Tuesday Dinner

This started with a dry-fried szechuan string bean recipe from the NYT a while ago. I used long beans from the farmers market and added some cubed country ham (of course!). Oh, and I used five-spice powder instead of szechuan pepper corns, because (a) you can't get them here, and (b) I was a jackass and didn't get a couple of bags when I saw them at the market in Provence.

I served it with short-grain rice (made in the rice cooker instead of using Bittman's recipe; this isn't as good, but it's way quicker).

Since things looked pretty dry, I also threw together a quick sauce for the rice made with: chinese black beans, oyster sauce, garlic, dried thai chilis, sherry, chicken stock, dried ginger (no fresh ginger in the house), and some sambal oelek. This ended up being way too salty, duh. Next time I think I'll try soaking the black beans first or something.