Despite the rather unappetizing name (Rats Ears Fungus, if the Thai name is translated), this is a really delicious species of mushroom that originates from China. You can see it in cooked form at the top of the photograph. As I often do, I had bought a pack of this on impulse when I came across it in the supermarket. Put it in a drawer in the kitchen and forgot about it. Then the other day I had to look for more cumin seed, and when I dug in the drawer, found the pack. It would expire soon, so I thought I’d better use it.

What to cook was the question. I had a pack of 2 cuts of pork shoulder, with a reasonable amount of fat, making it ideal for a long braise.

So, decided on pork braised in five-spice flavoured sauce, with cloud ear fungus. The Thais will know the sauce as palo sauce.

I cut the pork into 2 cm / ¾ in chunks and marinated it for about 40 minutes in dark soya sauce, five-spice powder and honey.

Brought a decent sized pot of water to the boil, took it off the heat and put in the dried cloud ear fungus to reconstitute for 20 minutes. Please note that it increases in size several times when reconstituted, so use a large enough pot.

Meantime, I prepared a paste of garlic and shallots, to which I added 3 segments of a star anise and a dash of sugar. I also made an additional sauce base of dark soya sauce and salt.

When pork and cloud ear fungus were ready, I fried the garlic-shallot paste till it turned a golden brown, then added the marinated pork and fried it until it changed colour. I put in the additional sauce base, stirred well, and then added the reconstituted cloud ear fungus.

Added 2 cups water, and as soon as the sauce came to a boil, I reduced the heat, covered the pan and simmered the pork for an hour.

The gravy was thick enough, but not too dry which is what you want. It is delicious, expect people to want spoonfuls of it on their rice, so do not make the mistake of preparing too little gravy, or allowing it to thicken too much.

As this is a strongly flavoured dish, which we would be eating with rice, I opted to have a simple minestrone soup to provide the vegetables.

Nice meal, and I had enough left over for a single portion, so I froze that. I’m curious to see how this dish does after freezing. I’ll post when I know.

Photograph and Glossary Listing - Cloud Ear Fungus (Mushrooms)

It just struck me last night while I was cooking, that many Asian ingredients tend to go by local names. Try water convolvulvus, or kangkong, or morning glory for starters.

It actually started off when I was washing the Asian celery, quite distinct from regular celery, and I just felt that someone unfamiliar with it would have a hard time trying to find it.

So, I resolved to take a photograph of it and post it in the Glossary of my website. Then my better half comes home and I tell her what I have been up to. She tells me its a good idea, that her boss who is Asian does not know what Prik Ki Nu (Bird Chilli) is. So, today I photographed the chillies that I have and posted them as well.

The Glossary is a work in progress, but there will be more and more photographs and information as I develop it. I do hope that someday, people can look upon it as a valuable resource.