Spicy Green Beans

Name: Spicy Green Beans
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 30 ml/2 tbsp groundnut/peanut oil; 25 g/1 oz/2 tbsp Sichuan preserved vegetables, soaked for 15 minutes; vegetable oil, for deep-frying; 450 g/1 lb green beans, trimmed; 15 g/½ oz/1 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked for 15 minutes; 30 ml/2 tbsp chilli bean paste (dou banjiang); 5 ml/1 tsp rice wine or vinegar; 10 ml/2 tsp sesame oil; 25 g/1 oz fresh root ginger, grated pinch of salt; 2 spring onions/scallions, chopped; 2.5 ml/½ tsp caster/superfine sugar

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

China

By Terry Tan

Published 2020

About

This dish has spawned many regional versions purporting to be ‘Sichuan-style’ but few come close to the original, which uses a special bean grown in the province, called the ‘four-season bean’. However, green beans come close. Sichuan preserved vegetables are bought as a dry product, pickled in salt, then soaked and drained before use.

Ingredients

15 g/½ oz/1 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked for 15 minutes
450

Asia
China
Sichuan
Side dish
Preserve
Pescatarian
Spicy

Method

Finely chop the drained shrimp and preserved vegetables. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok over a medium heat. Plunge the beans into the oil for 1–2 minutes or until lightly blistered. Lift out and drain well on kitchen paper.
In a clean wok, heat the groundnut oil over high heat and fry the spring onion and ginger for 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and preserved veg