Stir-fried marrow in black bean sauce

It's that time of year where many gardeners find themselves in possession of overgrown courgettes that were hiding behind leaves. I'm not growing courgettes or marrows, but I did find myself with half a marrow after using the other half to make piccalilli. It occurred to me that some pork and prawn dumpling filling (leftover from Noodle!) would be a very good stuffing, and that a nice home made black bean sauce would perk up the bland vegetable.

Of course, I googled and discovered that Danny had mentioned just such a dish five years ago. And it turned out there wasn't enough dumpling filling to stuff it properly anyway. So I turned it into a stirfry. I had it just on its own, because I didn't have to share, but some rice would be good to stretch it.

Stir-fried marrow with pork, prawn and black bean sauce (serves 2-ish with rice)

Vegetable oil for frying
Fist-sized ball of leftover dumpling filling OR 100g pork mince
1 clove garlic, sliced
thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
1 small red chilli, sliced
1tsp sugar
1tbs salted black beans
1/2 marrow, peeled, de-seeded and chopped into bite-size chunks
1 small red pepper, de-seeded and chopped into bite-size chunks
1tsp cornflour
50ml shaoxing rice wine
100ml chicken stock

First get everything prepared - mash the black beans roughly with the sugar and put in a small bowl with the chilli, ginger and garlic, put the marrow and pepper in another bowl, and mix the cornflour and shaoxing to a slurry.

Heat a wok or heavy-based saute pan over a high heat, then add a good splash of oil. When the oil shimmers, add the dumpling filling or pork mince, browning it well and breaking up the pieces. Add the garlic and black bean mixture. When the garlic begins to brown, add the vegetables. It's a stir-fry, but don't stir it absolutely constantly - give it all time in contact with the hot pan to develop some semblance of wok hei.

When the vegetables are starting to take a bit of colour and are tender-crisp, add the cornflour slurry and the chicken stock and stir until the sauce thickens and everything is well-coated in it.