Sichuan · Side
Gan Bian Si Ji Dou
- Intermediate
- 25 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with aromatics blooming from the first bite, real fire that builds and stays, ending saline and clean.
Ingredients
- 500 g green beans, topped and tailed, left whole
- 400 ml rapeseed oil, for frying
- 80 g coarsely minced pork
- 30 g Yibin yacai, rinsed and chopped
- 10 g dried erjingtiao chillies, snipped
- 3 g huajiao, whole
- 15 g garlic, minced
- 10 g ginger, minced
- 10 ml Shaoxing wine
- 10 ml light soy sauce
- 3 g sugar
- 2 g salt
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · soy · alcohol
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Dry the beans absolutely; any surface water turns the oil violent and steams the bean instead of blistering it.
- Fry at 170C (340F) for 3 to 4 minutes, until the skins pucker into fine wrinkles all over and the bright green dulls to olive. A bean that still squeaks is not done: you want it limp and faintly leathery. 4 min
- In 20 ml of the drained oil, fry the pork over medium heat about 3 minutes, until it stops clumping and the grains turn sandy and dry, then add the yacai and fry until it smells sweet and smoky. 3 min
- Add chilli, huajiao, garlic and ginger and stir just 20 seconds, only until the chilli darkens and the huajiao smells of citrus peel.
- Return the beans with wine, soy, sugar and salt and toss over high heat until the pan is dry and nothing pools at the bottom.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Deep frying 96 recipes
- The oil was at temperature before anything went in, measured rather than guessed, and the vessel is no more than two-thirds full.
- Everything went in dry. Surfaces are patted down and any coating is not dripping, because water hitting hot oil erupts and is the one accident this technique actually has.
- The oil recovers between batches. It is back at temperature before the next load goes in rather than falling further with each one.
- A steady vigorous bubbling that slows as it finishes: the bubbles are the food’s own water leaving, so a piece that has gone quiet has stopped drying out and is done.
- Seasoned or finished in the first seconds out of the oil, while the surface is still hot and will hold what lands on it. Anything applied to a cooled crust sits on top and falls off.
Where it goes wrong Too much went in at once and the oil temperature collapsed. The crust forms slowly while the food sits in warm fat absorbing it rather than shedding steam, and it comes out heavy and greasy instead of crisp, which no amount of draining afterwards will fix.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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