Dry Fried Green Beans - Gan Bian Si Ji Dou

I've received emails in the past about various meals that have been posted. Most of those meals are family-style Chinese in nature, and those emails comment about the paucity of vegetable dishes. I'll let you in on a little secret....we love leftovers. The Missus also believes (perhaps a little misguidedly) that I can stir fry vegetables pretty well. And since we bought the Big Kahuna the Missus has problems with spending $$'s on vegetable dishes She believes we can do just as well at home. So we'll stretch our leftovers adding vegetable dishes along the way. Works well for us, so I thought I'd start posting on a few of those dishes, all of which are very simple, so I hope you don't mind.

Here's a dish that you don't need a Big Kahuna for, a classic Sichuan dish that you'll find everywhere, even in Americanized Sichuan Restaurants.

 

I've changed this dish a bit over the years. To be able to create this dish on impulse, without too much planning, I replaced the ground pork with dried shrimp. Also, instead of deep frying the beans, I've adopted the "dry-frying" technique that Fuchsia Dunlop uses in her wonderful cookbook, Land of Plenty. It takes a bit more time, but there's no wasted oil, and instead of adding more oil to the dish after dry-frying the green beans, I add my chilies and other ingredients directly to the remaining oil, and this creates even more flavor. I'm also pretty specific regarding a few other items in the dish. I'll use drinking quality Shaoxing wine, it has a mellower and smoother flavor. If you can find good Tianjin preserved vegetable, or really good Ya Cai (Sichuan pickled mustard green leaves), I'm sure it'll make this dish even better. I just used what I had in the cupboard, canned shredded Sichuan preserved vegetable. I've made the Sichuan Peppercorn optional, since the Missus doesn't care for the flavor in this dish. I've also made a similar dish using asparagus. I'll blanch the asparagus first, than do a brief "dry fry", before finishing the dish in the same manner as the green beans.

So here goes.....

Dry Fried Green Beans

3/4 Lb green beans, rinsed, trimmed, and de-stringed, cut or broken into pieces about 2" long.
3-8 Dried Chilies, deseeded
4 cloves of garlic minced
2 Tb Sichuan preserved vegetable chopped
2 Tb dried shrimp chopped (if necessary)
2 tsp Shaoxing wine - drinking quality
2 Tb Premium quality light soy sauce
1-2 tsp ground Sichuan Peppercorn (optional)
1-2 tsp (or more) Chili Oil (hopefully you make you own at home)
1 tsp Sesame Oil
3-4 Tb Peanut Oil
Salt, if necessary.

1 - Heat your wok until it smokes.
2 - Add peanut oil, and turn heat down to medium.
3 - Add green beans and stir fry over medium heat(4-6 minutes) until the skins start to pucker.
4 - Remove the green beans with a slotted spoon(drain off excess oil) to a plate lines with paper towels.
5 - Add dried chilies to remaining oil and scald, add dried shrimp and stir fry until shrimps start to crisp.
6 - Add Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and stir fry.
7 - Add preserved vegetable, and stir fry until the vegetable is heated. Add Sichuan Peppercorn if desired.
8 - Toss the beans back into the wok and combine. Add chili oil. Taste, and adjust flavoring. Add salt if desired (you probably won't need to).
9 - Remove from heat and add sesame oil.

There you go.......

To tease your tastebuds a bit further, Wandering Chopsticks makes her own version of this dish. You can find that post here.  

Comments

[Pam]

mmmmmm, i love this dish, esp. with dried shrimp and the preserved greens!!

[Wandering Chopsticks]

Dried shrimp is a great touch. I should of thought of that since I don't always have ground pork on hand. Great job in the puckered skin. I love it in restaurants, but always feel like it's too oily to do at home.

[Kirk]

Hi Pam - Congrat's on the new job. Preserved vegetable is a must for this dish.

Hi WC - This dish can be oily, but by cutting down on the oil used, and replacing the pork, we've made a bit of a compromise.

[Dennis]

Looks delicious Kirk! The dish visually reminds me of Pad Prik King I get at Thai restaurants also. I really gotta get me one of those high btu wok burners!

[Janfrederick]

I was finally able to score a Big Kahuna on Amazon. I've wanted one ever since your first post about it, but either didn't have the money, or it simply wasn't available. The only problem is that my email notice said it would take 6-8 weeks to ship! Guess it's more of a summer item anyway.

Kirk, do you have the 22" wok? I read a lot of reviews that said they were difficult to season and clean.

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - You won't need the Kahuna for this dish, I make it on the stove top.

Hi Jan - congrats on your new purchase! I'm glad they're making it again. I have 3 14" woks. 22" is a bit big for our use. Get one from T&L, it looks like they have a decent selection.

[Janfrederick]

Doh! I wrote too soon. Seems I was able to "accidentally" order the kit from Amazon and they are still out of stock. I just received a refund instead of a stand. Drats! I'm going to have to get a blowtorch and modify my turkey fryer stand. ;)

[Kirk]

Hi Jan - Have you taken a look at this?

You'll probably need a wok ring though.

http://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Gourmet-Revolution-Burner-Fixed/dp/B000FJP4WK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1238447136&sr=8-1

or maybe this one - not as many BTU's but still more than enough.

http://www.amazon.com/King-Kooker-Outdoor-Cooker-Wok/dp/B000BWFTJE/ref=pd_sbs_hg_3

[Dennis]

I remember seeing one at Lowes in Mission Valley a while back but I can't remember the brand. Forgot how high the btu's were but the price was comparable.

[Passionate Eater]

So now we know the secret of where the vegetables are at Mmm-Yoso!!, Kirk is cooking them!

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - You have to make sure you'll be able to fit a wok on them. The Big Kahuna has a reversable plate, which works well.

Hi PE - I think you overestimate my cooking abilities. But thanks, I appreciate your kind words. ;o)

[kat]

this looks so good!

[Kirk]

Hi Kat - It was pretty good, yes.

[Faine G]

Aww yeah. That's one of my favorite dishes of all time. We usually do them with BBQ pork but I think dried shrimp could be just as delish...

[Kirk]

Hi Faine - The Missus actually prefers the dried shrimp version to the pork version nowadays....makes it easier for me too.

[Vicky (SF Bay Area)]

kirk! email me your work/mailing addy. we got some AMAZING preserved turnip from this famous store in tainan.... we want mail down a pack or two to you so you can use it with your green beans!

[James Rodgers]

When do you add the garlic?

[Kirk]

Nice catch James! I add the garlic in with the Sichuan Preserved Vegetable!