Dry-Fried Green Beans

Joe and I have a problem -- we don't like the same vegetables. Well, that isn't completely true, but it's true enough that it can be difficult to find vegetable dishes that we both like. Fortunately I have learned to like beans, a food I would have absolutely not touched at all some years ago. The breakthrough came with Ethiopian and Indian lentil dishes. Then somewhere I acquired a liking for Mexican refried beans and black beans, and then white beans beans cooked in soups and cassoulet. And now the world of beans has opened wide for me. Recently I even cooked a kidney bean dahl, a bean I never thought I'd willingly eat. Someday maybe I'll even learn to like lima beans.

One kind of bean my mother made me eat as a child was the green string bean. I was a very picky eater. My mother worried constantly about what to feed me, and worried about whether or not I was eating enough healthy foods. I had to eat a minimum amount of the vegetable-du-jour before I was allowed to leave the table. This torture of staring at the despised beans until I summoned the nerve to choke down a few mouthfuls was for my own good, but once in college and living on my own, I felt free to ignore all the foods I didn't like. My mother can now be pleased I am now eating my vegetables of my own free will. But I had to go through years of figuring out just how I like to eat them. It's something I'm still figuring out, but now it's not torture. Rather, it's an adventure.

This is a nice spicy green bean dish that I like when serving meat-heavy Chinese dishes. The Sichuan peppercorns give it an unusual flavor.

Dry-Fried Green Beans 2
From Fuchsia Dunlop's Sichuan cookbook Land of Plenty

10 oz green beans
2 scallions, white parts only
peanut oil
8 dried chilies (preferably Sichuanese), snipped in half
1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced and an equivalent amount of...
ginger, also thinly sliced
salt to taste

Remove strings and trim the tops and tails of the beans. Cut into sections about 2 inches long.

Cut scallions at a steep angle into thin slices ("horse ear" slices) about 1 1/2 inches long.

Heat 2 Tbs oil in a wok over low to medium flame. Add beans and stir-fry over medium heat for about 6 minutes, utnil they are cooked and tender with slightly puckered skins. Remove and set aside.

Heat 2 Tbs of fresh oil in the wok over a high flame. Add the chilies and Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fry very briefly until fragrant. Add garlic, ginger, and scallions and stir-fry a few more seconds. Throw in the beans and stir and toss. Salt to taste.

Comments

[Tricia]

Hmmm, is this how they prepare the green beans for the "chicken and green bean" dishes at many Chinese restaurants? I wonder. Sounds tasty either way!

Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian has an Indian green beans recipe you might like - green beans with cumin and fennel, p 202.

[Barbara (Biscuit Girl)]

Land of Plenty is a fabulous cookbook! I bought my husband a copy for Christmas a few years ago and it's one of the most used cookbooks in my collection.

Have you tried the Mapo Tofu recipe on page 313? It's delish!

[melissa]

Sounds great. I can't believe I actually have all the ingredients at home right now! I'll have to try this.

[Kitchen Chick]

Tricia: Dry-fried green beans and pork is actually the more famous version of this Szechuan dish. I've seen that chicken and green bean dish at a number of Chinese restaurants, though I've never noticed it to be listed as a Szechuan dish. I'll check out Jaffrey's recipe. I'm always looking for tasty ways to prepare green beans.

Barbara: Ma Po Tofu is one of my favorite dishes. I have tried a number of recipes, including the Land of Plenty one. I'm recalling we liked it, but we usually to make our own home-grown version.

Melissa: let me know how it worked for you.

[Emily]

Mmmmm sounds delicious!

Emily
Everything Kitchens