Garlic Broad Beans
蒜香蚕豆
English: Garlic Broad Beans
Chinese: 红烧冬瓜
Pinyin: suan xiang can dou
Literal: Garlic-scented broad beans
This is similar to one of those gentle English recipes celebrating springtime produce, but the punch of garlic, the scent of Chinese wine and the sprinkle of sugar makes this decidedly Asian. Just like the UK, the most tender broad beans in Northern China are picked in spring, but you can still find them late into August, where they’ll be a bit plumper and chalkier and need a quick blanch before stir-frying.
Those older, bigger beans are probably better used to make a Beijing snack: xiangsu candou - deep-fried beans, salted and spiced with wu xiang (five spice). They become crunchy and packed with flavour (and protein), an addictive little snack.
Chinese cooking works magic with vegetables, sometimes throwing a potion of flavours at them, but at other times, leaving things alone. It might seem a bit heavy-handed with the garlic here, but the broad beans shine through and are still the star of the show.
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
600g broad beans
2 tablespoon oil
6-8 garlic cloves - finely chopped
4 spring onions - finely sliced
1 teaspoon sugar
1.5 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
½ teaspoon salt
Method
If the broad beans are young and fresh you can skip boiling, but if they are older and fatter then boil them in water for 2 minutes, or until just cooked.
Prepare your garlic and spring onions. Finely chop the garlic cloves, and then slice the spring onions, separating the white and green part.
Heat a wok over a low heat with 2 tablespoons of oil.
When hot, add the garlic and fry for about 30 seconds to 1 minute until fragrant. I tilt the wok so the oil pools and the garlic softens without burning.
Turn up the heat to medium, add in the broad beans and white part of the spring onions, and stir fry for a minute or so. Add the Shaoxing wine, the salt and sugar, and let the wine bubble away for another minute. Cook until the beans are tender (add in a tablespoon of water if it’s looking a bit dry).
Serve and sprinkle over the chopped green part of the onion.
