Green Beans and Ground Pork
Szechuan green beans and pork is one of those standby dishes that never gets old, for me. Fry up the beans, heap on top of a bowl of rice and you've got a meal! The key to achieving that restaurant-like stringiness of the beans is to pre-fry the green beans in a hefty dose of oil before combining all of the ingredients. I add a splash of fish sauce to round out the flavor, though typically fish sauce is not used in Chinese cooking.
Recipe Ingredients:
- 1 lb green beans (string beans)
- vegetable oil for frying
- 1/2 lb of ground pork
- 1 large clove of garlic
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- splash of water
- Sauce Ingredients
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp szechuan hot bean paste
- splash of fish sauce
- glug soy sauce
- splash chinese rice wine (Shaoxing wine, substitute dry sherry or cognac)
- splash of vinegar
Recipe Steps:
- Trim the ends of the green beans. Chop the longer beans into smaller bite-sized pieces if you'd like uniformity. Pat dry with a kitchen towel.
- Mince the garlic and ginger. Mix the sauce ingredients together well -- taste and add more spicy bean paste if you'd like. Set all of this aside.
- Bring a wok (should be one with a lid) to high heat, then add about 1" of vegetable oil. Bring the oil to high heat and add the green beans in slowly. Toss frequently until the skins of the green beans and shriveled and dried out looking. This may take some time -- roughly 5-8 mins. Drain and set aside.
- In the same wok, add a bit more vegetable oil and bring to medium-high. Add the garlic and ginger. Fry until translucent, then add the ground pork. Using a spatula, quickly break up the pork into small pieces so it doesn't stick together in clumps. Fry for a minute or two. Toss in the sauce and stir around thoroughly. Add the water and cover the wok - cook for a few minutes.
- Add the green beans, tossing around thoroughly until the sauce evaporates - a minute or two.
- Serve immediately - eat with a bowl of rice for a simple and satisfying meal!
Serving Size: 2-3
Preparation Time: 25 minutes
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