Minced Pork Vermicelli in Black Bean Sauce (豉汁豬肉粉絲)

I've neglected this blog for a few years, having fallen into some mundane "same 10 meals always" routine, and not really had enough time or imagination to think up new dishes.

Now everyone is a bit older, and a few of them are a bit fussier, whilst others are less fussy, I'd like to revive it whenever I get the chance. We've not been eating enough Chinese food, so I've had a couple of days of cooking relatively simple meals - tonight we had this dish, along with some steamed pork and salted eggs and some simple boiled vegetables with oyster sauce. i don't cook with the mung bean noodles (also known as glass noodles or cellophane noodles) very often - I find that if I soak them first they tend to fall apart, so I gave these a quick rinse and only dropped them into the dish in the final few minutes of cooking. Middle child, being a noodle monster, loved it.

Ingredients

• 200g pork mince
• 1 tsp cornflour
• pinch of ground white pepper
• 1cm cube of fresh ginger, grated
• few drops of sesame oil
• 1 slice of ginger and 1 peeled clove of garlic, bashed with the side of a cleaver
• 2 x 50g pack of mung bean vermicelli
• 1 tbsp black bean and garlic sauce 
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 5 leaves from a chinese leaf, chopped into pieces
• sunflower or vegetable oil to fry
• 1 tsp cornflour in 25ml water to thicken (optional)
• water

Serves 4-5

Instructions

• Mix the pork with the corn flour, white pepper and sesame oil. Grate the ginger, then squeeze the juice over the mince and mix well. Cover and leave for an hour if you have time (I left mine overnight)
• Rinse the vermicelli in a sieve and set aside
• Heat the sunflower oil in a wok until it is "moving" hot but not smoking. Add the slice of ginger and garlic, then stir-fry to flavour the oil
• Add the pork mince and stir-fry until browned through. Add the black bean and garlic sauce and sugar then add 100ml water, stir well, lower the heat and cover. Let simmer for 5 minutes
• After 5 minutes, add the chinese leaf to the wok. Stir well and add extra water if necessary (the ingredients should not be completely covered but there should be enough water to come about 1/2 way up the ingredients). Cover the wok again and let simmer for another 4 - 5 minutes
• When the chinese leaf looks slightly wilted, add the vermicelli to the wok. They will absorb water, so add more water if needed. 
• When the noodles have lost their opacity, the dish is ready. The vermicelli should be chewy but not too soft. Thicken the sauce with cornflour/water if desired, and remove from the heat. Add a few drops of sesame oil and serve in a warmed dish.

Minced Pork Vermicelli in Black Bean Sauce (豉汁豬肉粉絲)