Quick-Fried Kidney Slices 爆炒腰花

Quick-Fried Kidney Slices (爆炒腰花) is a stir-fry of pork kidney that Shandong broadcaster iqilu.com lists as a traditional speciality of Jinan (济南), the provincial capital. It belongs to the Jinan branch of Shandong cuisine, known as Lixia flavour (历下风味), in which quick-frying over fierce heat, called bao (爆), is an important technique.

How it is made

Iqilu.com names pork kidney and water chestnuts as the main ingredients and singles the dish out as a test of the cook's knife work. A Jinan Daily group (舜网) history of old Jinan restaurants counts bao dishes among the key techniques of Jinan cooking and gives their three essentials as a fierce flame, high heat and speed. The same history quotes the Qing gourmet Yuan Mei (袁枚), who called frying in boiling oil, seasoning and lifting the food from the wok a northern method, best when the result is very crisp.

Flavour and texture

Iqilu.com describes the finished dish as fresh and tender, full in flavour, smooth and not greasy.

Where it comes from

The Jinan Daily group history places the dish among the Jinan recipes that mostly appeared between the Chongzhen reign at the end of the Ming and the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns of the Qing, and became popular in the late Qing. It says Liu Yongqing (刘永庆), head chef at Baihuacun (百花村), a Lixia-style restaurant opened in 1912 as the first Shandong-cuisine restaurant in Jinan's commercial district, was best at quick-frying, and that his version was included as a Shandong classic in Chinese Famous Dishes (《中国名菜谱》), edited by the Ministry of Commerce catering bureau.