Introduction: For one or two people, cooking can always be a dilemma. Make too little, and you worry about incomplete nutrition; make a couple extra portions, and you can't finish them. This is when you need to learn one or two dishes that are nutritionally complete, "a dish that does the work of three." A typical example of such a dish is the northern Chinese家常菜 (homestyle dish) Mu Xu Rou.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations once proposed a slogan: "The most reasonable dietary structure for the 21st century can be summarized in six words: 'one meat, one vegetable, one mushroom'." With one meat dish, you get high-quality protein; with one vegetable dish, you get fiber, vitamins, and minerals. And with mushrooms, you also get the benefits of lowering blood lipids, boosting immunity, and slowing down aging.
Mu Xu Rou
"Mu Xu Rou is a perfect example. In one dish, you have lean meat, eggs, wood ear mushrooms, and daylily buds, with a very reasonable nutritional ratio," said Professor Xu Chengbin, former Executive Director of the Department of Internal Medicine and Director of the Department of Cardiology at Peking University People's Hospital, who strongly agrees. Yu Renwen, a senior nutritionist at Beijing Military General Hospital and a member of the Food and Nutrition Committee of the China Cuisine Association, also told the Life Times reporter that Mu Xu Rou is very rich and balanced in nutrition, with protein, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber—all present. "In terms of ingredients, Mu Xu Rou is indeed very healthy, but a lot of oil is generally used for stir-frying," Yu Renwen said. "Oil is used for the eggs, the meat is also stir-fried in oil, and then you add oil for the other vegetables, so the total amount of oil in the dish is inevitably high."Mu Xu Rou
So, how can you reduce the oil and salt without affecting the taste of the dish? When making Mu Xu Rou, you can pour oil into the wok and let it evenly coat the wall. Then, pour the oil out and save it for later. Use the oil left on the wall wall to cook the eggs. "Eggs absorb a lot of oil, but they can be cooked with very little oil," Yu Renwen is certain. "Secondly, when stir-frying the pork tenderloin, use a water-blanching method. Water at 80-100 degrees Celsius can definitely cook the meat." Finally, add a moderate amount of oil to stir-fry the remaining ingredients and thicken the sauce. As for reducing salt, "you can follow the old Beijing-style 'Cu Liu Mu Xu' (vinegar-braised Mu Xu)," Yu Renwen said. "By adding some vinegar during cooking, you can enhance the salty flavor. This means you don't need to add much salt, and it also gives the dish a unique flavor."
Mu Xu Rou