Sichuan-style Dry Friend Green Beans Featuring Holy Duck Chili Oil

My Holy Duck Chili Oil arrived the other day and as luck would have it my Odd Bunch order included a pound of green beans. These are little flavour bombs and I ate the whole pound. Yes, yes I did, they were that good.

Note: this is not a vegetarian dish. The Chili Oil is made with duck fat but I suppose you could substitute the garlic chili crunch of your choice and get a similar dish.

Ingredients

• 1 lb, fresh beans, washed, trimmed and dried well.
• 1 Tbsp neutral oil (or you can use olive oil but watch for burning)
• 1 Tbsp OG Holy Duck Chili Oil
• 5 gloves garlic, minced
• 1″ of peeled fresh ginger, minced
• 1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp Shaoxing wine (you can sometimes find this in the Asian food section of your grocery store or find a local Asian grocery, it is useful for all kinds of Asian inspired recipes)
• 1/2 ground Sichuan peppercorns (I didn’t have any on hand but it worked out anyway)
• 100-200 g of minced pork (optional)

Method

1.  Wash and thoroughly dry the green beans to ensure they don’t spatter and blister properly rather than steam.
2. Mix the soy sauce, sugar and Shaoxing wine together in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Mince the garlic and ginger together and set aside.
4. Dry-Fry (blister) the beans by heating a wok or heavy skillet over high heat.* Add the tablespoon of oil and the green beans. Stir-fry for 5-7 minutes until the beans are tender-crisp and have a browned, shriveled appearance.**
5. Lower heat to medium. Move beans to the side, add the tablespoon of Holy Duck Chili Oil, garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for 1 minute until highly fragrant.***
6. Add the soy sauce, sugar, Shaoxing mixture and ground Sichuan peppercorns, if you’ve got them. Toss everything together, coating the beans mixture.
7. Remove from heat immediately to keep the beans crispy and serve as a side dish.

*Another option for blistering the beans (and another recipe) is this one from Serious Eats. I might try the broiling technique next time around.
**Don’t overcook! The beans should look “withered” but still hold a slight crunch.
***Holy Duck Chili Oil contains solid crispy bits (garlic/shallot), which will burn if cooked too long, so add during the last minute of cooking.

I served this over rice topped with a simple green onion and tomato omellette chopped into pieces ans drizzled with more Chili oil and I made some simple cucumber quick pickles for a sour, salty note and some crunch.