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 yummy.
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.
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.
Hi Yumiko,
Looks yum. Thank you for the recipe!
Have also tried quite a few recipes from Nagi and love them!
Just a few silly questions:
• Is mince pork just ground pork or would I need to buy pork labeled “mince pork”?
• Could I use maybe all purpose flour instead of corn flour or does this recipe require corn flour?
I don’t keep corn flour in my pantry 🙁
Thank you Yumiko!
Hi Maggie.
I am sorry, I use Australian terminologies. Minced pork or pork mince is the same thing as ground pork.
Corn flour is used to thicken the sauce. That’s all it is for. Flour can also thicken the sauce so you could used it. The difference could be that the sauce would be slightly cloudy as corn flour thickens the liquid with clarity. But in this case, it might not matter.
Thank you for the clarifications, Yumiko!
I will definitely be making this dish!
My pleasure! Let me know what you think after you made it.
I think in America we use corn starch to thicken so that may be the equivalent to corn flour. It thickens without clouding the sauce.
Hi Terri, yes, it is the same thing as corn starch. In the new recipes I put down the both words but this recipe was written some time ago. I just updated it. Thank you!
I can see where Nagi gets her talent from 🙂
Wonderful website and I am so happy to hear that you have listen to your children and started to write you recipes down. My poor mother is too old to remember now and I am sad as so many of her wonderful Asian recipes are gone. My mother is from Singapore and this dish is exactly how she use to cook her mince & beans and I longed for the taste but she had forgotten how she made it. So thank you so very much for posting it.
Hi Jane.
I am sorry that you mum can’t jot down the recipes of your favourites any more. But you must still remember the tastes so perhaps you can try and reproduce the dishes!
I did not realise this dish is similar to Singaporean dish. That’s great. Please cook and see how it is similar or different from your mum’s. You can always adjust the flavour to your liking.
It’s funny how remembered tastes are. My husband’s grandmother used to make a noodle kugel and when she was still alive but no longer cooking his mother would make it. My husband would always say Nanny’s was better even though his mother used the exact same recipe, which was very simple and had few ingredients!
It is so true. I read a Japanese cooking article long time ago saying that the men should be better at making fried rice than women as they have stronger arm muscles and quickly stir the rice effectively which is the key to the fluffy rice. You husband’s grandmother must have had the particular way of mixing ingredients which made the dish yummier!
Konnichiwa Yumiko-san! We have a large garden and grow green beans along with a dozen other things. Nagi sent me some gochujang, would it be acceptable to substitute that for the chili bean paste? I saw the comments about inarizushi…I haven’t had that in years! We have a friend in Michigan whose mother is Japanese and his wife brought it to a party and I brought my seafood chowder. She only ate my chowder and I only ate her inarizushi! 🙂
Dorothy-san, I envy you that you have a veggie garden! I am not a good gardener. I do grow some herbs but I can guarantee you that I wouldn’t be able to grow vegetables properly. When I was still working full time, I had very little time left for myself and I was too lazy to water the garden. Even in hot summer, I often forgot to water. I once killed a pot of bamboo. My friend said to me I must be so bad to kill bamboo as it was quite hard to kill.
One day, I will make inarizushi!
Hi Mum,
Thanks for posting this recipe – it’s one of my favourite.
I made the green beans & pork mince stir fry for my friends and found your instructions are very easy to follow. I didn’t realise it was so quick and easy tom make if you prep all the ingredients in advance.
And I obviously can’t forget to say it was very very yummy! Though, not the same as if you made it… I think the special ingredient is YOU. 😛
Can you make it the next time I come over for dinner? And karaage and korroke!
Thanks.
T
Hi Tamaki,
Great to hear that the dish was yummy. The food taste better if someone in your family cooks for you than you cook yourself.
Too many requests!
i have a file for Nagi’s recipes, now I have to start a new file for her mum’s. How could anyone not save recipes from from a girl named “Yummy”
I will be honoured!
Hahaha. ‘Yummy’ is a good one. My name starts with ‘Yum’ but pronunciation is not the same as ‘yummy’. It is like ‘you’, ie. you-miko. I used to play tennis and one of the tennis friends just couldn’t remember my name. So he just called me ‘yum’ as in ‘yummy’. I said that’ll do.
Just as well I came back for a quick ‘check’ and was curious enough to click: you have fixed tomorrow’s lunch with a passing gf! Have the mince, have the beans, no rice necessary as we both could lose a few kgs 🙂 ! Yes, somewhat like my usual stirfries, but have never used chilli-bean sauce altjho’ I have it at home. Since I have a lifelong habit of eating with chopsticks when alone whatever the cuisine methinks the grainy texture of the meat will not be a problem. OH: just had a quick look at your ‘Japanese Etiquette’ also and had to smile – all familiar naturally but I may just have made a few ‘boo-boos’ ‘without the ‘revision’ . . .
30 years of visiting Japan must have trained you well in many aspects of Japan! Glad to know that you picked up a couple of things to fix your eating etiquette.
I want to make this tonight but am having trouble pinning the recipe via Pinterest. Can you check it please? I will let you know how the recipe goes! Liz
Hi Liz. Thanks for letting me know. I am working on it now to fix it.
Looking forward to hearing from you after you made it!
Yumiko, I can’t work out if I am disappointed or ecstatic? This was such a great easy recipe to make, and your instructions worked so well for me. The sad part was that I made a double batch on Saturday night, so I’d have some leftovers for Monday work lunch. However my son had some for breakfast on Sunday, and then at the rest for Monday breakfast too! I’ve also been told by both him and my husband that this should be a *very* regular recipe, so thanks! (I’ll hide the leftovers better next time). Thanks!
Hi Liz,
Thanks a lot for already cooking my recipe! I am sorry that you missed out the second dish but it was a positive disappointment, wasn’t it?
I lived in Japan for a while (Camp Zama, just south of Tokyo).
After seeing your recipes, I’m CRAVING Japanese food!
so you have a recipe for INARI sushi? My all time fave!!!
Thanks for your site! I can’t wait to try your recipe’s!
Hi Nancy. Zama is famous for sunflowers. Have you been to the sunflower festival there? I haven’t but I would love to, if I had a courage to visit Japan in hot humid summer which I always avoid…
I haven’t made inarizushi for a long time but I know how to make it. I will add this to the reader’s wish list!
This looks wonderful! I will be trying this soon, thank you! Beautiful pictures, too 🙂
Hi Catherine. Thanks a lot! Let me know what you think when you cooked and tried it.
Hi mum, thanks for posting this one, it’s one of my all time faves!!!! I could totally skip the rice and just eat a huge bowl of this!!