SICHUAN-STYLE GREEN BEANS

Garlic, Ginger and Chilli: The Holy Trinity of Chinese Cooking

"Healthy Chinese food, is that a thing?" you ask. Yes it can be! Contrary to popular belief, traditional Chinese cuisine is fresh, well-balanced and nutritious, bursting with colourful vegetables, abundant in aromatic and detoxifying spices and you will find bone broth at the core of many Chinese recipes. Indeed, very far removed from the MSG-laden, hydrogenated oil-dripping, sugar-filled food that masquerades as Chinese food in most of the Western world (sadly). 

I am on a mission to "rebrand" Chinese food as the light, fresh, vegetable-intensive and fragrant cuisine that it can be when made with natural and whole ingredients at home: no processed sauces, no corn starch, no MSG (obviously) and instead of soy sauce, I use tamari so it's ALL 100% gluten-free! 

This simple Sichuan green bean recipe is so easy, it will no doubt become a regular quick dinner staple for you too, as it takes less than 10 minutes to throw together. Garlic, ginger and chilli, which I often refer to as the holy Trinity of Chinese cuisine makes these beans sing an opera in your mouth. Apart from being utterly scrumptious and satisfying, these spices are profoundly healing on the body too. Chilli and ginger both have strong anti-inflammatory properties and are known for reducing appetite and boosting the immune system.

To transform this divine little side dish into a complete and balanced meal, I simply threw an organic egg in the pan with the beans and blanched some soba noodles to make this delightful and colourful 10-minute dish: Sichuan Green Beans on a bed of soba noodles and runny organic egg. Et voilà! Stay tuned for lots more healthy Chinese cooking inspiration over the next few weeks as we gear up for Chinese New Year! 

One of the best things about being a hybrid model of French-Chinese origin is that you get to celebrate more holidays than a pure breed, especially at this time of year. I get the whole run up to Christmas, New Year's, La Fête des Rois and then to top it all off Chinese New Year! So celebrating for my family begins early December and ends some time in February depending on that year's lunar cycle. I always loved this ongoing string of celebrations growing up, but I love it even more now that I live in a cold country which advocates a sort of self-imposed yet false abstemiousness (in the month of January only) and preposterous marketing campaigns like the 26th January being labelled as the most depressing day of the year as a ploy to get people buying more stuff. If one were to actually listen to mainstream media in January, it's not the most upbeat or life-affirming messages. So ignore all of that and join me in celebrating good times, good food, good health, joy and prosperity this Chinese New Year! 

This year we are celebrating the arrival of the more peaceful Yin Wood Sheep Year on Thursday 19th February, after an energetic and at times tumultuous Year of the Yang Wood Horse. For those of you in London, come and learn how to make an array of delicious and clean Chinese dishes (such as these beans) on Sunday 15th February at Goldfinger Factory so you can cook your own Chinese New Year feast on the actual day! There are a few tickets left, so if you'd like to join us, book here to reserve your space.

Peace and beans,

Bain-Marie

Sichuan Style Green Beans

Serves 2

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 400g green beans
• 1-2 small dried chillies
• 1 teaspoon whole Sichuan peppercorn
• 1 fresh red chilli, chopped
• 4 tablespoons of neutral olive oil (not virgin)
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 inch ginger, finely minced

Instructions:

1. Slice the end of the green beans, wash and drain.

2. Heat up a pan without oil and then put green beans into the pan for around 5 mins to remove a bit of moisture.

3. Add around 4 tablespoons of olive oil in the pan and continue to fry until the skin of the green beans starts to wrinkle. This process may take 8-10 minutes.

4. Retain around 1 tablespoon of oil in pan and discard the rest, add dried red pepper or chilli flakes, Sichuan peppercorn, garlic, ginger and chopped fresh chili to stir fry until the garlic and ginger go a lovely golden colour.

5. Return dry fried green beans and add sea salt. Mix well and serve!