ross dobson food

If you could pick one ingredient to sum up Chinese food, it may very well be the black bean.
Cheap as chips, and sold in absolutely every Asian food store, these are a truly versatile and flavour packed ingredient.
Don't be afraid of them! Here are some really simple recipes using black beans.
A friend of mine recently cooked the ginger and black bean pork with Japanese noodles. So good was it, her husband was suspicious she had been secretly going to cooking school!
Try for yourself and click on below if you want to read more about the ubiquitous black bean.

black bean and chilli crab
1 large live mud crab (about 1kg)
2 tablespoons salted black beans
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
4 spring onions, whites chopped, green part thinly sliced
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine

Place the crab in the freezer for at least 2 hours, until it stops moving. Remove the head shell from the crab and discard. Pull out the grey gills underneath the head and discard. Rinse the crab. Cut in half through the centre of the crab then cut each half across to give 2 large claws and 2 sets of small claws. Gently crack the claws with the back of a cleaver or rolling pin.
Place the black beans, sugar, stock and oyster sauce in a bowl and lightly mash the beans with a fork. Set aside.
Heat a wok and when very hot add the oil, swirling around to coat the wok in the oil. Add the crab pieces and stir fry for 1 minute. Remove the small claws to a bowl and continue cooking the large claws for 1 minute, until they are an even orange colour all over. Remove the large claws to the bowl with the other crab pieces and drain all but 2 tablespoons of oil from the wok. Add the garlic, ginger and spring onion whites to the wok and stir fry for a few seconds until aromatic, but do not burn. Add the rice wine and let it sizzle and evaporate then add the black bean sauce mixture to the wok. Bring to the boil then return the crab to the wok and stir fry for 3-4 minutes. Remove the crab to a serving bowl, boil the sauce for a minute more then pour over the crab. Sprinkle over the spring onion greens and serve with a finger bowl and steamed rice.

spare rib and black bean hot pot
Put 16 American style spare ribs in a pot of boiling water, turn heat off and cover with a lid for 20 minutes. Drain well. Cook 4-6 chopped spring onions, 2 teaspoons of grated ginger, 2 sliced large red chillies, 2 chopped cloves garlic and 2 tablespoons of salted black beans (roughly mashed) in 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a casserole dish for 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of Chinese rice wine to the pan so it sizzles and boils. Add the ribs to the dish with 2 cups of water and 2 tablespoons each of soy and oyster sauces and a pinch of sugar. Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook in a 180C oven for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the ribs from the sauce and place the casserole on the stove top and boil until the sauce has thickened a little. Return the ribs to the sauce and serve with steamed rice.

ginger and black bean pork with Japanese noodles
Heat 2 tablespoons of  vegetable oil in a wok or frypan and cook 1 tablespoon of mashed black beans, 2 teaspoons of grated ginger, 2 chopped cloves of garlic and 4 sliced spring onions for just a few seconds. Add 500g pork mince and stir fry for 4-5 minutes. Add 1 cup water, just a splash of light soy sauce, 1/2  teaspoon of sugar and bring to a rapid boil for 5-6 minutes, until thick and most of the liquid has evaporated. Cover to keep warm while cooking noodles. Cook 200g dried wheat noodles (somen or udon) for 2 minutes (a bit longer for udon). Drain and divide into four serving bowls. Spoon over the pork and sprinkle with some chopped coriander or spring onions.

all about  black beans

The salted black bean has a reputation as humble and noble ingredient in Chinese cooking. But in reality, its more of a tart, going with just about anything. It partners just as well with chicken as it does with pork and beef. It especially likes being with all forms of seafood and is most commonly used in combination with the other ubiquitous Chinese flavours of fresh ginger, spring onion and chilli.
To read more, see below.
But meanwhile, if you are after the best black bean and chilli crab recipe, look no further. Also, check out the other two dead simple recipes using black beans.

The process of fermenting the bean in a salty, briney liquid, then drying, renders them soft producing a ready to use seasoning agent that has both a full-on and addictive flavour.

These small, kidney shaped beans should feel soft and supple through the bag. Salted black beans have a distinctive strong yeasty smell and salty flavour. They are not the prettiest of raw ingredients, having a dull, dark colour. Yet when cooked, they become shiny ebony pebbles with a wondrous aroma. Salted black beans are not to be confused with the highly processed black bean sauce which comes as a combination of pureed black beans flavoured with garlic and star anise.

Salted black beans may be exotic, but they are not rare. They are found in the Asian section of any large supermarket and in any Asian food store where they are as cheap as chips. Most good delis will stock them including Blackwattle Delicatessan at the Sydney Fish markets, right next to highly black bean friendly ingredients; the best and freshest scallops in their shell, crabs and lobsters. Peter Davis sells them at his Dubbo delicatessan, Newtown Providores. (He also stocks vacuum packed Chinese barbecue ducks and char siu pork form Sydney’s Chinatown).

Once opened, store black beans in a snap lock bag in the refrigerator. Some say they store indefinitely but like anything kept in the fridge too long you will find over time they will lose their potency and become stale. They are also sold in Chinatown in decorative cardboard cylinders with other flavours added like ginger, orange peel or five spice. These flavour additives can be overpowering and the plain salted variety are called for in most recipes.

There is debate over wether to wash or rinse the black beans before use. Asian food officienados Kylie and Neil, that is Kwong and Perry, advocate cooking with unwashed black beans claiming washing only serves to dilute their edgy and intense flavour, which is the reason why we use them in the first place. Other references insist the beans be rinsed before use. If you are a black bean novice, maybe rinse on the first encounter and take it from there.

Add roughly chopped black beans to a stir fry of chicken, leek and chilli. With shredded ginger, whole black beans can be scattered over fish or scallops before steaming, releasing their flavour when cooked. When combined with chilli, black beans create a lip smacking sauce for crabs in their shell. They can be mashed with the back of a fork and added to slow cooked casseroles and traditional Chinese clay pot dishes with pork belly or beef.