Dish of Pork Belly with Green Beans
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Pork Belly with Green Beans


Philippines   -   Ginataang Berdeng Beans
Serves:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 3 w/rice
***
1 hr
Prep		 An interesting and easy to make stew contrasting the crisp vegetable nature of Green Beans with the soft richness of Pork Belly - substantial and satisfying. See also Comments.

1
14
5
4
1/8
2
2
6
1/2
1/2
1/4
#
oz
cl
oz
c
T
T
oz
c
t
t
Pork Belly (1)
Green Beans
Onion
Garlic
Dried Shrimp (2)
Oil
Fish Sauce (3)
Coconut Cream (4)  
Water
Salt
Pepper, black
Prep   -   (30 min)
  1. Cut PORK BELLY into 3/8 inch square strips the length of the pork belly thickness. Each should have skin on one end.
  2. Tip and tail GREEN BEANS and cut into about 1-1/2 inch lengths. Bring lightly salted water to a boil and cook Green Beans until just barely crisp tender. Drain and refresh with cold water.
  3. Cut ONION into quarters lengthwise and slice thin crosswise. Crush GARLIC and chop small. Mix.
  4. Grind SHRIMP in your spice grinder. Measure is whole, or broken some if large.
Run   -   (30 min)
  1. In a coverable sauté pan heat Oil over high flame. Stir in Pork Belly and fry stirring until it is very lightly browned.
  2. At this point, you probably have more oil in the pan than you want. pour out excess, but there should be about a Tablespoon left.
  3. Stir in Onion mix and continue to fry stirring until Onions are translucent.
  4. Stir in Fish Sauce, then Dried Shrimp until well distributed.
  5. Stir in Coconut Cream and Water and bring to a boil. Simmer until Pork Belly is tender enough.
  6. Stir in Green Beans bring back to a boil and simmer a minute or 2.
  7. Season with Salt and Pepper.
  8. Serve hot with plenty of steamed Jasmine rice.
NOTES:

  1. Pork Belly:

      Buy Skin-on pork belly, easily available in markets serving Asian and Latino communities. You could use some other cut of pork, but it wouldn't be as delicious - and besides, the whole Low Fat Diet" thing turned out to be a fraud perpetrated by the sugar industry, using the usual paid for "science".

  2. Dried Shrimp:

    Measure is broken to fit the measure lightly packed - fill a 1/4 cup measure half full. Southeast Asians use tiny dried shrimp crushed - but Americans aren't accustomed to prickly things in their food, so I run them to powder in the spice grinder. Powdered, 1/8 cup of shrimp is about 3/4 T. If you are in doubt about the dried shrimp, just double the amount of fish sauce and leave it out. For details see our Dried Shrimp page.

  3. Fish Sauce

      This clear liquid is as important to Southeast Asian cooking as it was to Imperial Rome. If you are unfamiliar with it, see our Fish Sauce - Introduction page.

  4. Coconut Cream:

      This is available in 5.8 oz cans and 6.8 ounce wax boxes, as well as 14 ounce cans. Alternately, you can open a 14 ounce can of good quality Coconut Milk without shaking it, and scoop the cream off the top - just drink the rest. Products from Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are best.

  5. Comments:

      You could also make this with less fatty pork, but flavor would be different and simmer time would be longer. Don't be afraid of Pork Belly (uncured bacon), the Low Fat Diet has been entirely discredited, and was fraudulent from the get go.
  6. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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