Recipe: Sichuan Dry-Fried Green Beans
Dried-fried green beans is one of my favorite side dishes to order in Sichuan restaurants. In contrast to crisp haricot verts or mushy microwaved diner-style beans, Sichuan-style green beans are blistered and well-cooked without being bland. With Sichuan peppercorns and dried chillis adding spice and smokiness to the flavor profile, this dish becomes positively addictive.
However, no matter how many times I tried to recreate the dish at home, I ended up either burning the green beans before they got cooked, or dumping some water in order to save the beans, the latter which defeats the purpose of dry-frying. For help, I finally emailed Kian from Red Cook. He said that his method is using a ton of oil and constantly stirring the beans to get them cooked without burning. Almost like deep-frying. No wonder the green beans in restaurants taste so good.
My good-enough-for-publishing recipe in this post can be considered vegetarian, depending on whether you consider dried shrimp meat. (Or maybe I'm just turning incredibly Chinese: "Oh, you don't eat meat? Don't worry...it's just chicken.") Some versions use minced pork in addition to dried shrimp, and some avoid both. For dried shrimp, make sure to get the kind that's bigger, pinkish, and more expensive, not the cheap itty bitty gray ones.
Sichuan preserved vegetable (mustard root pickled in salt and chillis) can usually be found in Chinatown supermarkets, in either cans or individual packages. Just rinse in cold water and finely chop for this dish.
Some recipes I found also eschew the dried red chills and Sichuan peppercorn, but I find the extra spice adds a needed smoky dimension to the final dish. I also use a little chilli bean sauce at the end to add a bit of moisture back in, although soy sauce also works well.
And remember to dry your green beans well before cooking. Nothing ruins an appetite like spotchy painful burn marks on your arms from splattering oil.
Bonus Olympic Update: A friend went to a US vs. China basketball game and was able to photograph the Bushes in the stands. Test your politician ID skillz in this How Many World Leaders Do You Recognize? photo.
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Other great Sichuan recipes:
Spicy Wok-Fried Chicken with Chili (Lazi jiding)
Dan Dan Mian (Spicy Sichuan Noodles)
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Sichuan Dry-Fried Green Beans
Serves 2 to 4 as part of a multi-course meal
3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
1/2 pound green beans - rinsed, dried, and chopped to 2-inch lengths
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 pieces ginger, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Sichuan preserved vegetable (mustard root) - rinsed, shredded, and finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon dried shrimp, chopped
5 or 6 dried red chillis
1/2 tablespoon chilli bean sauce
1 to 2 drops sesame oii
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt, or salt to taste
Heat oil in a wok until just beginning to smoke. Add green beans and stir-fry, keeping the beans constantly moving, for about 5 minutes, or until the outsides begin to blister and the beans are wilted. Remove and set aside to drain on kitchen towels.
Remove all but 1 tablespoon of oil. Add garlic, ginger, preserved vegetable, dried shrimp, and red chillis; cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Return beans to the wok, and add chilli bean sauce and sesame oil. Add sugar and stir until well-combined. Salt to taste. Dish out onto serving plate and serve while hot.
I love this dish! You can
I love this dish! You can never go wrong with oil-blanching green beans (and eggplant too!). Are the preserved vegetables sweet or more salty?
dp - They're a bit salty,
dp - They're a bit salty, having been pickled in salty water. They definitely add a nice texture to the overall dish.
Great Recipe
Diana, Glad my tip worked for you. Great recipe! I like the idea of adding chili bean paste to the sauce. I must try that next time I make the dish.
Kian - Yeah, I never
Kian - Yeah, I never realized it was the lack of oil that was the problem. Thanks again!
Great Recipe!
I always order this dish at Chinese restaurants but have never attempted to make it myself. Thanks for a great recipe. I'm going to attempt it.
great looking dish
This is one of my favorite dishes in CHina as well... I am now completely addicted to it!
Beautiful. No time to nip to
Beautiful. No time to nip to Chinatown for "haam shun tsoi" (do you like my improvised ping yum?) but I just remembered I have some green beans in my crisper bin. Will try this method tonight, maybe with some ground pork.
Yum!
