Sambal Green Beans with Egg
Beans blistered in a dry wok, then tossed through a sweet-sour sambal with soft-set egg clinging to them.
Why it works
Dry-frying the beans before any oil goes in blisters the skins and collapses them just enough to take on sauce; a wet pan only steams them limp. The egg goes in at the end onto a hot, clear patch of wok, so it sets on contact and wraps the beans instead of scrambling into curds. Rice goes on before the wok is even lit — the sambal is salty and sour enough to want a plain, hot bowl of it underneath.
Method
- Boil the kettle. Pour the boiling water over the rice and salt in a small pan, bring back to the boil, then lid it and cook 10 minutes at the lowest heat. Leave it covered off the heat until you serve.
- Put the wok over your highest heat, dry. Add the beans and toss every 30 seconds for 3 minutes, until streaked brown and beginning to wrinkle. Tip them into a bowl.
- Add 2 tbsp of the oil, then the shallots, garlic and red pepper, and fry 2 minutes until golden and fragrant.
- Stir in the sambal and fry 1 minute — it should deepen in colour and the oil separate slightly at the edges. Add the tamarind, honey and fish sauce, then return the beans with the cherry tomatoes. Toss 1 minute, until every bean is coated and glossy.
- Push everything aside, add the last tablespoon of oil to the clear space and pour in the eggs. Count to twenty while they set at the base, then fold the beans through in big slow strokes. Take the wok off the heat while the egg still looks wet — it carries on cooking.
- Fork the rice into four warm bowls, pile the beans and egg on top, scatter with the crushed peanuts and serve with lime wedges.
For the toddler
Lift a handful of beans out of the dry wok at the end of step 2, before the sambal, fish sauce and honey arrive. Honey is not for a baby under one, so keep theirs clear of that sauce, with maple syrup standing in. Cook a little unsalted beaten egg in a small pan and fold it through. Split the beans lengthways into soft strips and leave the peanuts off, as crushed nuts are a choking risk under five.
How the toddler notes workChef’s notes
Long beans, sugar snaps or tenderstem broccoli all dry-fry the same way. Cashews instead of peanuts.
Beat the eggs in the bowl the beans are resting in and save a wash.
Cucumber and pineapple straight from the fridge, and a saucer of kecap manis for anyone who wants the beans sweeter.
Two days chilled. Eat it at room temperature — reheating toughens the egg.