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Stir-fried Green Beans with Minced Pork (乾扁四季豆)

by · 20 comments
This stir-fried green beans with minced pork dish is very popular and you can easily find it on the menu of every Chinese restaurant. But they might have different versions, whether it’s stir fried with pork mince or just omit the pork as a vegan dish. It goes really well with steamed rice.

Stir-fried Green Beans with Minced Pork01

Green beans (四季豆) are so good to have in every meal. It also can be used in any cuisine. In Chinese cooking, my daughter likes it briefly fried in hot oil in order to enhance its natural sweetness, then stir fried with ground pork, blended with some hot spices and sauces.

 Stir-fried Green Beans with Minced Pork02

Add a bit of XO Sauce. It makes a big difference for the whole dish.

XO Sauce
XO Sauce


Stir-fried Green Beans with Minced Pork Recipe

(Printable recipe)

Course: Stir Fry
Cuisine: Chinese
Prep time:
Cook time:
Yield: 2 to 3 serves


Stir-fried Green Beans with Minced Pork


Ingredients:
Marinade:
  • 2 tsp light soy sauce
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp cornflour
  • 1 Tbsp water
  • pepper, to taste
Seasonings:
  • 1/3 tsp salt
  • sugar, to taste

Method:
  1. Soak salted mustard greens for about 20 minutes. Rinse and drain well. Squeeze out excess water. Roughly chopped. Set aside.
  2. Mix ground pork with marinade and set aside for 15 minutes.
  3. Heat a small amount of oil in a pan to 180C (356F). The oil barely covers the green beans. Briefly fry the green beans in batches until softened. Drain out with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen papers to absorb excess oil.
  4. Remove oil and reserve about 1 tablespoon of oil in the pan. Toss in the pork and stir fry until cooked thoroughly. Set aside.
  5. Add some oil, sauté garlic until aromatic. Add mustard greens and a small amount of sugar to taste and quickly stir fry. Toss in the pork and green beans. Add ground bean sauce and chili sauce. Add a few teaspoons of boiling water if you find it too dry due to the high heat of stir frying. Sprinkle wine. Season with salt if necessary. Lastly, add XO sauce. Dish up and served hot.

Notes:
  • Wipe green beans dry thoroughly with kitchen papers before putting in hot oil. Beware that the hot oil would splash if there’s any water dropping in. The sweetness of green beans will enhance after frying. Yet, don’t fry them too long. When you spot some “wrinkles” appearing on the outside, drain out the beans quickly. The heat inside will continue to cook.
  • You can reuse the oil to stir fry other vegetables or cook other ingredients as the oil would be very clean.
  • If you want the pork to keep moist even after stir frying, add 2 to 3 teaspoons of water into the ground pork when marinated.

20 comments :

  1. Very homely dish. I love this dish very much especially with some chillies added.

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  2. simple and delicious dish, my MIL will always cook this.

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  3. My mom always order this dish when we are out of lunch in a chinese restaurant. They sometimes do it with asparagus and scallops. :D

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  4. That is the way to do it - need to 过热油 to make it "wrinkled". I have tried many versions in Chinese restaurants and most of them don't make the mark - too greasy or no taste of 乾扁四季豆 at all! You know I can eat a plate of this, munching the green beans - some steamed rice is good! :)

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  5. This is a terrific way to prepare green beans - sounds so delicious and a great recipe to make for my daughter, she would love this!

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  6. This is so good. I love anything with XO sauce!!

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  7. With the XO sauce, I think you have modernized the dish : ). Today, too many restaurants have tried to wrinkle the beans by deep frying, which is often too greasy. I prefer less oiliness.

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  8. I love Chinese food and this looks so easy to make.

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  9. A delicious combination of flavours, and can definitely see that this would combine with some steamed rice to make a great dinner.

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  10. I love 四季豆, and how luxurious it looks stir fried with xo sauce :)

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  11. I love green beans in XO sauce - the preserved veg must add even more texture and fragrance to this yummy dish :) I can have a huge bowl of rice with this dish yum yum

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  12. A dish I always order whenever I go to a Szechuan resto. So delicious with rice! I like the idea of adding mustard greens.

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  13. I love this dish Christine and I just made some XO Sauce - I can make this soon! One question - I used to think it was snake beans being used - but your recipe calls for green beans. Can you use both?

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  14. To Trissa,
    Pretty sure, the chefs in all Hong Kong restaurants use green beans(四季豆), instead of snake beans (豆角)for making this dish. The textures of both beans are totally different.
    If any other recipe calls for snake beans, it could be a different dish.
    Having said that, you might whip up a new creation. Why not?
    Would you post your recipe of XO sauce? Really want to try some homemade XO sauce.

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  15. If I can't eat spicy stuff, instead of using X.O. Sauce, what can I do?

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  16. Hi Info,
    That's easy for this dish. Simply skip it if you don't like it spicy.

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  17. Hi Christine,

    Did you mean dark soy sauce when you said "dark sauce"?

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    Replies
    1. This dish doesn't need dark soy sauce because you want the green colour of the beans.

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