WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: The flavors of Sichuan green beans are addictive: wrinkled, sweet beans tossed with morsels of flavorful pork and coated in a pungent sauce. The dish is spicy, aromatic, and tangy all at the same time. In Chinese restaurants, the beans are usually deep-fried in a wok filled with oil, which produces their wrinkled appearance, slightly chewy texture, and intense flavor. To make this at home, we opted instead to stirfry the beans until the skins began to shrivel. The time spent in the pan produced spotty charring, which resulted in a nice chewy texture and a deeper flavor that more than compensated for their not being deep-fried. For the sauce, to achieve the desired characteristic tanginess and modest heat, we used dry mustard and sherry for their subtle tang and red pepper flakes and white pepper for their aromatic warmth and complex muskiness. The ground pork, already stir-fried with lots of garlic and ginger, absorbed the sauce perfectly, adding meaty richness. Some chopped scallions and a drizzle of sesame oil were the perfect finishing touches.
Serves: 4
Total time: 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon dry sherry
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon dry mustard
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths
- 4 ounces ground pork
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 3 scallions, white and light green parts only, sliced thin
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Whisk soy sauce, water, sherry, sugar, cornstarch, pepper, pepper flakes, and mustard in small bowl until sugar dissolves.
- Heat vegetable oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add green beans and cook, stirring frequently, until crisp-tender and skins are shriveled and blackened in spots, 5 to 8 minutes (reduce heat to medium-high if green beans begin to darken too quickly). Transfer green beans to large plate and cover loosely with aluminum foil to keep warm.
- Reduce heat to medium-high and add pork to now-empty skillet. Cook, breaking pork into small pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Push pork to sides of skillet. Add garlic and ginger to center and cook, mashing mixture into skillet, until fragrant, 30 seconds.
Stir mixture into pork; transfer to platter. - Whisk sauce to recombine, then add to again-empty skillet. Cook over high heat until sauce is thickened and reduced slightly, about 15 seconds. Return green beans and pork to skillet and gently toss to coat with sauce. Off heat, stir in scallions and sesame oil. Serve immediately.
