Sautéed Ground Pork with Asian Long Beans and Potatoes (Ginisang Sitaw at Patatas)

Sautéed Ground Pork with Asian Long Beans and Potatoes…quite a mouthful, isn’t it? I wish the English name of the recipe is as short as the Tagalog (Filipino) one. Oh well, we don’t want to be lost in translation, right? J
Of late, I feel like I have been baking a lot (some of the recipes are still on the testing stage but hopefully will get uploaded later). That explains the few pounds I have gained this summer! So, I thought I better go back to my Filipino diet, mostly gluten-free of course, but unfortunately, involving lots of carbs. We do eat rice at least three times a day in the Philippines! And I have not included the rice snacks we have and an additional meal (yes, meal not snack) between lunch and dinner which, guess what, involves “cold” left-over rice  (sorry, the Tagalog name escapes me at the moment) paired with some meat-and-vegetable dish. Today, I wanted to have rice with my dinner. But what shall I have with it?

The other day I found some Asian Long Beans (also called “Snake Beans” – how scary!) or Sitaw (known as Kibal in my province) in the Asian store and, of course, I bought it. I only usually see this during summer so I took a bunch home to cook later. Not only did I find long beans, I even found the lovely purple ones! (Unfortunately, they lose their lovely color once cooked but the crunchy texture and delicious flavor are retained thankfully!)

Usually, I would pair this with my favorite veggie – the Squash! – but I didn’t have any. The only vegetable left on my kitchen were a few pieces of red potatoes which really needed to be used right away. I thought it might be a weird combination for while we love potatoes and use them a lot in the Philippines, in my house we have never tried to combine it with Sitaw. Oh well, there’s always a first time. And at least I’ll finally know if they can go together. And they married perfectly in this dish! The starchy potatoes worked really well with the crunchy Sitaw. I loved the flavor combo and the texture which both veggies have imparted to the dish.

Of course, it won’t be complete without the sautéed ground pork (Ginisang Giniling). The sautéed ground pork is always the base for many of our dishes especially in our household. I always combine it with veggies like squash, beans, cabbage, potatoes, etc. Here is a link for the Giniling recipe. 

Usually, I use about half of the Giniling recipe but feel free to use the entire one if you like. Just add more veggies!

Ingredients

Half the Giniling Recipe
1/2 to 1 whole bunch of Asian Long Beans (some bunches are bigger than others)
3-4 medium red potatoes
Extra soy sauce, salt or fish sauce to season the dish. Choose your fave seasoning!
Ground Pepper (may be added too)

Procedure

Rinse the beans and potatoes before using.

Snap the beans in 2-inch pieces by using your bare hands. They will naturally snap when you try to bend them. Easy! I also snap-off one of the ends of the beans (the rounded end not the tail).

Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes.

If you have just cooked the Giniling (meat is already tender and flavorful), you can immediately add these veggies to the mix and then cover and cook until tender roughly 10-15 minutes.

If not, warm up the giniling recipe first (if it’s been cooked beforehand).
Once it begins to simmer or is about to reach boiling point, add in the vegetables. Spread them in the pan to get an even cooking. Cover and simmer as above for about 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the beans fully cooked yet still retain some crunch.

If it dries up, add some water and adjust the seasoning with either salt, soy sauce or to impart more flavor – fish sauce (But it is rather smelly so don’t cover the pan until the lovely aroma of the fish sauce has disappeared, just a few minutes. Trust me, it’s worth it!). I add ground peppers too for more flavor!

Needless to say, it’s perfect with rice! Enjoy!

Last updated on October 1st, 2019 at 02:14 pm