Blistered beans cooked in oven grill are deliciously charred and incredibly tasty brushed with crisp chilli oil and oyster sauce.
Beans or peas?
My blistered beans are in fact sugar snap peas: the recipe is flexible in terms of what type of green beans you use. French beans, Italian yellow beans, purple beans, flat Helda beans, even runners, plus the peas with edible pods like sugar snaps and mangetout.
Out of this bean collection only runner beans might require blanching before grilling. All the other varieties are tender enough to soften within the ten minutes or so of grill exposure.
Dry fried beans
The inspiration for this recipe is a well-known Sichuan dish of dry fried green beans (Gan Bian Si Ji Dou), and Kenji Lopez-Alt’s version of it.
Chinese dry fried beans are in fact deep fried in a wokful of oil, to tenderise and beautifully blister them. They are then briefly stir-fried with spices and seasonings, quite commonly with added fried minced pork.
That’s how restaurants do it, but would you really want to replicate it at home? Deep frying is madly avoided as much as possible – hence the popularity of air fryers, which incidentally give you no semblance of the deep fry in my view.
And the good news is that you can cook dry fried beans with next to no oil, no wok and no air fryer. Simply use your oven grill.
Chilli crisp oil magic
The traditional, authentic seasoning for dry fried beans usually involves garlic, ginger, Chinese pickles and heat in the shape of Sichuan pepper, chillies or both.
My version is easy, simple and magic thanks to the ingredient I discovered not so long ago and haven’t stopped using since: crisp chilli oil. It is not just oil infused with chilli heat but a thick, chunky sauce predominantly consisting of ‘bits’ and spoonable rather than pourable.
The ‘bits’ are crispy, crunchy and to die for. They are not, as you might immediately think on tasting, peanuts but precisely what it says on the tin: chilli crisps, plus some soya bean chunks.
You can make crisp chilli oil (aka chilli crisp as opposed to infused oil) at home, following a simplified or full-on recipe but in this instance I recommend trusting the professionals. Definitely the best, and available from online suppliers is Lao Gan Ma. But the Lee Kum Kee Chiu Chow oil is perfectly respectable too and available from supermarkets.
How else to use crispy chilli oil?
Once you’ve got hooked, there’s a chance you’ll be putting crisp chilli oil on everything including vanilla ice cream. That’s right: apparently it’s the sublime experience of hei an liao li – Chinese concept of unusual flavour combinations known as ‘dark cuisine’.
But in the realm of well-lit cuisine, it’s an indispensable condiment for stir fries, noodles and ramen. Never again a bland Asian dish: crisp chilli oil will enliven the drabbest. Spoon it over plain rice and you get a marvellous dish.
You can beat it into softened butter for a novel toast experience. It will go on baked potato, plain vegetables, roast meats, fish and tofu adding zhuzh to whatever it hits. See? I told you I can’t stop using it.
How to blister the beans
Back to our beans or sugar snaps now: it’s such a simple recipe it’s almost embarrassing. Spread the beans on a baking tray and toss lightly with oil that has a high smoking point, so groundnut rather than olive.
Season with salt and white pepper (or black if it’s all you have) and slip close under red hot preheated grill. They will take about ten minutes bar a shake or two of the tray halfway through, and are ready when nicely blistered all over and lightly charred.
And because I’m using ready-made sauces to flavour the beans, there’s no need for another pan. Just fold the chilli crisp oil and oyster sauce through them, and serve straight away.
More pea and bean recipes
Bulgur wheat salad with spicy chorizo and vibrant green runner beans. Lunch or dinner, just add a dollop of yoghurt, fresh mint and dill for a perfect Middle Eastern – Spanish fusion.
The best way to cook runner beans is to blanch them for 5 minutes, until just tender with a bite, then toss in butter and parmesan. Runner beans can be used in a salad or as a side with a main course; and this is the easiest recipe for runner beans.
Sugar snap peas with crispy spring onions and fragrant extra virgin olive oil are crunchy, bursting with flavour and delicious enough to be eaten on their own. But they also make a great summery side dish.
More chilli flavoured recipes
Cream cheese and Cheddar stuffed jalapeño peppers, baked in the oven for a delicious snack or appetiser. Much healthier than deep fried jalapeño poppers but none the less tasty.
Asparagus from a wok, stir fried with chillies, garlic and ginger – that vegetable can take the heat!
Spicy shell on prawns cooked with garlic, lemon and sriracha. Serve with some crusty freshly baked, a green salad and your lunch or supper is sorted.