String Beans and Pork Dumplings

This is another classic Chinese dumpling recipe. Traditionally, Chinese string beans are used for this dish. Chinese string beans may be available at Asian grocery stores, and differ in several ways from the typical string bean one finds at conventional grocers. Chinese string beans are much longer than typical string beans, and have a stronger taste. However, conventional string beans also work well for this dish. Dumplings made with conventional string beans may be slightly less flavorful, but they nevertheless have a pleasant taste and go well with dipping sauces. With either type of string beans, it is important to blanch the beans first to remove some of the bitter/raw taste.

Ingredients:
Pork, 1 cup
String bean, 2 cups
Salt, 1.5 teaspoons
Soy sauce, 1.5 tablespoons
MSG, ½ teaspoon (optional)
Ginger, 1.5 teaspoons
Green onion, 1.5 tablespoons
Sesame oil, 2 tablespoons

Instructions:
1. Wash the string beans, and cook in boiling water for 5 minutes, then remove from the boiling water and plunge into cold water immediately. This will preserve the green color of the Clean the string bean.

2. Finely chop the beans.

3. Mince the pork in the meat grinder, or buy minced pork. Choose cuts of port with some fat on them, such as pork shoulder or pork belly meat.

4. Finely chop green onions.

5. Add minced pork, beans, salt, soy sauce, MSG, ginger, green onions and sesame oil to a large bowl. Stir to mix well, and let rest for 10 minutes.

6. In the meantime, prepare the dough and roll out the dumpling wrappers.

7. Wrap the filling in the dumpling wrappers.

8. Bring a big pot of water with a dash of salt to boil. Add dumplings to the water and cook for 15 minutes.

9. Strain and serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

These dumplings are wonderful in the summertime, when string beans are plentiful and fresh. The string beans give the dumplings a refreshing crunch when you bite into them, and these dumplings also go very well with dipping sauces. The next time you are faced with an abundance of string beans and don’t know what to do with them, why not give this recipe a go.