Qidong Stir-Fried Pork with Daylily 祁东黄花菜炒肉

Qidong Stir-Fried Pork with Daylily (祁东黄花菜炒肉) is a home-style dish from Qidong County (祁东县) in Hengyang (衡阳), Hunan, where day-lily buds are the main cash crop. Home cooks there pair pork with both fresh and dried buds.

How it is eaten

In a 2017 feature, the Hunan food paper Da Xiangcai Bao (大湘菜报) visited a farmhouse in Shitingzi town (石亭子镇), the county's largest day-lily production and sales base. Over one lunch the cook served six day-lily dishes, among them dried day-lily with wood-ear fungus and shredded pork and fresh day-lily stir-fried with pork. The paper notes that in Qidong these dishes are mostly home cooking, made in household after household.

Ingredients

People's Daily Online reports that Qidong has grown day-lily for more than 500 years and was the first to use a dry-steaming technique for the buds. Local lore says they became a tribute to the imperial court in the early Qing dynasty; the buds are known for thick flesh and a fragrant, sweet taste. Growers pick the buds before they open, often at night in the peak season, then steam them over water and dry them in strong sun. Qidong Day-lily (祁东黄花菜) became a national geographical-indication product in August 2013.