stir-fry green bean — Central Java, Indonesia

This stir-fried green bean dish is an everyday Javanese vegetable side built on thin-sliced green beans cooked briefly in a hot wok with a fragrant paste of shallot, garlic, red chilli and fermented shrimp paste. Cubes of fried tempeh are folded through it, turning a simple vegetable side into a dish substantial enough to serve with just steamed rice. It is reported from Central Java, where quick vegetable stir-fries of this kind, generically called oseng-oseng, appear daily on home tables and at warung stalls alongside rice and a protein dish. Green beans, being fast-cooking and widely grown, are one of the most common vegetables treated this way across the island. To prepare it, shallot, garlic, chilli and a little shrimp paste are pounded or blended into a rough paste and fried in hot oil until fragrant, then chopped tomato is added and cooked down slightly. The green beans go in next, trimmed and cut into short lengths, along with the fried tempeh cubes, and everything is tossed over high heat for only a few minutes so the beans stay crisp rather than turning soft, finished with a pinch of sugar and salt. What distinguishes this version is the addition of tempeh, which is not universal in oseng buncis but is a common Central Javanese habit, adding a nutty, slightly fermented note and making the dish more filling without extra meat.