Sichuan Cuisine · FFET10207
Dry-fried green beans
Green beans fried until wrinkled, then tossed with ground pork, ya cai, dried chilies, ginger and garlic, a Sichuan dish.
A round white porcelain plate holds wrinkled green beans with browned ground pork, dark ya cai, dried red chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger and garlic scattered among them, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
The regional cooking of Sichuan and Chongqing, known for its wide range of flavour types.
Dry-fried green beans are fried or deep-fried until the skin wrinkles, set aside, then returned to the wok with ground pork, ya cai (a Sichuan preserved vegetable), dried chilies, ginger and garlic. The dish is a Sichuan restaurant staple. Gan bian in the name originally meant slow frying with little oil; restaurants now usually deep-fry the beans beforehand. No dated text or specific place of origin was found.
What
Dry-fried green beans are fried until wrinkled and lightly scorched, then stir-fried with ground pork, ya cai, dried chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger and garlic.1,2,3
When
No date of origin was found. A Sichuan cookbook from the 1970s records a slow-frying method taking over 2 hours; this is a secondhand account, the original book was not checked, and the record concerns the method, not the dish’s origin.3
How
The beans are dry-fried with little oil, shallow-fried or deep-fried until wrinkled, then set aside. Ground pork is browned in the wok, followed by ya cai, dried chilies, ginger and garlic. The beans are returned, seasoned with soy sauce and other seasonings, and tossed until dry. Traditionally, dry-frying was slow and used very little oil; restaurants now usually deep-fry the beans beforehand.1,2,3
Why
Gan bian means frying an ingredient slowly with little oil and no liquid. The name stayed the same while restaurants switched to deep-frying the beans beforehand.3
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the simpler way I make it at home, in the Sichuan style: no deep-frying, just dry-frying at the start and then a little oil to wrinkle the beans. The amounts follow one named recipe, which dry-fries the beans for two or three minutes and then adds oil until they wrinkle. A second named recipe uses more oil and wrinkles the beans in two batches, and I use it as a comparison. The two recipes give different frying times, so at home I go by how the beans look, not by the clock.
Ingredients
- Green beans 400 g, ends trimmed, snapped into pieces about 5 cm long, washed and dried well
- Cooking oil 30 ml (2 tablespoons)
- Ground pork about 100 g
- Ya cai (Sichuan preserved vegetable) about 50 g
- Dried chilies 6, snipped into pieces
- Sichuan peppercorns a quarter of a teaspoon (about 0.5 g)
- Ginger 3 slices, minced
- Garlic 2 cloves, minced
- Light soy sauce 1.5 tablespoons (about 22 ml)
- Sugar half a teaspoon (about 2 g)
- Salt a small pinch, added after tasting
Steps
- Heat the wok without oil, add the beans, and stir over medium-high heat for two or three minutes, until the skin dries out.
- Pour the 30 ml of oil down the side of the wok and keep tossing until the skin wrinkles and shows some brown spots. I take about ten minutes, and I bite one bean: it must be tender, with no raw taste, before I take them out.
- Leave a little oil in the wok, add the pork over medium heat, and break it up. Fry it until no pink is left and the edges turn crisp. The meat must be cooked through.
- Push the pork aside, fry the dried chilies and peppercorns for about 15 seconds, then add the ginger, garlic and ya cai and fry until fragrant.
- Return the beans, add the soy sauce and sugar, and toss over high heat for about a minute, until dry. Taste, and add salt if it needs it.
Tips
- I dry the beans thoroughly, because wet beans spatter and do not wrinkle as well. This is my own experience.
- Ya cai is already salty, so I taste at the end and then decide about salt. This is my own way.
Allergens: soy, wheat