This is yet another great idea I’ve taken from the Ottolenghi team. If nothing else, I think this version of the recipe is easier to follow for the first time.

As with any stir fry, it’s all about the preparation. It takes longer, but I’m a lot more comfortable preparing everything and then diving into the cooking, which happens extremely quickly, than trying to shoehorn some of the preparation between cooking steps.

Ingredients

Eggs

  • 4 eggs
  • 15 g Shaoxing wine
  • Pinch (1/4 teaspoon) ground turmeric
  • Salt
  • Black pepper

Sauce

  • 15 g soy sauce
  • 15 g Shaoxing wine
  • Pinch (1/4 teaspoon) brown sugar
  • Salt

Daqa

  • 2 spring onions, roughly chopped
  • 1 green chili, de-seeded, roughly chopped
  • Pinch (1/4 teaspoon) brown sugar
  • 15 g lime juice (about half a lime)

Stir fry

  • 120 g haricots verts, trimmed and halved
  • 1 (ca 120 g) green pepper, cut into thin slices
  • 2 (ca 40 g) green chilies, de-seeded, cut lengthwise into thin slices
  • Neutral oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 3 spring onions, cut on a bias about 2 cm thick
  • 20 g pine nuts, toasted

Method

Start by preparing the dish’s components. Beat the eggs together in a small bowl with the Shaoxing wine, sugar, and salt. Make the stir fry sauce by mixing together the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt.

For the daqa, add the ingredients into the small bowl of a food processor. Use the pulse feature until everything is finely chopped.

Place a frying pan over very high heat. Then add the green beans, peppers, and chilies and dry fry the vegetables until they’re blistered in places. Transfer them to a bowl.

Add a film of neutral oil to the pan. When it’s smoking, add the eggs, and quickly cook them until they’re just set, 30 to 60 seconds. Transfer them to a bowl and reserve them.

Add another film of oil to the pan. Quickly cook the garlic and cumin, just until they’re fragrant, 10 to 15 seconds. Then add the spring onions, reserved green vegetables, and stir fry sauce. Stir this around to coat everything in the sauce and evaporate most of the liquid. Then remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the eggs, breaking them up slightly to distribute them through the vegetables.

Sprinkle over the pine nuts and spoon over the daqa. Serve the stir fry immediately.