Dry-Fried Green Beans (干煸四季豆)

Gather and prepare all the ingredients. Trim the two ends of each green bean along with any tough fibers. Break the longer ones into two. Use a paper towel to completely dry all the water on the surface of green beans (do not skip this step as water will make frying green beans dangerous).

Heat the ¼ cup vegetable oil in a large wok or a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is getting hot (about 50% heated through), add the green beans. Gently stir and toss until the surface of the green beans become translucent and wrinkly (about 3-5 min). Transfer all the green beans to a plate (be careful not to over fry).

Pour out most of the vegetable oil leaving one tablespoon. Maintain a medium-high heat. Add the ground pork (optional), 1 tablespoon chopped dry chili pepper (optional), 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, and 1 tablespoon finely chopped scallion. Stir and toss immediately to make sure nothing sticks to the pan.

When the ground pork starts changing color from pink to white, add the 1 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine2 and mix well (if skipping ground pork, skip this step and proceed to step 5).

dd back the previously fried green beans and the rest of the condiments: 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, and ½ teaspoon black vinegar. Immediately toss and stir for a minute or two to evenly mix everything. Pour everything onto a plate.