Chinese Ground Pork and Green Beans

Submitted by BarbryT

"This is one of my three favorite Chinese dishes. Equally good with ground beef. In this day and age, I expect some people to dry fry the green beans in a hot skillet, but deep frying them quickly doesn't add much if any oil and it draws out the moisture nicely. Another possibility would be to toss the trimmed green beans with a tablespoon of peanut oil and roast at 500 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes. The idea is to get moisture out of the beans so they will absorb the sauce. Prepare ingredients ahead of time and this will come together quickly. To tell the truth, I double or triple the garlic, scallions and ginger, and use half to 3/4 teaspoon hot bean paste, but this is more or less the original recipe. Feel free to adapt to your taste. I like spicy but not hot. The prep time does not include mincing, chopping, trimming the vegetables."

 

• Ready In: 15mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 226.79-453.59 g ground pork
• 29.58 ml oil (I use peanut oil)
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2-3 scallions, chopped in small pieces
• 4.92 ml minced fresh ginger (peeled)
• 453.59 g green beans (room temperature)
• 59.14 ml chicken stock or 59.14 ml broth
• 4.92 ml cider vinegar
• 4.92 ml toasted sesame oil
• 473.18 ml oil, for deep frying

• Sauce

• 4.92 ml sugar
• 1.23 ml salt
• 4.92 ml hot bean paste
• 14.79 ml light soy sauce
• 14.79 ml dry sherry

directions

1. Trim the green beans. Heat oil for deep frying to 375 degrees. Deep fry green beans for 1-2 minutes, until wrinkled. You may want to do this in batches to prevent the oil temperature from dropping. Drain on paper towels. You may do this step ahead of time and refrigerate but be sure to bring the green beans back to room temperature before proceeding.
2. Mix sauce ingredients and set aside.
3. Heat wok or skillet over medium high to high heat, add 2 T oil, swirl to cover the surface and heat a few seconds. Turn heat to medium and put in the garlic, scallions and ginger and stir fry a minute or two.
4. Turn heat back up to medium high; crumble ground pork into the seasonings in the wok and stir fry, breaking up large lumps, until the meat no longer is pink.
5. Pour the sauce over the meat and stir quickly a few times to season evenly. Add the 1/4 cup of broth, even out the meat, cover and let it steam-cook vigorously for 3 to 4 minutes. (I set the lid ajar so the sauce will cook down a bit).
6. Turn heat high, add the green beans and toss and stir until the sauce thoroughly coats the beans and the meat clings nicely to them.
7. Splash in the 1 t cider vinegar and 1 t sesame oil, give the contents a good fast turn or two and serve over rice.

Reviews

[lorisnowco]

We all liked the flavor, aroma, and texture of this dish very much. I listened to the other reviews and used 2 -3 times the aromatics. shallow fried the green beans in about a 1/4 inch of olive oil and drained them. Next time I will cut them into 3 inch pieces so they cook faster and are easier to eat. I also could not find hot bean paste but had some Thai red curry paste in the fridge and used that. I hope it didn't change the taste too much. Otherwise, followed the recipe and it was devoured immediately. I will definitely be making this one again.

 

[monmamoni]

This turned out better than I expected.<br/><br/>I blanched the beans instead of deep-frying it. And I tripled the garlic and scallions. Yum!

 

[Maito]

What a yummy dish! I took your advice and doubled/tripled the garlic, ginger and scallions. I did not deep fry the beans. I used soy crumbles (my first time) and they were delicious in it! I followed another reviewer and doubled the sauce, which was perfect. This was great over brown rice.

 

[Karen Elizabeth]

Yes, exactly, flavourful but delicately so. I shallow-fried the beans for a few minutes in some sesame oil, and used sesame oil for the rest of the dish also. It was very easy to prepare this ( I got DH to do the veg preparation), and let it cook while I finished the ironing, just giving it the occasional stir. our daughters were going out and fretting about the time, no problem, it was ready with time to spare, and at least I knew they'd had a good meal before they went out! I served it over egg noodles, I would say it comfortably served four adults, a tasty and enjoyable supper with the minimum of fuss. Thanks BarbryT! Made for Australian swap, October 2008

 

[Debrajrj]

Oh, wow, this was FANTASTIC!!!! Very flavorful, but somehow delicately so, despite my having increased the garlic and scallions. I didn't have any sherry, so left that out, and did the beans in the oven at 425. It was very easy to make, and relatively quick. My finicky 2 year old and notional 5 year old couldn't get enough, and both my spouse and I loved it too!