What's up everyone?
Today we're making
Stir Fried Green Beans
My name is Randy
And we are the Laus
We're on a mission to celebrate
And pass down our Chinese heritage
One meal at a time
After 50 amazing years as a Chinese chef
My dad's finally retired
And he's here to teach you all of his secrets
To make the perfect Stir Fried Green Beans
A dish he's made thousands of times
Hello, friends! I hope you’re doing well!
Nice to see you again!
Today we're going to learn how to make Stir Fried Green Beans
The method is to cook the beans in boiling water
Along with oil and salt before stir frying
We're not deep frying, like how restaurants do it
For this recipe, we'll be using about 1 lb of green beans
Which pales in comparison to the
27M tons of green beans consumed every year
Interestingly, while China produces
Around 75% of the world's green beans today
They are said to have originated
In Central and South America thousands of years ago
Only in the past several hundred years did green beans
Become a staple of the typical Chinese diet
Following the explosion of international maritime trade in the 1500s
These are often called string beans, because long ago
They used to have a thick, fibrous string
That ran along the seam of the pod
Nowadays, through plant-breeding
This thick string mostly no longer exists
Not to be confused with long beans or asparagus beans
Which are about 1.5 feet in length and also common in Chinese cuisine
My parents prefer the common green bean, or sei gwai dáu in Cantonese
Which are about 4-6 inches in length
First, let's start by cutting the green beans
I've already prepared these ones
Let me show you how to cut them
First, cut both the top and bottom parts of the beans
Then, we just have to cut the beans in half
Wash the beans after cutting them
Okay, there's 2 people asking about the type of green beans
Can you use American green beans?
It shouldn't be an issue, but there are many types of beans
These are green beans
These ones are available all year long
Long bean is “chèuhng dauh”
So you're not supposed to use the long ones for this one?
We don't cook long beans the same way
It's not as crunchy as these green beans
How long are long beans?
This long
They're also known as yardlong beans
Very slim and hard
Yeah
Now, we'll prepare the other ingredients
Red bell pepper, we just need half
Cut it into thin slices
To save time, as we chop the vegetables
You can start bringing a pot of water to a boil
Also, we have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
Along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
To guide you as you make the recipe at home
These are seafood mushrooms
We'll be using half a pack, about 2 oz
Cut the roots from the bottom of the seafood mushroom
For the long ones, just cut those in half
Rinse and wash it
Next, prepare 3 garlic cloves
Cut them into slices
We'll use 2 small dried red chilis, cut in half
Next, we'll briefly cook our green beans in our boiling water
Once our pot is boiling, we'll add 1 tsp oil and 1 tsp salt
Any type of oil works here
Add the green beans and cover the pot
Once the pot comes to a boil again
We'll drain the beans with a colander
When you blanch it, do you need to dry it off?
Does it need to be super dry before you stir fry it?
No, you just drain it
It's done once the water starts boiling
This is to ensure the beans retains it's greenness
Adding salt and oil to the water while cooking
Helps the green beans retain their color
This whole process is really similar to blanching
Minus the part where you'd plunge the vegetables in an ice bath
Or cold water to slow down the cooking process
This is also similar to how Chinese restaurants
Deep fry their green beans
A lot of you asked about this, but deep frying is typically
How you get that signature wrinkly outer layer
My dad explained that in his restaurants
He'd have a 5 gallon pot of extremely hot oil running all day
And whenever a customer ordered green beans
He'd fry them for 5-10 seconds, rinse off some of the oil with water
Then, stir fry them in sauce
The whole process only took about 2-3 minutes
At home, it takes a little longer
But he prefers boiling them because it's much healthier
And still results in that perfect crunchy texture that we're going for
I'm pretty sure my dad knows dozens of green bean recipes
Including the deep-fried method
So let us know in the comments
If you'd like to see more green bean recipes from us
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
Wonderful Patreon supporters to help bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
Head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
Now, we'll get ready to stir fry the beans
Let's heat the wok first
We'll set the stove on high heat
And let the wok heat for a few minutes
While we wait, we'll mix a small amount of cornstarch slurry
With 1/2 tsp cornstarch and 1/2 tbsp water
Then, we'll add 2 tbsp corn oil
And let that heat up until the oil is shimmering, or forming ripples
Once the oil is hot enough
We'll start by cooking the garlic slices and chilies for 20-30 seconds
Stirring constantly
Okay, let's add in the green beans
We'll let the green beans cook for about 1-2 minutes
Stir fry it slowly
Next, we'll add our flavors with 1 tbsp ground bean sauce
1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, and optionally 1/2 tsp chicken bouillon
We'll stir and cook for another 1-2 minutes
For the ground bean sauce, it might get confusing since
There are a few different types of Asian bean sauces out there.
In Cantonese, we call it “mihn sih jeung”,
But most brands call it “Ground Bean Sauce” in English.
This sauce is made with ground up fermented
Yellow soybeans, and is packed with umami flavors.
We have a link to buy the exact sauce
My dad uses in our description
All the seasonings have been added
Now, we'll add the bell peppers, the seafood mushrooms
Stir frying them all for 1 minute
Next, we'll re-stir our cornstarch slurry and pour it into the wok
Stir it around and cook for about 1 additional minute
The issue is that
Because the beans themselves have little flavor
After we add the salt, the green beans will release some water
The cornstarch slurry helps the beans absorb the sauce more easily
Cooking beans this way is more delicious
Come have a try
Is it good?
Uh-huh
It's really crunchy
Done, it's ready to be served!
Great!
Great! The stir-fried green beans are done!
Let's eat!