Thanks for the recipe. I love green beans made Chinese-style.
hey! it's been a while since
hey! it's been a while since i visited. sorry abt tht. this is a dish my mum likes to make! and guess what, my dad's going these bean babies out front and they are fat and ready to be cooked i reckon roundabout early next week. i'm excited!
One of my favorites!
I just found your website thanks to an article on Blogher.com and was super-excited to see this post and recipe. This dish was one of my favorites when my husband and I visited China last year and this year. We had our first taste at a restaurant in Urumqi and ordered it as often as we could on our overland trip. I became addicted to the numbing and tingle of Sichuan peppercorn. Brings back good eating memories!
So delicious
Thanks for this method. I changed pretty much everything else because I didn't have it on hand but the beans were -perfect-. This is a keeper. The sugar was a great touch, too--I always get so put off by the over-sweetness of Asian food in the US that I forget that a little sugar is a good thing.
Michele - Yeah, I've found
Michele - Yeah, I've found that a lot of traditional Chinese recipes call for a sprinkle of sugar. Definitely elevates the taste, if used in moderation.
off topic
You have so great chinese receipes. As I used to live in China for 5 years I had one favourite dish and search for the receipe. I think the translated chinese name is "beef cooked in water". (On the menu the name was beef Sichuan style) It is sliced beef without bones cooked in a spicy broth and often served over iceberg lettuce. The restaurant where I ate this, also had this green bean dish, so I hope you can help me.
Shui Zhu Rou Pian
We always ate the pork version (you can have it with fish, too) and called it "Water Boiled Pork"
I found a recipe here, but I haven't tried it yet. it doesn't seem like enough oil!
http://www.galaxylink.com.hk/~john/food/cooking/sichuan/suizhurou.html
This one looks right in the pictures:
http://allrecipes.com/Cook/11828683/BlogEntry.aspx?postid=152656
It's been four months since I moved outta China (to Germany, in fact) and I miss it so much!
sichuan beans
I learned to make this a bit different from a friend that is from Chengdu.
Heat the wok on high and dry fry the beans just until small black blisters appear. remove beans from heat. Add liberal amount of peanut oil and heat to smoking, then added dried chili. Fry chilis until they start to turn light brown. Remove chilis and hold. THen add beans back to oil and fry until hot add back chilis and fry 30 seconds. remove from heat and season with kosher salt. enjoy. Also works well with asparagus.
I would use Ya cai
I would use Ya cai (芽菜） instead of Zha cai (榨菜） which is what you appear to be using for preserved vegetable. They have a different taste and Ya cai is much more pungent.
Ya cai, though, is much more difficult to find outside China while Zha cai is ubiquitous. I've seen it in giant stores in USA, though, like 金门超市 in Quincy (Boston area).
It's been a while since I
It's been a while since I went grocery shopping in Quincy (it's where I grew up). Though I'm not surprised ya cai is easy to find there...it has become a satellite 2nd Chinatown of Boston.
ya cai
i've had a hard time finding Ya Cai in the New York City area. Been using Tainjin Preserved vegetable in dishes like dan dan noodles. WHen you found it in Boston was it labelled Ya Cai? Is Quincy a supermarket in the boston area or are you referring to a town?
Any suggestion for finding it here?
much thanks
Quincy is a town in the
Quincy is a town in the greater Boston area that has the largest Chinese supermarket in Massachusetts. It is called 金門超市超 (Pinyin: Jin1 men2 chao1 shi4, Official English name is Kam Man Food, after the Cantonese pronounciation). The company is actually from New York. I am almost dead sure there has to be one in Manhattan or Flushing though I'm not sure where.
The most well-known brand of commercially-packaged Ya cai is probably 碎米芽菜 (Sui mi ya cai) which is made in Sichuan. That is available at least in the Boston one and hidden deep in the pickled vegetable aisle in the bottom shelves near the floor. You should look for a small sealed package like this:
http://www.jiaoyou.com/attachments/2006/05/15/66892549544691f850c35f.jpg
I will have to try this
I will have to try this recipe. Looks delicious!
I just made this dish
I just made this dish according to your recipe in Budapest, Hungary. I did't have any pickled vegetables, nevertheless, the dish turned out perfect. It's important not to overcook the beans! I should go to a Chinese market one of these days...:o)
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