Stir-fried Runner Beans

With fermented shrimp paste

MALAYSIA / INDONESIA / VIETNAM

This is a variation on sambal fried vegetables that I threw together on a day I ran out of the all-important chilli paste (see here). I tossed the two key ingredients in that paste into the wok: chilli and fermented shrimp paste. The latter adds a perfect contrast of salty, funky flavour to the naturally sweet and crisp beans. This is one of those things that is ready in less than 5 minutes but tastes ridiculously good.

Serves 2–4

• 200g runner beans
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 bird’s-eye chillies
• 1 tablespoon groundnut oil
• 2 teaspoons fermented shrimp paste

1. Wash the runner beans, dry well, and slice diagonally into strips. Finely chop the garlic and chillies.
2. Heat a wok until smoking hot, then add the groundnut oil. Once it’s hot, add the garlic and fermented shrimp paste and stir-fry until fragrant – it will only take a few seconds.
3. Push the garlic to the side of the wok, then add the runner beans and stir-fry on a high heat for about 2 minutes, until they turn bright green but are still crisp. Add the chillies and give everything a final toss together.
4. Eat straight away, with plain rice.

Note: You can also do this with French beans. Simply trim and halve into finger-length pieces.