Chinese pickled mustard greens stir fry ground pork is a savory homemade authentic recipe. This 20-minute dish is easy to make and can be adjusted to your own personal taste, and the ground pork can also be substituted to ground beef, chicken, or turkey. The flavor is delicious, and it goes with rice or noodle.
As for myself, I have always enjoyed a good authentic stir fry dish at home, which normally is hard to find at local Asian take-out restaurants.
What is 酸菜 (pronounce “Suan Cai”, Chinese pickled mustard green)
The preserved vegetable is a well-known superfood. Chinese Suan Cai is not an exception, they are salted and fermented mustard greens. The taste of it is like western sauerkraut, which is sour, salty, and crunchy. Except the western sauerkraut is made of raw cabbage, the Chinese Suan Cai is made of pickled mustard greens vegetables. Suan Cai pairs extremely well with pork belly and whole fish. Besides making stir fry, you can also use Suan Cai for various purposes, such as topping the noodle or as an excellent side dish.
What is the 酸菜taste like? Where to get it?
The sweetness and acidity from the pickled mustard greens really cut through the fattiness and bring some good balance to this dish.
Be sure to add enough sugar to counter the bitter taste of the veggie during the cooking process.
You can purchase preservatives in a vacuum-sealed package for pickled mustard greens in the local Chinese supermarket.
Chinese pickled mustard greens stir fry: Step by Step
- Soak the mustard greens for 10-15 minutes to remove the sourness and saltiness.
- Drain it and chop it up into small pieces. Set aside.
- Add the vegetable oil to a non-stick pan. Heat it on medium-high heat till it is hot, add green onion, ginger, and garlic in, and stir until fragrant.
- Put the pre marinate meat and stir until no longer pink.
- Add the mustard greens into it, stirring often, for about 5 minutes.
- Add sugar in, salt, and pepper to taste.
Chinese Pickled Mustard Greens Stir Fry Ground Pork
Ingredients
- 1 bag Suan Cai one sealed bag, about one big bunch or two small bunches, diced
- 1.5 pound ground pork
- 3 green onion the white part only
- 5 slices fresh ginger
- 3 cloves of garlic sliced
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine
- 1 tablespoon Sugar use less or more, depends on your taste
- 1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
- ½ tablespoon Light soy sauce
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- red chili optional, for garnish
Instructions
- Let’s start by soaking the mustard greens in water for 10-15 minutes to remove the sourness and saltiness. The store-bought ready-made Chinese mustard green can sometimes be pretty salty. If you are using the homemade Chinese mustard green, you can cut down the soaking time to 5 minutes.
- Drain them with clear running water. Pat dry the Chinese mustard greens with paper towels. Then chop them up into small pieces. Set aside.
- Set the ground pork in a large bowl, add Shaoxing cooking wine, and corn starch and mix well. Tap in salt and pepper to taste over the ground pork.
- Add the cooking oil to a nonstick wok. Heat it on medium-high heat till it is hot, add the green onion (white part), ginger and garlic in, and stir fry until fragrant.
- Put pre-marinated ground pork into wok and stir fry until no longer pink.
- Fold in Chinese mustard greens, stir frequently, for about 5 minutes.
- Add sugar, oyster sauce, light soy sauce and salt, pepper to taste.
- Serve it with steamed white rice. Yum! Enjoy!
Notes
- You will want to add water gradually so that the dish becomes wet, steamy pork. If you prefer a drier taste, you can leave the water out.
- To make moist, tender ground pork, you will want to purchase 70/30 ground pork, so there is a little bit of the fat blended into the ground pork.
Anne says
Quick and easy to cook yet flavourful.
Yuan says
Thank you Anne! Glad you like it.😊