Spicy Chinese Green Beans with Ground Pork

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Whenever we go for a Chinese meal, we always order the spicy green beans.

Also, traveling through Beijing (in about 2005... do you like how I casually throw out there that we travelled through China... it was, like, the highlight of our traveling experiences anywhere, and was nothing but casual for us... it was totally awesome!), the green beans were one of our favorite dishes. Well, actually, there were lots of favorite dishes in Beijing, the food was incredible, but the green beans were amazing.

AND, we have a whole bunch of green beans growing in our community garden.  I was so excited when last week, I went to the garden, and not only was our corn literally taller than me overnight, the green beans seemed to have sprouted magically overnight too.  It appears a little community garden fairy was working very hard in my little patch while I was sleeping.  And so, we had a wonderful over abundance of green beans in our kitchen all of a sudden... and with a continual hankering for Spicy Green beans - chinese style - my fingers got to work looking for good recipes.



We've tried many types of Chinese spicy green beans, BUT our absolute favorite have pork.  And so, when looking for the best Chinese spicy green bean recipe to try at home, I scrolled through quite a few before I landed on this beauty.  This recipe is EASY and so, so, so, so yummy.





Chinese Spicy Green Beans with Ground Pork
Adapted from Yi Reservation's wonderful blog
His instructions written below

Ingredients
  • 1 lb Fresh String Beans
  • 6 oz Minced Pork or Beef
  • 1 tbsp Dried Shrimp (optional) - we didn't use this. Didn't have any on hand
  • 2 tbsp Soy Sauce
  • 1 tbsp Cooking wine
  • 2 tbsp Chinese preserved vegetable, chopped - I couldn't find this at my local grocery store, so skipped it
  • 1 clove Garlic, sliced or minced
  • 3 Dried Chili - we used chili flakes instead, I forgot to buy the chili - duh!
  • Yi calls for 2 cups of oil.  We used about 3/4 cup of peanut and sesame oil total.  
Instructions
  1. Prepare the string beans by trimming off both ends. Cut beans into 2- to 3-inch lengths. Rinse well and drain string beans in a colander.
  2. Heat up about 2 cups of oil in wok or frying skillet. Fry the string beans over medium heat. Stir occasional to prevent from sticking. Fry for about 5 minutes or when the skin turns wrinkly.
  3. For a healthier version, immediately rinse the beans under running water to remove excess oil. Drain well in a colander.
  4. Heat up 1 tbsp of oil and add garlic, Chinese preserved vegetable, and dried shrimp. Dry fry for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Add minced pork or beef and mix well. Keep on turning the pork so it doesn’t stick to the cookware.
  5. Add the chili and cooking wine once the color of pork turns lighter. Once the pork starts to turn brown, turn the heat to high and add the string beans. Make sure your wok is hot enough to evaporate any liquid released from the ingredients. Add soy sauce while keep the string beans turning. Quickly stir a few times to mix well the soy sauce then turn off the heat. The string bean shouldn’t be stir-fried for more than 3 minutes.
Equipment I used:

Awesome Wok

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