I had big plans for dinner tonight, but had also promised myself to clean out the stale stuff from my fridge freezers so they could be ready for our garbage pick up tomorrow. Amazingly, I kept that promise and the stale stuff is at the curb waiting to be picked up on schedule. Yah!
I went ahead and made the Sichuan/Szechuan (whateves 
) dry fried beans with pork dish, but abandoned the shrimp fried rice I was going to make to accompany it. It took longer to do the freezer cleanout than I had anticipated. It wasn't just a dump into the garbage operation, because I was trying to salvage freezer bags, rubber bands used to close bags of freezer burnt and desiccated veggies and even twist ties in some cases.
Before you think I'm crazy or spreading disease, I wrap all frozen stuff very carefully and then put it into the thick and expensive freezer bags. This way the bags can be reused after drying/airing out. My long sectional sofa is full of freezer bags airing out. Yes, I am a thrifty (cheap) B. The bags can last for years this way, while also better protecting your food with a double wrap. I'm very careful not to cross contaminate. I wash my hands many time while packaging meats, most especially attentive to chicken.
When was doing the freezer cleanout and found the last of the very thin pork chops that I knew I had somewhere in these tombs for dead food, I took it out of the freezer bag and placed it in the fridge to come down from solidly frozen to a point where it could be minced easily. I had bought some beautiful green beans the other day and had been anticipating making this dish that I haven't even experienced in a restaurant until today. I knew I had that chop and it was perfect for the dish once it was minced into tiny pieces. I used both this very helpful eG pictorial from member @hzrt8w and this recipe as guides.
I had neither "olive vegetable" nor "preserved vegetable" and have zero chance of finding either within walking distance with the lamented demise of S-Mart. I soldiered on bravely. I liked the idea of ginger in the dish, so grated some of my frozen stash for it and used green onion toward the end instead of shallot. I also deviated with a whole New Mexican Hatch chili that was probably nine inches long instead of the called for peppers in either of my guides. I sliced off a couple of pieces from the tip of mine because I'd never tasted these fresh and while the online experience I've had with them classifies them into mild/medium/hot, there was no indication of heat level at Harris Teeter where I picked these up for $1.29 a pound on sale. Score!! Mine had some heat, but not as much as a typical jalapeno. I figured if I put the whole long pepper in with all of it's seeds and membranes, it would bring plenty of heat to the party, and it did. My husband would have refused to eat this finished dish, but it had a very pleasant heat level to me, and he wasn't here. Chopping this pepper also left my non-knife left and ungloved hand tingling with capsaicin for hours, so mine definitely have some heat to them. That heat is just now calming down in my hand.
I used the one very thin pork chop with a nice little rim of fat around the outer edge and a little more fat near the bone. This was very easy to mince while still mostly frozen and yielded, I reckon, about 3 ounces of usable meat and fat. I had .37 pounds green beans, and this proportion was pleasing to me with all the aromatics and seasonings.
I did not deep fry the green beans either, but stir fried in only a small amount of oil and drained them on paper when I removed them from the skillet I was cooking in. There was enough oil left to finish cooking the peppers, garlic, ginger and pork. The final dish was not very greasy at all, and I very much liked this. I will be making this again.
I have seen yard long beans on both my visits to the Indian grocer, Patel Brothers, and some of the discussion I have read on this dish turns up a lot of people who prefer it prepared with the long instead of green beans. This will happen at Chez TftC.
I could easily have nuked a portion of frozen prepared rice I had planned to make the shrimp fried rice with, but chose to use my carbs judiciously and opted for a cute, delicious little individual cherry pie I bought at Food Lion. I heated this until very hot in my Dutch oven.
Edit: does anyone here know what the preserved "vegetable" actually is before it is preserved. It seems to be a common nomenclature, but very mysterious?