King Cam!
Hong Doy, time to eat!
Okay, let's eat
Cheers!
-Cheers, Cammy -Green beans
♪Laughter♪
-Okay -Let's see
-It smells so good -Crunchy
Is it good?
Uh huh
We have green beans every week
For vegetable every week
-The mushrooms taste delicious
Green beans, I think are our favorite veggie too
We have them all the time
Perfect
What is this dish called?
These are fried noodles
For these fried noodles, there are rice noodles and green bean vermicelli
The word yūn yēung also means affectionate couple in Chinese
Oh!
It's actually a kind of bird
They spend most of the time by the water, at the lake
The ones that are in pairs are mandarin ducks
Hong Doy
When you're buying green beans at the store
How do you pick the best ones?
Choose the young ones, not the old
These beans are beautiful, this one is better than that one
This green bean is a little older
Older beans will have larger beans inside
Oh
So this one will be better than that one
He means the bean inside the pod
So let me break this bean to show you
This is the bean
And you can see the bean is there
But for all these
Yeah, the thinner one
For the thin ones, the bean is still inside but it's smaller
So these are the young ones
This one is a little older
The younger ones are easier to break
The older ones are harder to break
Oh, okay
So you need more strength to break it
For me, when I pick green beans
First, I look at the color
The color is so green, right?
Fresh, green
If they have brown spots, you don't like them, right?
The brown spot? Yeah, probably not
When you're actually at the store
Because you're getting a pound, right?
How do you quickly do this?
At the store, a lot of times, when we're buying green beans
We can't pick one by one, they come in a bag
If the color's good and there aren't many old beans inside
Then, I will pick that bag
-The young one is the best -Oh, okay
In Cantonese, it's called "nyuhn"
Cam Cam's age is young
And grandpa is old!
Grandpa is old but Hong Doy is young!
Somebody asked, can you use frozen green beans to make this dish?
Or do they need to be fresh?
It's all right, just defrost it
It may be softer because it was refrigerated
We never try but we think it should be okay
10 people? 10 people asked this in different ways
10 people asked this
What did they ask?
How do you make it the perfect texture?
Like tender, not overcooked, and crunchy
The best way to cook is to deep fry it
But we seldom do that for home cooking
It's guaranteed to be very crunchy if we deep fry
For home cooking, add water, oil, and salt to a pot
And bring to a boil at high heat
Put in the beans when the water boils
Just scoop the beans out when the water boils again
Then it'll be the same as this
Why should we add salt and oil?
The salt and oil helps to retain the color of the beans
If it's too mushy, does that mean that they boiled it too long?
And if it's too crunchy, does it mean they didn't boil it long enough?
Yes, if it's hard then it's not cooked long enough
But it'll become soft if cooked for too long
Another issue - it depends on whether
The beans you're using are old or young
If they are young, as beautiful as the ones we’re using here
Add the beans to the boiled water
You can scoop it up once it boils again
It'll be crunchy if it's cooked this way
But if the beans you bought are old/not so good
You'll need to cook longer, you know?
Is it possible to cook with black bean sauce?
Yes. You like it, right？
Yeah, I love black bean sauce
Have we ever cooked that for her?
Yes, all the time!
Yeah, we’ve cooked that for you but I don't remember (laughs)
Is the method the same as this one?
There's really no difference
Just the sauce is different
The cooking method is the same
For this dish, we used ground bean sauce
You can use black bean sauce instead
Okay
It's easy
You have different options
Yeah, I think I've had this like 10 different ways
20, 30 different ways
How long do you have to deep fry it when cooking in a restaurant?
It's quick, just a few seconds will do
After that, we'll rinse it in water to remove excess oil from the beans
So it won’t be as greasy when we stir fry it later
Then, in another wok, we'll cook other ingredients like chicken
Just add in the beans and stir fry it for a while, then it's done
It doesn't take long to cook the dish
For the restaurant business, you need to have a dedicated oil pot
Because there are a lot of orders coming in
You need to finish cooking a dish in a few minutes
That is really fast
Daddy's hands work like a machine
No time to talk to someone else
Just cooking non-stop - really, really fast
I cannot imagine being a cook, working so hard
Yeah, so many hours
So, a lot of immigrants
The first generation worked in a restaurant
Because they have no choice, right?
They don't have any background
This is the only skill they have to survive
To raise their family and kids
For the second generation, nobody wants to work in a restaurant anymore
It's hard work
All of my family
The first generation works in a restaurant, but not the second generation
Since kids were born here and got an education here
They have other skills to survive
No one chooses to work in a restaurant anymore
You don't know the hard work behind a dish
Even if you pay for the dish
It comes from a lot of hard work from the chef
Where are you going, Hong Doy?
So crazy
He just doesn't want to be seated
Uh-huh
What was your first memory (of green beans)?
First memory… just life in China
♪Laughter♪
Here, we never have to worry about food
When you open the refrigerator, there’s so much food
When you go to the market, there’s so much food there
When I see green beans, cabbage, bok choy
I will always remember my younger days
Always remember the days when I lived in poverty
For me, green beans will always be my childhood vegetable
So did you learn to cook it in many different ways?
Or do you eat it a lot of times the same way?
A lot of times, I use ground bean sauce/black bean sauce to cook
I like to put more garlic
I like to put garlic in a dish, I love garlic
Come, let grandma hug you
No, don't want grandma to hold
♪Laughter♪
Grandma has nothing to play with over there
Come here, I'll play with you
Boo
♪Laughter♪
So cute
Boo
Daddy's silly, huh?!
Hello to all of our friends and audience!