Gan Bian Si Ji Dou - My first crack at Chinese cooking

Since our arrival in Beijing, I've been continually suprised at how little convincing it's taken for my kids to try the local cuisine.  All of us have grown fondly attached to one particular Sichuan dish and we've been ordering it at restaurants all over town.  It's call Gan Bian Si Ji Dou (pronounced "gahn bien suh jee dough")and it's main ingredient is green beans, go figure! They are cooked using a method called "dry-frying", and it brings out a flavor that I think brings out the green bean's best features, and dry-frying is supposed to be the best cooking method for retaining a vegetables' vitamins and minerals.  It's the green bean reinvented!  It's tough for me to describe in words the flavor of this dish-It's crunchy, yet soft...well seasoned, yet easy on the kids' taste buds...healthy, yet satisfying.  The green bean doesn't have to be stuck on the Thanksgiving menu, casseroled with some soggy  french fried onions anymore (but don't get me wrong, Mommy loves those fried onions).

I just HAD to try my hand at this dish at home.  It took some convincing from everyone, particularly my husband.  At our local favorite reastaurant, this dish, which feeds all 4 of us, costs around 15 RMB (which is less than 3 bucks).  It is just so cheap and easy to eat out here, that you hardly get your money's worth buying the proper groceries and spending the time in the kitchen preparing it.  I kindly reminded him, though, that our time in China is called "In Country Training".  If I don't learn a thing or two from our time here than how will we be able to replicate it when we get home?  I still didn't have him convinced.  Not that I had completely sold myself either, for Chinese cooking is not my forte.  But I really enjoy the process of learning new recipes and shopping for new ingredients, so I pressed on.

My biggest obstacle was getting through the local market.  Here the closest thing we have to a local "supermarket" is called the Jinkelong-relatively small AND crowded with food and people.  The problem for me was everything at a local market labeled in characters.  But I went armed with some common sense for what ingredients I needed and what they looked like, and prayed I could find an english speaker if I ran into any problems.  I also had my first crack at using the iTunes Pleco App for my iPhone.  You can draw an unfamiliar character on the touchscreen or take a photo of it, and the App looks up its tranlation.  It was suprisingly not as tough as I thought to find everything I needed.  In fact, my biggest problem was mediating the boxing match my son decided to start with his sister.  It's a good thing Chinese people love kids, because mine seem to do no wrong in their eyes!  Still, I left the store a little frazzled but I was one step closer to Gan Bian heaven at dinner time.

Isabelle was a big help in cleaning the vegetables and sorting them into bowls as I chopped.  Hubby came home telling me it smelled like a true Chinese home, so I knew I was one the right track.

The Green Beans frying in a little oil

A few of the Other Ingredients: Soy Sauce, Sugar, Salt, Pepper, and finely chopped Garlic, Ginger, and Scallions

Some Sichuan Peppers-careful, a little goes a long way!

The Green Beans removed after frying.  Time to cook the Pork & Aromatics.

Cooked the finely sliced Pork and Garlic, Ginger, & Scallions

Dinner was a hit!  I served the Gan Bian Si Ji Dou over some brown rice, and Sonny brought home a cold dish of peanuts, carrots, and cucumbers to accompany.  I also bought some fresh kiwis and served that as a refreshing dessert, and come to find out my kids LOVE kiwis too (I have it pretty easy right now, my picky eaters have chanegd their ways).

The finished product, with one hungry girl!

I did a little research for different dry-fried green bean recipes, and I thought I'd post the one I used.  It's 1) a very simple version of the various recipes available online, and 2) most like what we get in restaurants here.  If you'd like to try it yourself to see just what the hype is about, follow the link here:  Gan Bian Si Ji Dou.  I have a few changes that are worth trying, as they were a hit for me!

1. I suggest you substitute whatever fresh green bean is in season and most local to your area for best results.  I used Chinese long beans, cut into 2 inch sections.
2. Also, this recipe called for chili paste, and instead I used 4 dried sichuan peppers, chopped.  They were readily available at our grocery store in a big package, and the sichuan peppers are more common in the dishes served here, so I stuck with what we are more used to seeing.  This is where you can also get creative, if you'd rather try Jalapeno peppers, dried new Mexico chiles, Texas chili powder.  If you do try a variation, let me know how it turns out.
3. I have a family of meat-eaters.  So a strictly vegetarian dish was not going to fly here.  I picked up about .2 Kilos, or 1/2 pound of pork cut into thin strips.  I added this and cooked thoroughly in the pan just before adding the aromatics (see recipe for after the beans are removed and before the aromatics are added)
4. It calls for peanut OR vegetable oil as your frying base.  I find peanut oil to be a little overpowering and heavy feeling, so I used vegetable oil and it was wonderfully light!  Try canola, vegetable, or even a very light olive oil if you're giving this a try.

I hope I've given some of you another dinner idea for this week!  It was so easy to make!  In fact, the rice took longer to cook than the grean beans.  The ingredients are so simple, and the dish is really worth trying especially now that the veggies are in season.  Please leave me a comment if you do try it and let me know how it turns out!  "Xie Xie" (Thank You) in advance!