In the Healthy Asian Cooking, Ian Lai described the Chinese cooking as lots of greens and a little meat. Chinese likes to cook with quick stir fry which is quite oily in the sense of splattering and strong odour. That the reason why in many Chinese homes, they have two kitchens where one of the kitchen is located outside the house for stir frying.
Chinese likes to use lots of green vegetables like mustard green, sweet peas, snow peas, green beans, broccoli, water crest, green onions, cilantro, etc.
Here is the recipe for the Garlic Green Bean:
Ingredients
- 1 pound green beans
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 2 slices of ginger
- 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon pf togarashi (a Japanese Spice Mix)
The above is the bottle of the Togarashi. You can click on image to view it larger.
Togarashi is typically made of coarsely ground red chili pepper, ground sichuan pepper, roasted orange peel, black and white sesame seeds, hemp seed, ground ginger and seaweed.
Instructions
 Ian Lai cuts the garlic like how you cut onion. He said cutting garlic this way will not overwhelmed the dish with garlic flavour. So, do not use a food processor to chop the garlic or smash the garlic before chopping them.To shared with us on how to determine the freshness of the green bean by looking at the tip. The tip has to firm. To prepare the green beans, trip off the top and cut on a bias. Blanched the green beans in salted boiling water until they are cooked but still crunchy. Place them in cold water to stop the cooking. The shocking in cold water will also helps to retain the greenness of green beans. Toss them around in the cold water to cool off as soon as possible and use a strainer to remove them from the water. Leaving them too long in the water will loose the nutrients.First, heat up the wok with some oil. Then add the ginger slices to fragrant the oil. Add the green beans and season with salt and stir fry until heated up. |
 Add the chopped garlic and remove from heat. Season with togarashi and soy sauce. Ian Lai explained that he added the soy sauce after removing from the heat so that the green beans will not be darkened by the soy sauce. Lastly, drizzle with sesame oil before serving. |
is the Togarashi really spicy?
I don’t think Togarashi is very spicy, and I am not very good at consuming very spicy things =p. I think it’s the powder that is offered along with udon and noodles at many restaurants.
I love these healthy Asian recipes!
Yeah. Togarashi isn’t very spicy. But it adds a nice touch to udon and other dishes. I had some Togarashi chicken wings made by my friend before and it’s pretty good.
I actually passed by the original Togarashi shop in Kyoto back in 2007. I regard that I didn’t go inside to get a few bottles back.
I was wondering where you purchased your Togarashi? Would I be able to purchase it at T&T
Hi Caroline, I’m not sure if T&T has it as I have never look for it in there. Another places that you can look for them will be Izumiya on Alderbridge Way or Fujiya on St. Edwards Drive, Richmond or other Vancouver locations.