Twice-cooked Swiss chard with chilli bean paste and fermented black beans

Cut the chard, then strip the stringy bits off the stalks the way you would celery.

Separate the white stalks from the green leaves.

Boil the white stalks in water in the wok for three minutes.

Boil the green leaves about a minute, then drain them off.

Add a little fresh oil to the wok. Hold a medium flame; do not let the heat get too intense, so the flavours are coaxed out and the oil keeps a rusty red colour.

Fry the ginger in the oil first. Frying the aromatics in oil at the start of cooking is called chao xiang, fry fragrant, and draws their fragrance into the oil.

Add the fermented black beans and the chilli bean paste, then the garlic.

Add the finely cut Chinese celery, and the cilantro at the very end.

Scatter the remaining seasonings over the top.