Minced pork recipes – a delicious star performer or supporting role in Asian dishes

I use a lot of minced pork in my kitchen. Sometimes, as with the first recipe, it plays a supporting role in a dish, used in small amounts to add flavour to vegetables and other ingredients. Other times, as with the larb recipe, the pork is the main focus.

Stir-fried long beans with minced pork, sakura shrimp and cha choi

For this dish, I like to use sakura shrimp (available in Japanese food sections of supermarkets), which have a more delicate texture and flavour than Chinese dried shrimp (which are also delicious). I don’t soak sakura shrimp. If you like, use Chinese dried shrimp, but they need to be soaked in hot water.

Dried shrimp roe (ha ji) is usually sold in small glass jars. The roe is tiny and looks like reddish-brown dust, but it has a strong flavour. You can leave it out, if you wish. Cha choi (Sichuan preserved mustard vegetable, also called zha cai) comes whole (as a large lump covered with a red-orange paste), or cut into strips and sold in packages.

100 grams minced pork
5ml soy sauce
5ml rice wine
½ tsp granulated sugar
¼ tsp fine sea salt
A pinch of finely ground white pepper
1 tsp cornstarch
10 grams dried sakura shrimp
300 grams long beans
40 grams cha choi
1 garlic clove
1-2 red bird’s-eye chilli
Dried shrimp roe, optional
Oil, for stir-frying

Put the pork in a bowl then add the soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, salt, pepper and cornstarch and mix thoroughly. Briefly rinse the sakura shrimp then drain them before blotting with paper towels. If using Chinese dried shrimp, soak them in hot water until pliable, then drain (reserve the soaking liquid). If they’re large, cut them into smaller pieces.

Cut the long beans into 5mm pieces. If using whole cha choi (you won’t need the whole piece), rinse it and dry it. Whatever type you’re using, cut it into small dice. Cut the garlic clove in half. Halve the bird’s-eye chilli lengthwise and scrape out and discard the seeds. Finely mince the chilli.

Heat a wok over a high flame and, when it’s very hot, add about 10ml of cooking oil. When the oil is hot, add the shrimp and stir-fry constantly for about 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Use a metal spatula to take the shrimp from the wok, leaving behind as much oil as possible. Add the garlic and chilli and stir for about 10 seconds. Add the marinated pork to the wok and use the spatula to break it up into smaller pieces. Stir fry over a high flame until the pork starts to lose its pink colour, then remove the meat, garlic and chilli from the wok.