Tuesday, July 31, 2012

干煸四季豆 (aka Chinese Stir-Fried String Beans)


This is a favorite of mine, but you need some special ingredients. In Chinese it's called, Gan Bian Si Ji Dou, in English according to the internet it's Szechuan Fried String Beans.

Ingredients:

  • String Beans
  • Diced Salty Spicy Radish (~ 1Tb per lb of string beans)

  • Vegetarian Oyster Sauce

  • Minced Garlic (~1 clove per lb. of string beans)
  1. Wash your string beans and take off the ends (make sure none of it is mushy), I like floating them in salt water and letting any dirt sink to the bottom and then move them to a colander before giving them a final rinse.

  1. Put about 1Tb of oil in a saute pan over medium heat. I rarely cook in anything but olive oil, so I go EVOO here, but mom usually uses canola oil, so it doesn't really matter.
  2. Add the minced garlic and diced salty spicy radish to the oil and stir fry until fragrant.
  3. Add your string beans and move them around so they're coated. I cheat here and add about half a cup of water and let the beans get tender by cooking in the liquid. Traditionally, you should slowly saute your beans until they're tender, but I'm too impatient for that (Grandma would look down on me).
  4. Once the beans are almost tender add vegetarian oyster sauce to taste. I add about 1/2 tablespoon to start and then go from there. Turn the heat up to high to help the sauce soak into the beans and get a little (just a little!) bit of "burntness" on the beans. This step shouldn't take more than 30 seconds.
  5. Serve hot!


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