I recently went to Mitsuwa Market in San Diego in search of many of the items on the 100,000 foods to eat before you die. One of the ingredients was Chinese Long Beans. While I had eaten these before, they were an ingredient that I had never prepared. While I was preparing it, I took a call and the pork cooked for longer than needed so the soy sauce caramelized a bit. I loved that part most. Go ahead and leave this one longer on the heat and take a call. It only improves the flavor. There are also plenty of recipes for this where the long beans are dry cooked but I liked them just fine this way. I served this over buckwheat noodles just because I had it but rice would be just fine.
Chinese Long Beans with Ground Pork
Ingredients:
11b ground pork
2 teaspoons soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger (or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger)
1 pound long beans, cut into 3-inch lengths
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 bunch green beans, finely chopped
6 ounces of sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
Freshly ground pepper
Directions:
Combine the pork with the soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. Set aside.
In a large pot of boiling water, add 1 teaspoon salt. Add the beans and simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and rinse with cool water.
In a wok (or a large nonstick skillet) heat the sesame oil and add the pork. Cook over moderate heat for 5 minutes, breaking up the clumps with a spoon. Add the green beans and mushrooms and continue cooking until the pork is cooked through.
Add the green beans and vinegar to the pork mixture and reheat the beans.
Season with pepper (and additional salt or soy if wanted).
I am going to say this is not something I am eating again. I have posted and do admit I have issues with certain textures-mostly those that are the same texture as snot-and this one falls into that category. It DOES have a great flavor so if snot is your thing, don’t let this one go. It is, of course, one of the 1000 Foods to Eat Before you Die. Making it is quite fun-sort of a science project. You take 2 tablespoons of ground up Fenugreek seeds and then you pour six cups of boiling water on top and wait 24 hours. After pouring off the extra water, I was left with about 1 cup of slimy goo (hence the snot description). This goo is then blended with tomatoes and spices to form the dip to be eaten with bread. I know I am selling it but after my obligatory bite, I couldn’t force myself to try another bite. The 1000 Foods list have some amazing things and then they have some traditional things a person should try. If you find yourself in Yemen (?) give it a try. Otherwise, I say give it a pass.