Sides and Salads Recipes - Dry-cooked Green Beans Recipe

Ingredients

• 175ml/3/4 cup sunflower oil

• 450g/1lb fresh green beans, topped, tailed and cut in half

• 5 x 1 cm/2 x 1/2in piece fresh root ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks

• 5ml/1 tsp sugar

• 10ml/2 tsp light soy sauce

• salt and ground black pepper

Serves 6

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Method:

1. Heat the oil in a wok. When the oil is just beginning to smoke, carefully add the beans and stir-fry them for 1-2 minutes until just tender.

2. Lift out the green beans on to a plate lined with kitchen paper. Using a ladle carefully remove all but 30ml/2 tbsp oil from the wok. The excess oil will play no further part in this recipe, so should be allowed to cool completely before being strained and bottled for future use.

3. Reheat the remaining oil in the wok, add the ginger and stir-fry for a minute or two to flavor the oil.

4. Return the green beans to the wok, stir in the sugar, soy sauce and salt and pepper, and toss together quickly to ensure the beans are well coated. Tip the beans into a heated bowl and serve immediately.

A particular style of Sichuan cooking is to "dry cook", which basically means that no stock or water is involved. The slim green beans available all the year round from supermarkets are ideal for use in this quick and tasty recipe, but, as with all if these versatile vegetable dishes, there are worthy substitutes.

Variation: Fresh green beans are available for most of the year now, but this simple recipe works just as well with other more seasonal vegetables such as baby asparagus spears or okra.