Spicy Pickled Long Beans (辣炒酸豇豆)

Spicy pickled long beans, a dish we once ordered in an upscale restaurant in Shanghai at an astonishingly high price tag, is actually a common dish in the region (or peasant food, as the western world might call it).  It's a delicious dish that deserves its place on everyone's dinner table or in everyday's lunch box :-).  This recipe is also written to show how pickled vegetables (酸泡菜) can be made at home. Using the same method, we can pickle cabbage, carrot, white radish, etc.

I. Pickled Long Beans, Carrots, Turnip, or Cabbage (酸泡長豇豆, or 酸泡菜)

1. Fill a clean large-sized jar with clean filtered (or boiled tap water) water till it is half full.  Add enough salt to make the water taste really salty but not bitterly salty (add 1 Tbsp a time and taste).  Optionally, add 1 Tbsp of Kaoliang Spirit (高粱酒) to speed up the fermentation process.  To add taste to the pickled veggies: add 4-6 dry hot peppers, 3-4 cloves of peeled whole garlic, and 16-20 pieces of Chinese Peppers (花椒).  Note- please take care not to let any oil into the water, or let any oily utensils touch the water.
2. Get a pack of long beans (or Carrots, Turnip, or Cabbage), rinse, dry with kitchen towel, and place the beans (or Carrots, Turnip, or Cabbage) in the jar.  Place the jar in the fridge for at least 2 weeks initially. See picture to the right for a jar with carrots on top and long beans below.  Note- Carrot and turnip need to be skinned and sliced, and cabbage cut into bite size.
3. Once the initial fermentation is done, the beans would turn slightly yellow, and the fluid in the jar would turn frosty white.  From then on, the pickling process can be shortened to 3-5 days each cycle. This jar and its fluid can be reused for months to come.  Note- If the long beans taste too salty after being extracted from the jar, immerse them in water for 30-60 minutes and taste a small segment again. Repeat the process with fresh water if necessary.

II. Pickled Long Beans Stir-fried

1. Marinate 4-6 oz of ground pork with rice cooking wine for 10-15 minutes.  Chop 12-16 stalks of pickled long beans into 1/4" chunks.  Mince 2-4 dry red chili peppers.
2. (Medium Heat) Heat 2 Tbsp of Veggie Oil, add minced red chili peppers, stir for a minute, add ground pork and stir for 2-3 minutes (separate the ground pork into smaller chunks by pressing the spatula flatly on the meat that's bunched together).
3. (Medium-to-High Heat) Add chopped long beans and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes.  Here is a picture of the finished product.