Fly’s Head

Fly’s head 蒼蠅頭 is a classic Taiwanese stir-fry dish known for its savory, mild spicy, and garlic taste. It gets the name from the appearance of fermented (salted) black soybeans in the dish. The fermented black soybeans can come quite salty, depends on the brand you use, whether it’s in a jar or a package. Be sure to adjust the seasoning of soy sauce and salt to taste when cooking the dish. Add more chilies and ground white pepper if you’d like it extra spicy.

This dish is usually served with rice. However this time I had it as filling for crispy plain sesame Shaobing 燒餅 (type of flaky flatbread). I also made scrambled eggs with extra garlic chives, as a side, in addition to Taiwanese pickled cabbage!

Servings: 4-5

Ingredients:

1.25 lbs. (567g) ground pork

8 cloves garlic, minced

3-4 red finger chilies (or bird eye chilies if you’d like it spicier), minced

2 cups garlic chive (韭菜花), remove flower buds, chopped into small bits

4 tbsp fermented and salted black soybeans (豆豉), soak in rice wine or water and drain before cooking if the beans you are using are too salty.

3 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp rice wine

1 1/2 tsp sugar

½ tsp ground white pepper

4 tbsp cooking oil

Salt to taste

Instructions:

1.     Heat up cooking oil in pan. Saute garlic and red chilies for 5 seconds before add in ground pork. Cook until almost done, pinkness of raw meat no longer visible.

2.     Season with salted black soybeans, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, and ground white pepper. Saute over medium high heat for a few minutes.

3.     Add garlic chives. Saute for a minute, and season with a little salt, to taste.