Ground Pork with Chinese Okra Recipe

Copyright 2010 Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients
1/2 lb. ground pork, lean
1 large Chinese okra, peeled and cubed
1 1/2 T black bean sauce
1 t ground white pepper
1 T sesame oil
1 T soy sauce
1 T Xiao Shing wine or cooking sherry
1 t fresh ginger, minced
1 t hot chili oil or sauce
1 T Canola oil
1 T cornstarch
1/4 cup chicken broth
Pinch of salt

In a medium bowl, marinate the ground pork with white pepper, sesame oil, soy sauce, Xiao Shing wine and minced ginger. Blend well and set aside for about 10 minutes.

Warm Canola oil (or other non-flavored oil) in a large skillet or wok over high heat and then add ground pork (be careful not to throw in any extra marinade juices, if any, with the pork or else it’ll be too wet in your wok). Brown the ground pork, about 2-3 minutes each side, and break into smaller pieces if you like. Add black bean sauce and mix well with the ground pork.

Add Chinese okra and sprinkle a pinch of salt over the okra pieces. Then blend well with the pork and let cook covered for about a minute; bring down the heat to about medium during this stage.

In small bowl, mix the cornstarch with chicken broth to create a cornstarch slurry. You’ll use this to create a glaze or gravy for your pork dish, so slowly add the cornstarch slurry until you have the right consistency. Start by bringing the heat back up to high, and then slowly add the cornstarch to your wok and stir to see it thicken. If you add too much and it looks gloopy, then thin out the mixture with some more broth or water.

Remove wok from heat and then finish off the dish by adding the chili sauce or chili oil for heat (you can add more if you want it more spicy). Garnish with chopped peanuts on top (optional) and serve with steamed rice.

Makes 2 to 3 servings.

Serve with a glass of gewurztraminer.

TIP: If you use more fatty ground pork, you might have more oil residue during the browning stage. If that’s the case, when you’re done browning your pork, squeeze out excess oil and drain out from the pan before adding the Chinese okra.

IN THE ASIAN AISLE: This recipe includes a few ingredients from my Asian pantry. Black bean sauce is sold in the jar and is pretty popular and common these days. You can find it along with sesame oil at almost any store in Chinatown or in the Asian aisle at the grocery store. Xiao Shing wine is rice wine used for cooking in Chinese dishes. The spelling might be different depending on the brand, but it’ll usually say “rice cooking wine.” If you can’t find it, substitute it with any other cooking wine like sherry.