Szechuan Green Beans

This is pretty quick, and works well teamed with your Shanghai-style Poached Chicken. And you can prepare most of it in advance, and cook quickly at the last minute before serving.

Equipment:

• Chopping board
• Knife
• Small bowl
• Wok
• Colander
• Stirrer
• Spoon measures

Ingredients:

• 500g green beans - the original one called for Chinese longbeans, but green beans work well.
• 1 tablespoon of chopped garlic - you can use fresh, but from a jar is fine
• 1 tablespoon of chopped ginger - again, fresh is good, but from the jar is ok.
• 1/2 teaspoon of chilli paste
• 2 spring onions (scallions) - just the white parts
• 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 pinch of pepper
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil for frying

Method:

• Wash the beans, drain, and trim the tops and bottoms off. (If you are preparing this in advance, put them in a bowl with cold water, cover with glad wrap, and stick in the fridge until you want to cook them)
• Chop up and combine the garlic, ginger and scallions, and put aside in your bowl. (Again you can stick this in your fridge after you cover it until you are ready to cook.)
• Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in the wok
• Add the beans to your wok and stir fry until they brown - thats about 5 minutes
• Remove the beans and drain in your colander.
• Heat the rest of the oil in the wok, and add the chilli paste and stir fry for a few seconds, add the garlic, ginger, spring onions, dark soy, sugar, salt and pepper.
• Throw in your drained green beans, mix through quickly, and serve.