My Favorite French Beans

When I was a kid, one of the vegetables that I disliked was French beans. Generally speaking, I disliked all vegetables. They were all very unappealing to me.

It did not help that my grandparents (I lived with them) did not encourage me to eat vegetables. Grandma herself was not a fan of vegetables (hah..hah...) except for kangkung. I always remember the story of how after giving birth, she requested for a big plate of fried kangkung.

According to traditional practice, after giving birth, women were not allowed to eat certain (or all?) types of vegetables as these were considered cooling.

Well, grandma was never a stickler for archaic practices. She maintained that vegetables are important for roughage and the last thing you want while in confinement is to be constipated. Way to go, grandma!

Grandpa on the other hand was all about proteins. He believed that proteins were all important to a growing child and it did not matter to him that his granddaughter was becoming a fatty bom bom (from too much proteins and other things like sweet drinks and nonya kueh).

Well, mum changed all that for me. She introduced me to vegetables and slowly I discovered that vegetables are actually delicious. It depends on how you cook them.

Now, let me see. Why did I dislike French beans? It was the smell, I think. French beans have a distinctive smell but that does not bother me anymore. 

My favorite was of cooking French beans is to stir fry them with garlic and salt and then pour in some beaten eggs. Sometimes, I don't bother with the eggs and I still find the stir fried French beans very tasty.

Since I had some leftover luncheon meat in the fridge, I decided to add them into the equation of French beans + eggs. I fried the luncheon meat first before adding the browned cubes to the vegetables. 

The luncheon meat added a lot of flavor to the dish and I am imagining an eight year old me picking up all the luncheon meat cubes.

French Beans Fried with Eggs and Luncheon Meat

Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :

- 300g French beans, sliced at an angle

- 4 cloves garlic, chopped

- 100g luncheon meat, cut into cubes

- 4 eggs

- 1 tbsp light soya sauce

- pepper to taste

Method :

1. Heat oil in wok and fry the luncheon meat cubes until browned. 

2. While frying the luncheon meat, break the eggs into a bowl and add soya sauce and pepper and beat the eggs. Set aside.

3. Once browned, remove the luncheon meat and set aside. 

4. In the same oil, fry the garlic until fragrant.

5. Add French beans and stir fry until tender.

6. Pour in the beaten eggs. When the eggs are set around the edges, give a stir to cook the eggs further.

7. Add the fried luncheon meat and when eggs are cooked, dish out and serve.