Szechuan Rice and Beans

Better photo coming next time.

I saw this video on Yeung Man Cooking for rice and black beans, Chinese style, and I was intrigued because I've never had such a thing. I had most of the ingredients, or at least suitable substitutions for the ingredients, with the exception of the doubanjiang. Now I have a jar of that, so more Szechuan-style recipes may be in my future.

My changes to the original recipe: I used jalapenos instead of the fresno pepper, I used green beans instead of the oyster mushrooms (but mushrooms would be good, and I really want to try it with eggplant this summer), I used regular soy sauce instead of the dark soy sauce, and I used avocado oil with sliced thai chilies instead of chili oil. I may get some chili oil in the future, because I imagine that that would give it a different flavor. I added a splash of chinese cooking wine because I felt like it needed a tiny bit of sweetness and acidity, which I think was a good move. I also doubled the recipe, more or less.

The Recipe:

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch ginger, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 jalapeno peppers or fresno peppers, seeds removed and minced

vegetable of choice (oyster mushrooms? eggplant? green beans)?, chopped

6 green onions, chopped

1 cup dried black beans, soaked and cooked (or 2 cans, drained and rinsed)

4 tb chili oil (or avocado oil plus minced chilies)

4 tb doubanjiang

4 tsp soy sauce

1 tb chinese cooking wine

2 c vegetable stock

2 tb corn starch + 3 tb water, mixed into a slurry

jasmine rice, for serving

toasted sesame seeds, for serving

Heat the chili oil (or the oil and chilies) over medium heat
Add the onions and pepper, and saute for 5-6 minutes
Add doubanjiang and stir
Add black beans, soy sauce, and cooking wine, and stir
Add vegetable stock and corn starch+water slurry. Cook, stirring, until thickened.
Mix in half of the green onions
Serve with rice, with extra green onions and sesame seeds on top

The Verdict:

Overall grade: A

Overall reason: Healthy and delicious, and uses largely pantry ingredients

Time to prepare: 30 minutes, plus cooking the beans

Husband quote: "I heard you like beans so we put beans in your beans so you can eat beans while you eat beans."

Comments

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