Spicy Green Beans with Meat

This is a typical spunky Szechuan dish, in which the aromatic hot flavor is beautifully complemented by the crisp and chewy texture of the deep-fried beans. Green beans have a firm consistency; they don’t absorb seasonings unless they are well simmered in a sauce or glazed with a cornstarch thickening. Since both would result in a moist softness that is not desired here, the beans are deep-fried in hot oil until wilted and wrinkled (in China in the old days this was accomplished by drying t