Squid with Green String Beans, Carrots and Red Bell Pepper

Hello everyone! Today I’m gonna introduce to you a dish that almost all children in China love – Squid with Green String Beans. I don’t know why but it seems that squid and octopus is especially popular among  children in China, or at least in my city. I guess it’s because they are chewy and without bones, unlike other kinds of fish. Also, I don’t think they smell as fishy as other fishes if you cook them in the right way.

The other main ingredient I used this time is the green string beans, also called snap beans. They are quite popular in Chinese dishes such as string beens with minced pork or dry fried string beans.

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Today I’m gonna combine these two ingredients I mentioned above together with carrots and red bell pepper to cook an appetizing dish for you to have with rice, bread or other staple food. First of all, let’s have a look at what ingredients we should have.

Ingredients

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  1. Green string beans (750g) (after getting rid of two ends, the parts that we eat should be 500-550g)
  2. Squid rings or strips (300-400g)
  3. Carrots (4)
  4. Red bell pepper (1) (you can also use other colors but red looks nicer with green beans)
  5. “Lao Gan Ma” Chili oil (20g) (or less if you think it’s too spicy
  6. Chili (5g) (the cooked dish is actually not spicy by the end, if you like spicy food, add more chili)
  7. Sunflower oil (25-30g)
  8. Cooking wine (15g) (to reduce the fishy smell)
  9. Ginger (5g) (cut into big pieces)
  10. Garlic (5 cloves) (cut into half)
  11. Salt (10g)
  12. Soy sauce (15-20g, depending on how salty you want the dish to be) (actually, if you add soy sauce, the taste of the dish will be mixed with the flavor with soy sauce. If you want more the original flavors of squid and green beans, I suggest you not add soy sauce but another 8-10g of salt) (you can always try to decide whether to add more salt or not)

Preparation of the ingredients

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Green string beans:

  1. First of all, you need to wash them, then you should get rid of the two ends. (The two ends taste bad. I usually just use hands to break a little bit of the two ends and then break the whole bean into half if it’s too long. You can also use a knife to cut them altogether. It might save some time but I always wash them one by one, get rid of the bad parts and two ends and then use them.)
  2. Boil a pot of water, add 5g salt and pour the cut green beans in when the water is boiling and boil them for 4-5 mins. Take the green beans out and use a filter to filter out the hot water. Put the boiled green beans into cold water so they don’t get soft. Dry them after they cool down.

Squid:

  1. If you bought squid rings, I suggest it’s better to cut them into halves or even smaller pieces so it’s easier to eat when the dish is finished.
  2. If the squid you bought is raw, do the following procedure, otherwise you just need to defrost the frozen cooked squid. Boil a pot of water, put 5g salt and pour the cut squid in when the water is boiling and boil them for 3 mins. Take them out and use a filter to filter out the hot water. Put the boiled squid into cold water so they stay tender. Dry them after they cool down.

Cut the carrots and red bell pepper into small pieces and now all the ingredients are ready to use.

Cooking!

  1. Put the sunflower oil and chili oil in.
  2. When the oil mixture starts sizzling, add chili pepper, garlic and ginger.
  3. After around 2-3 mins, add carrots.
  4. When the ginger and garlic pieces turn brown, pick them out and throw them away. (That’s why I said you should cut them into not too small pieces.)
  5. When the carrots turn a little bit soft, add squid, green beans, cooking wine, 15g soy sauce and 5g salt (or 15g salt without soy sauce if you want more the original flavors of squid and green beans not affected by sou sauce)
  6. Mix them well and fry for around 5 mins and then add red bell pepper pieces.
  7. Fry again for around 3 mins till the sauce get sticky (not as liquidish as water) and that means the dish is finished)

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I usually have it with rice, but for you, you can definitely choose your own staple food such as bread or potatoes. It totally depends on you how spicy you want it to be. According to my recipe and the amount of ingredients, it’s not spicy, but you can add more chilis if you want.

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Bon appetite!

Squid with Green String Beans, Carrots and Red Bell Pepper was last modified: October 17th, 2016 by Dong

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