Garlic Chive Stir Fry with Pork or Cang Ying Tou (苍蝇头) literally translates to “Flies’ Heads” in Chinese. And you thought you had heard it all! Someone definitely wasn’t being attentive to image and appetites when they gave this dish the name “flies’ heads.” But that person is not me! I’m just the messenger.
So Why Flies’ Heads?
Well, not to generalize too much, but Chinese names can get pretty creative based on the shape or look of something. Just look at these pictures of Guilin’s “Elephant Trunk Hill” (桂林象山) and Hunan’s “Gate to Heaven” (湖南天门洞).
Guilin’s Elephant Trunk Hill (桂林象山):
Hunan’s Gate to the Heaven (湖南天门洞):
Now look at the picture of this Garlic Chive Stir Fry with Pork dish. See what I mean? The namesake, of course, is the fermented black beans.
While the image the name evokes may slightly put you off, I have to say that any negatives end there. The flavor of this dish is “the bomb dot com,” as some of our family members who watch too much Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives described it. The flavors—“flies heads” or not—are just too delicious to ignore!
Easy to Prepare with Chives Or Scapes
Garlic Chive Stir Fry with Pork is a prominent Taiwanese home-style dish. It goes great with rice, and goes even better with congee! (It’s a perfect pairing for our 20-minute congee!)
Plus it’s one of our many dishes that is made with ground meat, which means it’s wonderfully simple and easy to prepare. If you don’t like ground pork, any ground meat will work: ground beef, ground chicken, or ground turkey.
One last note: if you can’t find garlic chives, garlic scapes work well too. I remember getting a ton of those in the summer CSA boxes I used to get every season.
So if you’re looking for a garlic chive stir fry recipe to use them up, this is the one. Check out our ingredients entry on garlic chives or Chinese chives because there are different types!
Let’s get started!
Recipe Instructions
Preheat your wok over high heat until it starts to smoke slightly. Turn down the heat, and let the wok cool down a bit before adding 1 tablespoon of the oil. (This step of superheating the wok before adding oil prevents the meat from sticking to the wok. This method works well for pan-frying anything–fish included.)
Once the oil is heated, turn the heat down to medium, and add the ground pork. Cook it until the meat is lightly browned. Add in the Shaoxing wine, ½ tablespoon light soy sauce, and the sugar. Mix well, turn off the heat, and transfer the cooked meat to a bowl.
Now turn the heat down to low, and add the last 2 tablespoons of oil and the ginger. Cook it for a minute, then add the garlic and fermented black beans. Cook everything for a minute or two, taking care to avoid burning.
Next, add the red long hot peppers, and turn the heat up high. Stir fry everything together, and let it cook for a minute uncovered.
Then, add in the cooked pork and garlic chives (if you use scapes, you will need to extend the cooking time at the end for 1-2 minutes with the wok lid on) and stir-fry.
Now it’s time to add in the remaining light soy sauce (1½ tablespoons) and the sesame oil. Stir-fry to combine. At this point, you can salt to taste, but the fermented black beans are quite salty. I found that I didn’t need to add any salt. But be fast about it, because the garlic chives cook quickly.
Transfer your Garlic Chive Stir Fry with Pork or Cang Ying Tou to a dish and serve with steamed rice.
Garlic Chives with Pork (Cang Ying Tou - 苍蝇头)
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons oil (divided)
- 10 ounces ground pork (285 g; can also use ground chicken, turkey, or beef)
- 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce (divided)
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- ½ tablespoon ginger (finely chopped)
- 1 tablespoon garlic (finely chopped)
- ¼ cup fermented black beans (35 grams, rinsed and drained)
- ½ cup red long hot peppers (or red bell peppers, finely diced)
- 12 ounces garlic chives (cut into ⅓-inch pieces)
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Preheat your wok over high heat until it starts to smoke slightly. Turn down the heat, and let the wok cool down a bit before adding 1 tablespoon of the oil. (This step of superheating the wok before adding oil prevents the meat from sticking to the wok. This method works well for pan-frying anything--fish included.)
- Once the oil is heated, turn the heat down to medium, and add the ground pork. Cook it until the meat is lightly browned. Add in the Shaoxing wine, ½ tablespoon light soy sauce, and the sugar. Mix well, turn off the heat, and transfer the cooked meat to a bowl.
- Now turn the heat down to low, and add the last 2 tablespoons of oil and the ginger. Cook it for a minute, then add the garlic and fermented black beans. Cook everything for a minute or two, taking care to avoid burning.
- Next, add peppers, and turn the heat up to high. Stir fry everything together, and let it cook for a minute uncovered. Then, add in the cooked pork and garlic chives (if you use scapes, you will need to extend the cooking time at the end for 1-2 minutes with the wok lid on) and stir-fry.
- Now it’s time to add in the remaining light soy sauce (1½ tablespoons) and the sesame oil. Stir-fry to combine. At this point, you can salt to taste, but the fermented black beans are quite salty--I found that I didn’t need to add any salt. But be fast about it, because the garlic chives cook quickly.
- Transfer to a dish and serve with steamed rice.
nutrition facts
My husband and I order this dish from our favorite Taiwanese restaurant in Flushing and we wanted to try recreating at home. This is a great recipe!
I noticed earlier commenters were surprised by the relatively low amount of pork in the dish, but I’d say trust the process! We made the mistake of using too much pork (we had 16 oz of pork and didn’t feel like making a separate dish with the rest) and it overpowered the chives, so I would definitely follow this recipe in the future. We also had trouble finding fermented black beans, so we used Lee Kum Kee black bean garlic sauce. It worked as a substitute in a pinch, but I would caution against using too much as it made the dish extra salty. Next time I’ll look harder for the actual beans in a store :)
However, despite our faulty decisions, the dish was delicious and we’ll make it again.
Thank you so much for trusting our recipes, Sarah :-)
Made a couple of substitutes: garlic scapes and green long hot peppers. Still delicious. The fermented black beans are great in this.
Yes, it’s really a tasty recipe :-)
Thank you Judy this was so good and will be added to my permanent list, a little on the salty side for me but I’ll control for that next time. The discovery of the Chinese garlic chives was a huge find for me as my family headed to the woods in the spring time, before the mosquitos and black flies menaced us, and harvested wild leeks. Now I’ll be able to enjoy that flavor more often. This is the first dish that I cooked that tasted like authentic Chinese.
Hi Rod, search for GARLIC CHIVE on our blog and you will find a few more recipes that use this ingredient, including a dumpling recipe which you can freeze :-)
Thank you for this recipe. We order this dish from our local fav chinese restaurant and was curious how it is made because it’s sooooo delicious! Our first attempt based on your recipe turned out fantastic. My only substitute was the pepper, we used green horn peppers since that’s what I could get at the store. So so so so good!!!
Wow, excellent!
Delicious! Had some ground chicken left after making wontons (another excellent recipe, thank you). Perfecly simple to cook even after a days work.
Awesome! I’m glad that you are trying new recipes.
My wife made Korean barbecue last night and we had leftover garlic scapes and king oyster mushrooms, so tonight I used them in a vegan version of this dish, along with 5-spice tofu. It was excellent! I’ll try it with meat and garlic chives at some point too.
HI Marnen, an excellent substitution choice to make the dish vegan!