Green Beans Galore

This morning I headed out to a friend's family's small farm in Michigan.  Thanks to their generosity, another gal and I each came back with two buckets full of green beans after about an hour and a half of work.  This afternoon I've been blanching and freezing them.  One thing I like to do with fresh beans is to make Szechuan Green Beans like they serve at J. W. Chen's (see the previous post).  I actually didn't remember the name of the dish when I tried to replicate it, but it turns out that what I did is pretty similar to recipes online.  You'll also find my attempt at their Honey Chicken later in this post.

Green Beans à la Mrs. Chen's

• 12 oz. fresh green beans (there's no good reason for that quantity, it's simply the amount I happened to get from CSA last week)
• 1-2 T sesame oil
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tsp. fresh ginger
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. sherry
• 1/4 tsp. sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Heat oil in saucepan on medium-high. Add garlic and ginger and sauté for one minute. Add green beans and cook, stirring frequently, until they are dark green and crisp-tender.  Stir in remaining ingredients and continue to heat for a minute or two.

Honey Chicken à la Mrs. Chen's 

For this, I started with an online recipe but made some major adjustments.  The sauce would easily work with stir-fried chicken instead of batter-fried.

• 1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken, cut into 1" pieces
• oil for deep frying

Batter:

• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup water

Sauce (some of the amounts are approximate; I was unaware of exactly how much I added of various things):

• 1 1/2 T. oil
• 1 T. ginger, minced
• 3 T. garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 c. honey
• 3/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 T. rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 T. cornstarch, mixed with 1 T. water

• Sesame seeds (to garnish)

1. Mix all ingredients for batter, cover, and let sit for 30 minutes.  Be ye not surprised, it will be fairly thin.

2. Heat oil to 350 degrees.  Coat chicken with batter and deep fry in batches until thoroughly cooked and golden.  Drain on paper towels.

3. To make sauce, saute ginger and garlic in the oil in a medium saucepan.  Mix in all remaining ingredients except cornstarch, stirring well.  Add cornstarch mixture and simmer until thick.

4. Coat chicken with sauce, and garnish with sesame seeds.  Accompany with rice.

Serves 4.