Happy New Year to all our Members and Friends of Slow Food South Australia

We are starting off the new year by sharing a wonderful recipe. Cheong Liew, our esteemed Patron of Slow Food South Australia and one of Australia’s most recognised chefs, is kindly sharing one of his family’s all-time favourite recipes for preparing Snake Beans.

Enjoy!

Snake beans or long beans are hot climate beans, commonly grown in Southern India and South East Asia. The snake beans found in our local markets are from Queensland or Darwin. They have a nutty flavour and hold their firm texture well when cooked. Great to use in vegetable curries.

This dish is one of my family’s all-time favourites. The trick is to par-cook the snake beans in hot oil then rest them before proceeding with the rest of recipe. The mix of dried shrimp, chilli, shallots, garlic and blachan produces a great, pungent flavour combination which you can use with peas, eggplant, okra or other beans.

Blachan an ancient condiment used all over Asia. It is made by fermenting and salting assorted fish and shellfish like prawns. It is related to the almost mythical “garum” and “liquamen” that was used and much admired by the Romans two millennia ago.

Cheong Liew Family Recipe for Snake Beans

Recipe by Slow Food SA Admin

Ingredients

• 350 g snake beans (washed and cut into pieces 5 cm long)

• 2 shallots (crushed and finely chopped)

• 3 cloves garlic (crushed and finely chopped)

• 2 red chilli

• 40 large dried shrimp (pre-soaked in warm water)

• 20 g blacken (available in blocks from Asian grocers)

• 7 ml light soy sauce

• 7 g sugar

• 125 ml water

• 100 ml good frying oil like peanut oil or corn oil

Directions

• Using a mortar and pestle roughly pound the soaked dried shrimp, shallots, garlic and chilli into a paste.
• Moisten the blacken with a little water then wrap it in foil and roast in a hot oven for a few minutes until crumbly. This releases its heady aroma.
• Heat the oil in a wok until it starts to smoke. Throw in the snake beans then stir- fry for a minute, and remove.
• Add the paste of dried shrimp, shallots, garlic and chilli and gently fry without burning on a medium heat.
• Add the pre-fried snake beans and stir-fry for a minute. Add the light soy sauce, sugar and half the water. Stir-fry until dry.
• Add crumbled blacken into a bowl of the remaining water, add to the wok and stir-fry until dry.

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