Stir-Fried String Beans with Pork and Pork
What do you do with leftover string beans sitting in your fridge? Start craving a stir-fry, perhaps. That could be the answer. Start poring through your favorite Chinese cookbooks, such as The Breath of a Wok: Unlocking the Spirit of Chinese Wok Cooking Through Recipes and Lore
Find a recipe for a dry-fried string beans and ground pork. Realize that you have no ground pork in the fridge, and you really don’t feel like going out again tonight.
Think about alternative ways of adding porkishness to the beans.
Suddenly remember the tin can full of bacon grease that lives in your freezer, growing more full every time you render the fat from bacon to make chowder and pour off most of it into the can.
Run out of stir-fried bacon grease string beans before everyone can get seconds, and then realize that everyone wants seconds, including you.
Think about making this dish again.
Try following the recipe a bit more closely next time. No bacon grease. Ground pork, though somewhat more than the recipe calls for. It’s good, but it lacks porkishness.
Realize that bacon grease is actually key.
Make the recipe a third time. Bacon grease, in smaller quantity than the oil the recipe actually calls for. About eight times as much ground pork as it calls for, and increased quantities of some of the seasonings as well.
Munch away, watching your estimated leftover portions diminish.
Figure you’ve finally got it right.
Stir-Fried String Beans with Pork and Pork
(adapted from The Breath of a Wok: Unlocking the Spirit of Chinese Wok Cooking Through Recipes and Lore
1 tbsp bacon grease
1 lb string beans (a/k/a green beans)
1 lb ground pork
4 tbsp minced or grated ginger
1/2 C chicken stock
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp finely chopped scallions
Heat your wok until it feels like a hot radiator with your palm 2-3 inches above the bottom, then add the bacon grease and swirl it around as it melts. Add half the beans, reduce the heat to medium, then stir-fry them until they develop some nice pan char (brown spots) and begin to wrinkle. Remove them with a slotted spoon and set aside, then add the rest of the beans and do the same.
With all the beans fried and set aside, add the ginger and ground pork to the wok. Break the pork up into smaller pieces with your spatula, then distract yourself for a minute or so and leave it alone to brown a bit. Once the meat has had that moment to develop its deliciousness, stir-fry in earnest until the pork is no longer pink.
Stir in the chicken stock, salt, and sugar, and bring to a boil. Stir in the beans, and continue to boil until the liquids are reduced by half. If you like, you can throw in some corn starch at this point to thicken further what sauce remains.
Remove from heat and stir in the vinegar, sesame oil, and scallions.
Is there anything bacon can’t improve? (Rhetorical question, the answer is no).
One of my favorite dishes–thank you, I believe I’ll make it tonight!
Brilynn- my waistline, perhaps? Mmmm. I had to laugh: when you wrote “you render the fat from bacon to make chowder and pour off most of it into the can.” I … don’t pour it off…. Umm… yeah. I just made chowder last night, too….
Hahaha. Of course I’m familiar with this dish and love it to bits, though my brother in law likes making it with… what’s it called… foo yew? I suck at Angalcizing… think it literally means bitter fish. It’s cubes in a glass jar, and it kind of melts into the dish and makes it lovely, unless you hate fish.
I just can’t get over how incredible your photos are. I can’t seem to get past gawking at them to read what you’ve written!
Incredible…
Been wanting to try making this with the bacon grease for a few weeks now — good to hear it’s as delicious as I suspected.
When I made this recipe I added a bit of garlic and a healthy amount of hot pepper which I thought really improved it too.
You can also fry the beans in hot oil for about 1 minute or so and then stir fry. This dish is quite popular in Chinese restaurants.
Brilynn – Damn straight. (Well. Maybe chocolate.)
Lisa – Fantastic!
Yvo – I just had to laugh when I read your comment. I think I prefer my chowder a bit less fatty than you do. The fishy cubes sound very interesting, and I’d love to try them out.
Kristen – Thank you so much! I sent Brilynn some of my thoughts on food photography a few days ago; if you like, I can forward that email to you, too. I think I’ll be posting about it at some point in the nearish future.
greebsnarf – Garlic and hot pepper improve everything.
RM – How much (and what sort) of a difference does that technique make?
Hehe, well, the fat kind of gets absorbed into all of the veggies and potatoes (I add a LOT of veggies- guilty complex, maybe?) and adds this wonderful flavor. The top of the chowder doesn’t glisten with oil… after I add the roux to thicken it, that is. Before that, the very top looks thin/watery and very oily. But it goes away…. Heh heh heh. I know, I complain about gaining weight, but then I do things like this *innocent look*
I’ve been in the mood for stir fry lately. I made a great broccoli-curry version last night that I couldn’t get enough of.
I’m always looking for good vegetable recipes and this one looks great.
Wow, who knew a picture of string beans could look so tempting?
LOL–great post!
I’ve made this dish twice this week. Absolutely delicious! And I still have enough string beans for another round.
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[...] Danielle wrote an interesting post today on Stir-Fried String Beans with Pork and PorkHere’s a quick excerpt(adapted from The Breath of a Wok: Unlocking the Spirit of Chinese Wok Cooking Through Recipes and Lore by Grace Young) 1 tbsp bacon grease 1 lb string beans (a/k/a green beans) 1 lb ground pork 4 tbsp minced or grated ginger … [...]
[...] Danielle wrote an interesting post today on Stir-Fried String Beans with Pork and PorkHere’s a quick excerpt(adapted from The Breath of a Wok: Unlocking the Spirit of Chinese Wok Cooking Through Recipes and Lore by Grace Young) 1 tbsp bacon grease 1 lb string beans (a/k/a green beans) 1 lb ground pork 4 tbsp minced or grated ginger … [...]