Dry-fried green beans

Source: Fuchsia Dunlop

Ingredients:

• 400g green beans
• cooking oil, for deep frying
• 3tbsp lard (optional)
• 75g minced pork (fatty is most delicious)
• 1/2tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 4,5tbsp finely chopped Yibin yacai or Tianjin preserved vegetable
• 2tsp light soy sauce
• 1tsp sesame oil

Method:

Destring the beans, if necessary, and top and tail them. Cut them into bite-sized lengths.

Heat the deep-frying oil to 180C (hot enough to sizzle vigorously around a test piece of bean). Add the beans and deep-fry until they are tender and a little wrinkled. Remove from the wok and drain well.

Carefully pour off all but 3tbsp oil from the work then return to high flame (if using lard, pour off all of the oil and heat the lard in the wok instead). Add the pork and stir-fry until cooked and fragrant, splashing in the Shaoxing wine as the meat becomes pale. Add the beans and toss them together. When the beans are piping hot again, add the preserved vegetable and soy sauce. You can add extra salt or soy sauce if you like, but you probably won't need to.

Off the heat, stir in the sesame oil and serve.