Cook with Me: Spicy Green Beans with Ground Pork
干煸四季豆 is by far my favorite Chinese takeout dish. After successfully recreating it at home during the pandemic, I documented every step in case anyone else wanted to try it as well. Enjoy!
Published in
2 min readDec 28, 2020
Prep
- Ground pork: Defrost 1/2 pound ground pork, if frozen.
- Green beans: Wash and drain. Trim both ends off the green beans. Cut to the length you want to eat it — I recommend 2.5 inches in length. Dry the green beans after cutting.
- Mince 1 clove garlic, 4 slices ginger, 2 tablespoons Zha Cai (榨菜)
- Prepare sauce to taste: 2 tablespoons ShaoXing cooking wine, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Lao Gan Ma spicy chili crisp (老干妈Spicy Chili Crisp), 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon white pepper
Cook
- Again, make sure green beans are dry (or else there will be excessive splatter when you fry them in step #3).
- In a wok, on Medium-High heat, heat up enough vegetable oil to submerge all green beans (approximately 2/3 cup). Wait until oil starts shimmering / smoking.
- Fry green beans approximately 2 minutes. They’re ready when they become wrinkly.
- Remove green beans from the oil. You can use tongs. Shake off excess oil and place green beans in separate bowl.
- Discard the oil. It’s okay if there’s some oil remaining on the wok — it’ll be used in the next step since you’re not adding additional oil.
- Replace wok on fire. On Medium heat, cook minced garlic and ginger until fragrant (approximately 30 seconds).
- Add ground pork to wok, and mince and cook using spatula.
- Once ground pork is no longer pink, add the remaining ingredients in succession: (1) zha cai, (2) green beans, (3) sauce mixture.
- Stir fry until sauce is fully absorbed.
- Top over rice, and enjoy!
