Beans and Pork Mince Stir Fry

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

5 from 8 votes

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Beans and Pork Mince Stir Fry

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

This dish is more like a Chinese style dish modified to suit the Japanese palette. It is not oily and not so spicy. Just like any other stir fry, this recipe is quite simple and fast to make, yet flavoursome. Goes well with rice.

Recipe Type: Main

Cuisine: Japanese

Serves: 2 -3 Servings

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 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

Sauce

• 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

Instructions

1. Combine all the sauce ingredients except the corn flour slurry in a small bowl.

2. 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.

3. 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.
4. Add the mince and stir fry, breaking mince up as you go, 3-4 minutes.
5. 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.
6. Pour over the corn flour slurry and quickly mix. As soon as the sauce starts to thicken, turn the heat off.
7. Serve immediately with rice.

Recipe Notes

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.