Chicken or Beef Green Beans

Method

1. Dry the beans completely. Wash them well ahead and dry them thoroughly with a towel. Wet beans in hot oil spit violently and will not blister.
2. Marinate the chicken with the cornflour, soy sauce and Shaoxing wine for 15 minutes.
3. Mix the sauce and keep it beside the stove.
4. Blister the beans in two batches. Heat the oil in a wok over medium-high until it shimmers. Add half the beans and let them sit for 30 to 40 seconds at a time between stirs, 4 to 5 minutes in total, until the skins wrinkle all over and are scorched in patches. Lift them out with a strainer and repeat. This is shallow frying, not stir-frying, and it is what the dish is.
5. Pour off almost all the oil, leaving about a tablespoon.
6. Sear the chicken over high heat for 2 minutes until just cooked, then push it to one side.
7. Fry the aromatics. Garlic, ginger and chilli flakes for 30 seconds until fragrant. There is a lot of garlic here and it should stay pale.
8. Return the beans, add the sauce. Tip the beans back in, pour the sauce over and toss for about 1 minute until it has almost entirely reduced onto the beans and there is nothing loose in the pan. Serve.

Variations

• Beef green beans. 300 g flank steak sliced thinly against the grain, tenderised with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda for 30 minutes and rinsed, then velveted as above.
• Pork green beans. 250 g minced pork, browned hard until crispy before the aromatics go in, which is closest to the Sichuan original.
• Vegetarian green beans. No meat, add 150 g finely chopped mushrooms browned dry, and use vegetarian oyster sauce in place of half the soy.
• Preserved vegetable version. Add 40 g chopped ya cai or preserved mustard greens with the aromatics for the authentic Sichuan gan bian dou jiao.

Notes

• Blistered is not the same as cooked. The beans should look slightly shrivelled and unattractive in the pan, which is exactly right. A bright stiff green bean has not been blistered and will taste of nothing.
• Use enough oil and let them sit. Constant stirring keeps the temperature down and steams the beans. Leave them alone in stretches.
• The sauce should almost disappear. This is a dry dish. If there is sauce pooling at the end, keep tossing over the heat.
• Save the strained oil. It is now green-bean flavoured and is excellent for the next stir-fry.
• Good at room temperature, which makes it one of the better dishes here to bring to a table.

Ingredient substitutions

• Green beans should be firm and slim. Flat romano beans work and need a minute longer. Frozen beans do not blister and are not worth using here.
• Dark soy sauce provides colour. Without it use extra light soy.
• Shaoxing wine substitutes with dry sherry, or stock plus a splash of rice vinegar.

Sources consulted

• The Woks of Life: Sichuan Dry Fried String Beans

Good with

• Beef with Broccoli
• Chop Suey

From Christoph Mayer