Just to keep my promise two weeks ago, I am introducing a vegetable dish. (Of course, I usually add some pork or beef in it, so if you are not vegetarian, you are more than welcome to do that.) But, if you are vegetarian, the dish will need some string beans and some preserved vegetables. The sting beans look long and mellow at the same time.
Dry frying is a common way to cook a Sichuan dish. It requires an intense fry first, and then a relatively light fry. It will add a dry texture to food because of the intense fry, which will make the food kind of crispy, and a heavy taste (because the water in food is partly gone, the flavor will seem more obvious).
Another thing I want to mention is the preserved vegetables. It’s usually up to you what kind of vegetables you use. You can purchase preserved cabbage, or fern and others to make this dish. It’s salty and a little sour. The color of the vegetable should be a little darker than fresh, like swamp green or fern green, or between.
Then the beaf or pork, it should be chopped to very small slices, just like the meat I added in the Mapo Tofu dish. You can purchase already-minced meat at Walmart or Hyvee too.
I made this a few weeks ago. Added a little hot bean paste to enhance the flavor. September 2012.
Step-by-step:
1. prepare some string beans, some preserved cabbage or so, chopped beaf or pork (optional), chopped ginger, chopped garlic, dry red pepper, soy sauce, salt, cooking wine.
2. Get rid the edges of string beans. You should be able to tear the hard edges along the beans. Wash the beans and drain.
(2′) Prepare chopped meat, if you want some.
3. Boil some oil. (A lot, deep enough to cover all the beans). When it starts to show some little bubbles, pour in the beans. Fry it until there is drape on the beans. Drain them again.
4. Fry some oil again (feel free to reuse some of the oil in step 3), add garlic, ginger and dry red pepper in the pot. Then add the chopped meat in it and mix up. Remember to add some cooking wine because it can help get rid of the weird taste in meat.
5. Add preserved vegetables in it and also the fried beans. Add some soy sauce and salt.
YEAH DONE. Easy, right?
Sichuan Dishes, and More. 