Fresh Bamboo Shoots with Pork
Hungry Bear and I love bamboo shoots, but we've never cooked with fresh ones until recently. During the winter time, we always see fresh bamboo shoots in our local Asian markets, but hesitated to buy them until a few months ago.
Neither one of us knew how to peel them, so we searched the Internets and discovered it was relatively easy to prep bamboo shoots. Here's an informative video that shows how they are found and prepared. The bamboo shoots in the video are boiled to remove their bitterness. We're not sure why it is necessary because the shoots we get are not bitter, so we simply peel them following these steps.
We've cooked with fresh bamboo shoots several times now and Hungry Bear created this easy sauté with ground pork. It's a simple dish that really highlights the freshness and crunchy texture of the bamboo shoots. Now that we're comfortable peeling fresh ones, it's going to be really hard to use canned bamboo shoots ever again.
Side Note: For a behind the scenes look at our kitchen, check out Jen Yu's kitchen tours: week 3 on Use Real Butter.
Fresh Bamboo Shoots with Pork Recipe
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 5 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 fresh bamboo shoots, peeled and sliced
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
- 1-2 teaspoons sugar
- Mix pork, cornstarch and 3 tablespoons soy sauce. Set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large pan over high heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add pork mixture. Stir fry until no longer pink. Remove from pan.
- In same pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Add bamboo shoots, turn heat to medium-high, and sauté for approximately 5 minutes. Add ginger, wine, 2 tablespoons soy sauce and sugar. Stir to coat bamboo.
- Return pork to pan. Cook together another 2 minutes or until heated through.
Serve with rice and enjoy.
Makes 4 servings
I’ve been too intimidated to cook with fresh bamboo shoots, but if you say it’s easy, maybe I’ll try soon.
Saw your kitchen tour on Jen’s blog. Didn’t you promise to give us a full tour a while ago? I’m glad I finally got to see it. So sleek and stylish.
I just love fresh bamboo shoots! You should have asked me about them – my grandma got me hooked on them several years ago. Everytime I’m in the Bay Area or So Cal when they are in season, I buy a bunch to take home :) Unfortunately, I don’t think there are *any* in the entire state of Colorado. It looks deeeelish, as always. HB is such a rockstar (you too, Chuck!). Thanks for being in our tour, guys. I love your kitchen.
wow! you guys put a lot of effort into these cooking blogs. i love how much time you devote to simple asian cooking. i love your kitchen too. i just went to the other website “use real butter”.
keep doing what you do! i’ve got a few girlfriends ask me about your sticky rice recipe since i made it!
I just discovered your site through the kitchen tour at use real butter. You have a beautiful kitchen and a great blog. Love the pictures.
Fresh bamboo really is the best – it has such a light and pure flavor – the canned has a stale taste – I always hated bamboo shoots until I had fresh – YUM!!! Your blog is beautiful! :)
This is pretty cool. I’ve always wondered how to prepare fresh bamboo shoots. It doesn’t look too hard.
I’ve just come from visiting your kitchen tour. I am seriously jealous.
Wow – I’ve never seen fresh bamboo shoots to see what they really look like! How interesting. I love them out of the can – I’ll have to try them fresh now!
This sounds fabulous….fresh bamboo shoots looks yummy….must try it.. uphere i always have a hard time trying to find ingredients….one of my friend introduced me to a great site http://www.myethnicworld.com and i thought that i can pass great along as well.
I accidentally found this site today while searching for a peanut dipping sauce recipe. All your food looks so delicious and I love the pictures. I’m am enjoying reading your site!
I’ll have to look for bamboo shoots at my local Asian market. Looks like a healthful low starch dinner, yum! The photo of that pork is making my mouth water. :)
i’ve just ingesteed some fresh bamboo shoots which were delicious till i started to read up on them on the internet. apparently fresh bamboo shoots must be boiled for 10-20 minutes in fresh water for a reason. They contain trace elements of cyanide, which is removed after boiling. I just stirfried and happily ate some fresh bamboo without doing research and now i’m scared. i’m sure i’m not going to die, but it sure feels uncomfortable to read all these warnings about “make sure to boil the fresh shoots to remove cyanide” etc. well, i guess if you have this recipe up and you are raving about the crunchiness, it means you didn’t die so at least that’s a comfort! My ears popping, lets hope its not the cyanide… apparently bamboo shoot is the greatest medicine for everything, when properly prepared…