The beans are charred and chewy, with a rich, spicy aroma.
Dry-fried green beans are truly a classic of Sichuan cuisine. This dry, aromatic, and mildly spicy vegetable dish is so satisfying that it leaves no room for pickiness—that's the magic of Sichuan cooking!
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
250 g (about 1/2 lb) green beans
Additional Ingredients
Ground pork and preserved mustard greens (Sichuan ya cai), to taste
Ground pork and preserved mustard greens are the soul of this dish—don't skip them.
Seasonings
10 g (about 2 teaspoons) fermented rice wine liquid
1 g salt
5 g soy sauce
Ginger and garlic, each to taste
dried chili peppers, to taste
You can also use Shaoxing wine instead of fermented rice wine.
Instructions
Instructions
Preparation
Step 1: Finely mince the ginger and garlic, remove the seeds from the dried chili peppers and cut them into sections, trim the ends off the green beans, wash them, and break them into pieces for later use (Figure 2).
*Remove the seeds from dried chili peppers, otherwise they will be very spicy; if you can handle the heat, you can leave the seeds in.
*After washing the green beans, let them air dry for a while to allow excess surface moisture to evaporate; otherwise, they will splatter when deep-fried later.
Deep-fry the green beans until they are wrinkled and slightly browned.
② Heat a wok over high heat, add a generous amount of oil and heat until it reaches 70-80% of its smoking point. Add the green beans and deep-fry over high heat until the skin wrinkles and blisters, then remove and drain (Image 3).
*Make sure the green beans are fully cooked through, otherwise they can be toxic—this is very important to remember!
Stir-fry over high heat until the beans are slightly charred and wrinkled, then add the minced garlic, dried chili peppers, and Sichuan peppercorns, continuing to stir-fry until fragrant.
Step 3: Pour out the oil from the wok, leaving just a thin layer. Over medium-low heat, dry-fry the ground meat and dried chilies, then add the minced ginger, garlic, and fermented rice wine, stir-frying until fragrant (Image 4).
When stir-frying the ground meat, don't let the oil get too hot, or the meat will clump together before it has a chance to break apart.
④ Add the green beans and preserved mustard greens, along with a small amount of soy sauce and salt (Image 5). Stir-fry over medium heat for about 2 minutes, then remove from the wok and serve (Image 6).
*Since the preserved mustard greens are already quite salty, use less soy sauce and salt.
