This is so simple to make, yet so flavoursome. The whole salad disappears very quickly.
I do all the prep work for the salad. When that is done, my husband BBQ's the pork. While the pork is resting I dress the salad, then all that needs to be done is slicing the pork and adding it to the salad.
This would be great for a picnic also, everything can be made the day before, just transfer to the picnic separately and assemble at the picnic. Combine the salad in one bowl, the dressing in a screw top jar, the sliced pork in a small container. When needed mix it all together, serve on plates or in wraps.
Recipe
Serves 6-8
1/4 cup Chinese rice wine or Dry Sherry (I use sherry mostly)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2cm piece ginger, finely grated
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 long hot red chilli or 2 small red birds eye chilli
2 teaspoons Chinese five spice
100g grated palm sugar, grated or brown sugar
500g pork fillet
Asian Green Bean Salad:
500g green beans, trimmed
2 baby cos lettuce, washed
40g sesame seeds, toasted
3 tablespoons Asian eschalots, peeled, thinly sliced (I use normal eschalots, easier to find)
Salad Dressing:
4cm piece ginger, finely grated
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (I used rice wine vinegar, as I had it at home)
4 teaspoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
2 tablespoons rice bran oil
Sliced Lebanese cucumber and flat bread, to serve
First the marinade: To a small food processor add the ginger, garlic, chillies, five spice and sugar. Blitz until it is chopped well. Add the rice wine and soy sauce, blitz briefly to combine. Place the pork in an airtight container, pour over the marinade, refrigerate for 1 hour or for up to one day. I usually marinate for 1 hour only. Place in the refrigerator for the first 30 minutes, then I turn the meat over and leave to marinate on my kitchen counter for the last 30 minutes, so the meat isn't too cold when I put it on the BBQ.
For the salad: Cook the beans in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain, allow to cool in colander.
Shred the cos lettuce into 2cm wide strips, wash well, drain away the water. Place in a large mixing bowl.
Add a teaspoon of rice bran oil to a small frying pan, over medium heat. Add the eschalots and sauté until golden in colour. Remove from heat, allow to cool in a small bowl.
Wipe away the oil from your frying pan, add the sesame seeds. Constantly stirring, over a medium heat, toast the sesame seeds until they begin to colour.
To the salad leaves, add the cooled green beans, eschalots and sesame seeds.
For the Dressing: Combine the ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, sugar and chilli in a screw top jar.
Now the pork (my husband takes great pride in this). Preheat the BBQ to high. Remove the pork from the marinade, reserve the marinade. Brush the pork with the remaining oil, then cook uncovered for 4 minutes on each side or until cooked through, brush some extra marinade over the pork every now and then. We cooked the thinner fillet for 12 minutes in total, the thicker fillet for 16 minutes, as it was quite thick, as a guide. We also covered the BBQ for the final 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover with foil and rest for 5 minutes.
Enjoy!
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