Beans and pork mince stir fry is the Japanese version of Chinese style dish which goes so well with rice. It’s not as oily as Chinese style with milder spices.
Nagi posted this dish a couple of years ago and the dish is called Stir Fried Green Beans with Minced Pork. This is one of her favourite Japanese dishes. I gave her the recipe but she changed it a bit and her recipe instructions are not exactly how I do it.
So I thought it might be good to introduce my version of the recipe ‘Beans and Pork Mince Stir Fry’ as well. Naturally, Nagi’s version is slightly less effort (typical of her), eg. using the microwave to pre-cook the green beans. It is up to you which recipe you use since either version is quite simple, yet very tasty.
Beans and pork mince stir fry has Chinese influences as you can guess from the ingredients such as chilli bean sauce. The dish does not even use dashi stock which is the basis of Japanese cooking. But the amount of oil used is minimal and I find that this stir fry is not as greasy as your typical Chinese stir fry. You can also control the amount of fat by using very lean mince but using super lean mince will result in dry stir fry.
It is a bit of challenge to eat this dish with chopsticks as you need to pick up each piece of pork mince on your plate. Corn flour helps a bit to clump the mince when cooked but still, you will always end up with small amount of pork mince left on the plate and you’d have to patiently pick them up bit by bit. But by that time, you would be almost full so taking time picking up the remaining pork mince pieces might become a pleasure rather than frustration!
Yumiko
- 300g (10oz) green beans
- 200g (7oz) pork mince (or beef) (ground pork or beef)
- 2 scallion/shallot stems , finely sliced
- 1 tsp ginger , minced
- 2 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sake (see notes for substitutes)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp chilli bean sauce (see notes)
- 1 tsp cornflour/corn starch dissolved in 1 tsp water
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Combine all the sauce ingredients except the corn flour slurry in a small bowl.
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Par boil the green beans in boiling water with a pinch of salt for about 1-2 minutes. Drain and trim off the stem ends from the beans. Cut them into 4-5cm (1½-2") lengths.
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Add oil to a wok or a fry pan set over medium high heat. Stir fry the shallots and ginger for 20 seconds until fragrant, but before ginger starts to burn.
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Add the mince and stir fry, breaking mince up as you go, 3-4 minutes.
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When the mince is almost cooked through, add the beans and stir fry just to mix them with the meat. Add the Sauce ingredients and stir fry until the mince is cooked through and the sauce is evenly distributed through the beans and mince.
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Pour over the corn flour slurry and quickly mix. As soon as the sauce starts to thicken, turn the heat off.
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Serve immediately with rice.
1. You can substitute sake with Chinese cooking wine or sherry.
2. Chilli Bean Sauce is readily available in large supermarkets. It can be substituted with sriracha or sambal oelek, or even finely chopped fresh chillies.
We all loved it! Made a double batch and accidentally mixed on the corn starch and water to the sauce mix, didn’t matter still turned out perfect. Thank you for sharing this family friendly recipe.
Hi Lisa, I am glad to hear that you and your family enjoyed it. Mixing the cornstarch into the sauce is meant to work in this recipe because there is almost no possibility of the sauce becoming too much or too little before adding cornstarch.
The only reason why I add it at the end in most recipes is that I could control the thickness of the sauce. If too thin, you could make a bit more cornstarch diluted in water and add it, but if the sauce became too thick, it can be a disaster.
Hi Yumiko, I plantedbeans and they are coming along fine, I know what the first meal will be now. I will have to swap out the Chilli sauce, 🌶 I’m allergic to chilli so was thinking of maybe kechup manus.
Hi Lindi, it will be super delicious when you use your home-grown beans!
Thank you soo much for sharing this recipe. I made it for dinner tonight. I didn’t have beans so I used Asian cabbage and red capsicum instead and it was simply delicious.
Hi Ann, that’s great! Great combination of vegetables with the mince.
A simple and delicious dinner, we made it with beef mince. Thank you for posting!
Hi Fiona, simple and delicious is the best, isn’t it?
Yumiko,
I made this for my dinner yesterday evening. It was so simple, so fast and so tasty. Thank you for sharing this.
Anna
Hi Anna, you are most welcome. I am glad that you enjoyed it from all aspects!
Hi Yumiko,
Thanks so much for posting this recipe! It’s so delicious and very easy to make as well. I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
I found you on Pinterest through following your daughter Nagi and her delicious recipes. It obviously runs in the family! 😊
Cheers, Dee
Hi Dee, I am glad you liked it. Please try other dishes from my site and let me know what you think.