Garlic green beans is a popular side dish at Din Tai Fung restaurant in LA.  TastingTable.com made a copycat recipe from which this posting is adapted.  Quantities below are for 2 persons.  This is a quick dish.  Like many Chinese dishes, everything should be prepped and lined up before cooking starts since the actual cooking takes only a few minutes.

The beans are briefly deep fried, which is something I seldom do, both because I think deep frying is fattening and because I don’t feel comfortable using and throwing away large amounts of oil, even though the cost is minimal.  Regarding the first objection, the beans don’t really absorb much oil, and the final product was not at all oily.  Regarding the second objection, I made these green beans for the same meal in which I made Mongolian Beef, which is also deep fried, and I reused the oil from the beef for the green beans, which worked well.

½ pound green beans

Neutral oil for frying

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/8 tsp chicken or mushroom bouillon powder (I used mushroom powder from Trader Joe’s)

¼ tsp. salt

Wash the green beans and dry them with paper towels.  Trim the green beans and cut them in half.

In a large skillet or similar pan (I used the top of a Lodge combo cooker) pour about ¾ inch of oil and heat over medium-high heat to about 360 degrees.  At this temperature, a little test piece of green bean will float and sizzle vigorously.

Add half of the green beans and fry for 1-2 minutes until the skin wrinkles.  Remove the cooked green beans with a slotted spoon to a large bowl lined with paper towels.  Repeat with the other half of the green beans.

Transfer about 1 Tbs. of the oil to a small skillet and fry the garlic for 30-60 seconds until lightly golden.

Remove the paper towels from the bowl containing the cooked green beans. Add the fried garlic, bouillon powder and salt to the bowl.  Toss to mix well and serve immediately.