Photo by Steven Mark Needham
Questions or comments on Yin Yang Beans? Using regular green beans or substituting a different type of bean? With the ground pork or without? I’m thinking of going vegetarian with this dish myself. Let me know your thoughts!
- Matt
I too was thinking of going veggie on this dish. I was thinking of replacing the pork with something like Morningstar farms “meat crumbles” or mushrooms…maybe black beans? The question for me is what replaces the chewy and meaty quality of the pork?
Enjoyed this! Used pork.
Judy, what you really want to look for is “sichuanese preserved vegetable”. That’s the classic veggie substitution. This is what you should look for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zha_cai Or more easily found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_preserved_vegetable
I’ve made this dish many times, both Grace Young and Fuchsia Dunlop’s versions. Love it! I keep portioned pork in baggies in the freezer since you can’t buy just 1/4lb of pork. My favorite is using yard long beans. They just have a better texture and flavor IMO, so if anyone sees them at the store or farmers market you should definitely give them a try!
hmmmm, where’s the LYL?
Made this last night. I actually used MORE pork than the recipe called for but since my family has major carnivores they loved it. The two types of ginger =delish! I had some trouble with my Big Kahuna being too hot ( hasn’t been a problem before) and ginger and garlic got over cooked but still were good. A disadvantage of the wok with two small handles rather than the
one long one is that it is harder to snatch it off the fire if it starts to burn. I really like
participating in Wok Wednesdays as it pushes me to try new recipes. I am excited to try Kung Pao chicken but sad I cannot find Schezchuan pepper corns locally. Does anyone know a mail order site for spices?
I saw another comment on pepper corns and just ordered some from Amazon!
I made this with 5 oz bacon because I didn’t have any pork around, and I increased the amount of meat to make it more of a substantial main dish. Used the bacon fat instead of oil, skipped the fresh ginger because I’d run out, and added a small thin-sliced onion.
It. Was. Awesome! I know bacon is sort of cheating because it always makes things taste awesome, but I would definitely make this again.
I was thinking about bacon because bacon does make everything better. Glad to know it’s a good idea in the future!
Oh, and my beans had a few wax beans mixed in, which I learned should have blanched a little longer than the green beans. They were much chewier.