh. As such, I have never had the opportunity to cook with them aside from the canned version. There are a few notes I would add, however, based upon comments made in the show. Dr. Hattori mentioned that whole bamboo shoots take a long time to prepare so that they are soft enough to eat. Boiling or simmering them for an hour is not uncommon. Also, the outer husk is inedible (save as a young plant) and should be peeled and discarded.