Dry-Fried Green Beans
Blistered, wrinkled green beans with minced pork and preserved mustard greens. The most addictive vegetable dish in Sichuan cooking.
Gānbiān sìjìdòu translates as dry-fried green beans, and “dry-fried” is a technique rather than a description of the result. The beans go into a moderate amount of hot oil and stay there long enough for their skins to blister, wrinkle, and char in spots — six to eight minutes, which feels far too long the first time you do it.
That patience is the whole recipe. What you are doing is driving water out of the beans, which concentrates their flavor and collapses the skin into wrinkles that catch sauce. Pull them at four minutes and you have bright green, squeaky, boring beans.
Everything after that takes ninety seconds: chilies and Sichuan peppercorn in the oil, crisp minced pork, ya cai for funk, and just enough seasoning to coat. The dish should come out of the pan dry and glossy, never saucy.
Instructions
- 1
Wash the beans and dry them completely. Any water left on them will spit violently in hot oil and steam instead of blister.
- 2
Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a wok over high heat. Add the beans and fry 6 to 8 minutes, tossing only occasionally, until the skins wrinkle, blister, and take on brown-black spots. Do not rush this — the blistering is the dish.
- 3
Remove the beans and pour off all but a tablespoon of oil.
- 4
Fry the chilies and Sichuan peppercorns 15 seconds, then the pork, breaking it up, for 2 minutes until crisp.
- 5
Add the garlic, ginger, and ya cai for 30 seconds.
- 6
Return the beans, add the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and sugar, and toss hard for 1 minute until everything is coated and the pan is dry again.
- 7
Finish with sesame oil off the heat.
Cook’s Notes
- Dry the beans properly. This is the whole recipe in one instruction — wet beans steam, and steamed beans stay smooth and squeaky instead of wrinkling.
- The finished dish should be dry, not saucy. Dry-frying means driving moisture out of the vegetable to concentrate its flavor; a puddle in the pan means you added liquid too early.
- It is genuinely good without the pork. Double the ya cai and add a few chopped shiitake to keep the savory depth.
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