Sichuan dry-fried green beans with pork mince
Written by Estelle & Alice for The Wok House
A well-blistered green bean bends without snapping, and its skin wrinkles under little brown spots. That's the sign I watch for over the wok, more than the timer: depending on the size of the beans and how hot your hob runs, the cooking time can vary by several minutes. The rest moves quickly, with crispy pork mince, salty ya cai and Sichuan pepper that tingles on your lips.
Gan bian si ji dou is a Sichuan classic. Si ji dou, the four-seasons bean, is the Chinese name for green beans; gan bian is the technique, which means stir-frying the food until it has lost its water. In restaurants, the beans are deep-fried first. Here, they blister in a dry wok, in batches, and everything else happens in the same wok. Two things make the difference: beans that are properly dry, spread out in a single layer, and crumbled pork that you keep stir-frying until it's dry and golden. With rice, these quantities make a main course for 4, or a side dish for 8.
Sichuan dry-fried green beans (gan bian si ji dou)
Green beans blistered in a dry wok, then stir-fried with crispy pork mince, ya cai, dried chillies and Sichuan pepper.
For 3 or 4 people, use a 32cm wok and blister the beans in two batches. In a single layer, they touch the metal and wrinkle; piled up, they steam and stay soft.
Ingredients
For the beans
To stir-fry
To serve
Equipment
- 32cm carbon steel or cast iron wok
- Wok spatula or wooden spatula
- Mixing bowl
- Clean tea towel
- Saucepan or rice cooker
- Small bowl
Method
Start the rice
Rinse 300g jasmine rice until the water runs almost clear, then put it on to cook. Once it's done, it can wait off the heat with the lid on until the beans are ready.
Prepare the beans
Wash the beans, trim the stalk ends and dry them carefully in a clean tea towel: any water left on them makes them boil instead of blister. Leave them whole, or cut the longest ones in half. In a mixing bowl, toss them by hand with 2 tbsp oil and ½ tsp salt until every bean is shiny.
Prepare the aromatics
Finely chop the garlic and the peeled ginger. Cut the chillies into 2cm pieces and shake them to knock out some of the seeds: the dish will be less hot. Chop the ya cai if it comes in large pieces. In a small bowl, mix 2 tsp light soy sauce with 1 tsp dark soy sauce.
Blister the beans
Heat the wok over a medium-high heat, without adding any oil. Blister the beans in 2 batches: spread out a single layer, leave them for 1 minute without touching them, then stir every minute. Allow 10 to 12 minutes per batch, depending on your hob and the size of the beans. They're ready when the skin is wrinkled and marked with brown spots, and a bean bends without snapping. Set each batch aside on a plate.
Flavour the oil
Turn the heat down to medium. Pour 1 tbsp oil into the wok, add 1 ½ tsp Sichuan peppercorns and stir for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the chillies and give them another 20 to 30 seconds: they should darken slightly without turning black. Burnt chillies make the dish acrid.
Stir-fry the pork
Turn the heat up to high and add 150g pork mince. Press it with the spatula to break it up, then stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes. First it releases its water and turns pale: keep going until the bottom of the wok is dry and the meat sizzles, golden and a little crisp in places. Then pour 2 tsp Shaoxing wine down the side of the wok: it hisses and evaporates in a few seconds.
Garlic, ginger and ya cai
Add the garlic, the ginger and 30g ya cai. Stir-fry for 1 minute, until the garlic turns golden without browning. Pour in the bowl of soy sauces and stir: the meat turns dark brown.
Return the beans and serve
Put the beans back in the wok and stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes over a high heat, scraping the bottom so the bits of pork cling to them. Taste before adding salt: the ya cai and soy sauce already season the dish. Serve straight away with the rice, leaving the chillies at the side of the plate.
Wok tips
- Wet or crowded beans steam: they stay bright green and soft, without a single blister. If they sizzle as soon as they touch the metal, the heat is right; if they release liquid into the bottom of the wok, the batch is too big.
- On induction, only the base of the wok heats up. Use a flat-bottomed induction wok, set the hob to medium-high rather than full power, and keep moving the beans from the sides to the centre.
- Sichuan pepper and chillies burn within seconds in a wok that has just cooked the beans. Turn the heat down before adding the oil and keep the pork within reach: it brings the temperature down as soon as it hits the metal.
- Beans blistered in a dry wok stick to a new or poorly seasoned one. A well-seasoned carbon steel or cast iron wok lets them slide; if yours sticks, season it again before you start.
Variations
- Deep-fried, as in restaurants: heat 500ml neutral oil in a wok that sits steady on the hob, to about 180°C (a wooden chopstick dipped in it gets covered in small bubbles). Fry the beans, dried but not oiled, in two batches for 1 to 2 minutes, until they wrinkle. Drain them, pour the oil into a heatproof container, leaving just 1 tablespoon in the wok, then go to step 5 without adding more oil. Strained once cool, the oil can be used again for another savoury fry.
- In the oven or air fryer: spread the oiled, salted beans on one or two baking trays without overlapping, and roast them for 12 to 15 minutes at 220°C (200°C fan), until blistered and charred in places. In an air fryer preheated for 3 minutes at 200°C, cook them in small batches for 6 to 8 minutes, shaking the basket twice. Then carry on from step 5.
- Plant-based: replace the pork with 6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked for 30 minutes in hot water, squeezed well and finely chopped. Stir-fry them like the pork, until dry and golden. The rest of the recipe contains no animal products.
- No ya cai: use the same amount of very finely chopped zha cai (pickled mustard stem in brine), or gan lan cai (Chinese olives and mustard leaves preserved in oil), and taste before adding salt. No dark soy sauce: an extra teaspoon of light soy sauce and a pinch of sugar, for a paler colour. No Shaoxing wine: dry sherry, in the same amount.
Storage
Keeps for two days in the fridge in an airtight container. Reheat the beans for 2 to 3 minutes in a dry wok over a high heat: they get back some of their wrinkled skin, whereas the microwave makes them soft. Keep the rice separate.
The Tekari Cast Iron Wok
Uncoated cast iron, Ø 32cm, all hobs including induction
Frequently asked questions
Can I use frozen green beans?
Yes. Let them thaw spread out on a tea towel, then pat them dry: the water from thawing stops them blistering. They've already been blanched, so they're more tender and blister a little faster: keep an eye on them from 8 minutes.
Can I make this with yard-long beans?
Yes. These very long beans, sold in bunches in Asian supermarkets, are prepared the same way: cut them into 8cm lengths. They're thinner than ordinary green beans, so they blister faster.
How do I make Sichuan green beans less spicy?
Most of the heat comes from the chilli seeds. Use 3 or 4 chillies, keep them whole instead of cutting them, and don't eat them: they're there to flavour the oil. Sichuan pepper isn't hot, it tingles and numbs your lips; if it's new to you, use half as much.
Where can I buy ya cai?
In Asian supermarkets, in small packets labelled Yibin Ya Cai or Sui Mi Ya Cai. It's salted mustard stems, preserved with brown sugar and then finely chopped, a speciality of the city of Yibin, in Sichuan. Once opened, a packet keeps well sealed in the fridge.
