Recipe for the crispy red beans with pickled vegetables (腌菜酥红豆 - yāncài sū hóngdòu)

Ingredients

• 400gr of dried red beans

• 50 gr of pickles (cucumbers, sauerkraut or Chinese pickles)

• 50 gr of flour

• 2 tbsp of corn starch (or potato starch)

• spices (I used garlic powder, cumin and chili powder)

• salt

• pepper

• mint (a couple of branches, discarding the rough end of the stems, but including the stems attached to the leaves.)

• oil for frying

Preparation

1. Soak the beans overnight.

2. Cook the beans. Avoid overcooking them, the beans need to be firm. Strain the beans to get rid of all the liquid.

3. Chop the pickles and quickly pan-fry them. Set aside.

4. In a bowl, mix the sieved the flour, starch, spices, salt and pepper.

5. Add the beans (still slightly wet after cooking) to the flour mix. With circular movements move the beans around until they are well coated with flour.

6. Carefully transfer the beans to a plate, leaving in the bowl the excess flour.

7. Heat the oil in a wok. Add the beans and quickly fry for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally but not too vigorously. Remove the beans to a plate.

8. Quickly fry the mint.

9. Mix the pickles with the beans and place the mint leaves on top.