Szechuan pork with green beans, or Gan Bian Si Ji Dou, is a full-flavoured stir fry with pork mince and fine green beans from the Szechuan (or Sichuan) province of China. The beans should be a little brown and wrinkled once cooked. If you have both dark and light soy sauce, then use them as below, otherwise just use whatever you have. There is not much sauce, but what there is really packs a punch! Serve on its own with rice or as part of a feast! serves 4
250g minced pork
500g fine green beans, trimmed
2 tsp szechuan peppercorns, crushed slightly
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2cm piece ginger, grated
4 tbsp vegetable oil
finely chopped fresh or dry chillies (we suggest 4 red small ones but it’s up to you!)
half a red bell pepper, or 2 large mild chillies, thinly sliced to the same size as the beans
1 tbsp rice wine or dry sherry
2 tbsp light soy sauce and 1 tbsp dark
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
Heat the oil in a wok and fry the beans until slightly wrinkled and brown. Do this in several batches. Remove and drain.
Turn the heat down and gently fry the garlic, ginger, chillies and peppercorns for a couple of minutes.
Turn up the heat, add the pork mince and fry for a few more minutes until browned. Add the red pepper/chilli, sauces and rice wine and bring to the boil.
Add the beans to the wok, stir to heat through and serve, with extra soy and sweet chilli sauces on the side.
Cook’s notes
Try adding half a packet of beansprouts to the recipe. This will add more liquid which is nice if you are serving with rice.