Alright Gary et al: so I broke down and bought the cookbook. Yinz keep *doing* this to me...

But then, I never regret it, either!

Geo

Me too Arrived from Amazon over the weekend. Loving the detail of it. Looking forward to diving in on Sunday...

I went to B&N in Deerfield to see if they had it and was amazed at how poor their cookbook section had become.

Gotta point out that she's got a good book on Hunan cooking as well. I think it's called "Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook".

Planning on tackling either the Twice Cooked Pork or the Pork Slivers with Yellow Chives (but with the green flowering chives instead) for my Small Group Food Exchange entry next Tuesday. Any experience, tips, warnings for either of these recipes out there? I promise to report back (not sure about pics--still working with crappy camera that won't import pics..)

thaiobsessed wrote:Yes, somewhere on Broadway (I've bought a bunch of pastes recently trying to find the right one). I'm pretty sure it was Broadway grocery (4879 N. Broadway) but it may have been Tai Nam (4925 N. Broadway).

Broadway Supermarket it was, thank you very much for the tip. Nice to run into you at Fresh Farms this morning as well.

Sichuan chili bean paste, Broadway Supermarket



From Pixian, but not the Sichuan chili bean past of my dreams as it contains, what Dunlop labels, "extra ingredients" in her blog post on the subject. Can't wait to try it either way.

Sichuan chili bean paste, Broadway Supermarket



Sichuan chili bean paste, Richwell Market



From Pixian, but contains superfluous ingredients as well. Looking forward to trying though.



Sichuan chili bean paste, Tai Nam



More concise list of ingredients, but from Taiwan not Pixian.

Sichuan chili bean paste, Tai Nam



Going to get Sazerac's Pixian paste next, though I'm thinking Geo hit the winner winner Pixian paste dinner.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:Broadway Supermarket it was, thank you very much for the tip.

I was at Tai Nam and Viet Hoa this morning as well (didn't make it as far as B'way Supermarket)--sorry I missed you!

Nice selection Gary!

Your first one, "Hong you dou ban" translates something like "red oil bean mix". I don't read Chinese, but I was, once, long ago, nearly fluent in Mandarin; nicely enough, only the food-talk is retained in my memory!

Taste your various candidates and let us know how it goes. (Funny that one of yours contains fennel—why in the world would it contain fennel)

Geo

Taste your various candidates and let us know how it goes. (Funny that one of yours contains fennel—why in the world would it contain fennel)

Fennel is a common ingredient in a lot of five-spice powders. Yeah, it surprised me, too!

Geo wrote:(Funny that one of yours contains fennel—why in the world would it contain fennel)

Had to look up Foeniculum vulgare, my Latin is even worse than my Mandarin.

Gary, the way you speak BBQ, you can be monolingual as far as the rest of us are concerned!!

That's the *only* language YOU need to speak--

Geo

Had my first Ma Po Dou Fu experience this evening and loved it! Made a few alterations: Used both a full container of the medium firm tofu steeped in the salted water and a half container of the silken. Used 6 oz of ground white meat chicken and 4 oz of ground pork (wanted to see if lightening the fat a bit would have an effect--not at all! Used 2 baby leeks and one bunch of flowering chives.

Followed the recipe closely except for the ingredient subs and was thrilled with the result. I have to admit that I've never had this dish in a restaurant so I don't even know what it should taste like but it was absolutely delicious. SigOth, who will try just about anything I make as long as he thinks it's not beef or pork, loved it. I didn't share my full ingredient list with him on this one--just said--look honey, I'm using ground chicken. He definitely isn't an adventurous eater (pretty sure he's never eaten fermented black beans or flowering chives before) but he really enjoyed the dish. Not so much the pea pod shoots with garlic that I made as a side but that's ok

Thanks to GWiv and the gang for the inspiration (and the great pics that helped guide me). I will certainly be making this again (after I get through the leftovers of which there is quite a bit. Does tofu freeze ?

Well done boudreaulicious! What, no pix?!

Tofu does NOT freeze.

Geo

I took pics but have camera uploading issues Thanks for the heads up on the tofu!! If figured it didn't...guess I know what I'm having for lunch today!

LTH,

Fourth times the charm, really liked the version tonight. A few minor changes, used a mix of leek and scallion, amped up the amount of hot pepper, chili oil, fermented black beans and garlic, minced the ginger very fine. Increased the amount of black vinegar by 1/3 and, just because it was handy, tossed in a little diced cucumber.

Kung Pao Chicken





Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:LTH,

Fourth times the charm, really liked the version tonight. A few minor changes, used a mix of leek and scallion, amped up the amount of hot pepper, chili oil, fermented black beans and garlic, minced the ginger very fine. Increased the amount of black vinegar by 1/3 and, just because it was handy, tossed in a little diced cucumber.

Now that Kung Pao Chicken I would eat! That looks great.

G Wiv wrote:Fourth time in two weeks, I think I have the hang of Mapo Tofu.

Slight Mapo tofu setback, the Sichuanese chili bean paste I used (pictured) is very salty and threw the dish out of balance. With minor ingredient adjustment I can work with it, but my initial impression is salty, harsh chili flavor and out of balance. Aside from that......

Ducks in a row





Couple of minor liberties, added garlic and half a minced jalapeno, used chicken fat from the home made stock I had and a little of my chili oil, nothing that would amp up the salt or I have not used in Mapo tofu before. Leek, which I prefer, looked worn and tired so I went with scallion.





I'll give this chili paste another try, with adjustments in the recipe for salt content, and see how it goes. I have two more Sichuanese chili bean pastes on hand to try.

Enjoy,
Gary

this is the dish i had with you ,yes
it is outstanding

Another bachelor night, so I get to eat fish (MrsF won't touch the stuff).
I was originally planning on trying the Taiwanese steamed fish from last month's Saveur, but I started thinking about a dish I've had at Lao Sze Chuan, #437. "Chef's Special Sole Fish Fillet* with tofu."

It's a lot like Ma Po Tofu, perhaps a little saucier, a little less leek/onion. Looking at "Land of Plenty," the first recipe, "Fish Braised in Chili Bean Sauce" (dou ban xian yu) sounded similar, less the tofu. I didn't need the tofu anyway, I had a single sole filet which would be more than enough for dinner.

I found two nice things for this at Assi Plaza today: Ramps ($3.99/lb), and Youki brand Shisen Tou Ban Jan sauce. It's redder than the Lee Kum Kee stuff, and actually less spicy smelling (probably the lack of garlic). The ingredient list is just chiles, broad beans, salt and spices, and it's got a nice oily punch in this dish -- which uses 4Tbs of the stuff!

I took a couple liberties with the recipe, made as below -- less than half the fish, but a full batch of sauce

1 sole filet, about 6 oz (original called for a 1.5 lb whole fish)
generous pinch salt
teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine
1/3C canola oil

Sprinkle the fish with the salt and wine, and heat oil in wok.
Cut the fish into chunks and fry briefly on each side in the oil. Remove all but a couple tablespoons of the oil and any solid

Reheat the oil on medium, and add
4Tbs chile bean paste
cook for about a half-minute -- it'll dry out a bit and become less saucy and very fragrant.
Add:
1tbs minced garlic
1tbs minced ginger
2 tsp rinsed, chopped black beans (not in the original, but in the Ma Po recipe)
2 tbs chopped ramp steps
and cook for another 30 seconds
Add 1C stock plus a little water and bring to a boil. Add about 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp soy sauce, to taste.
Add the fish, then simmer for 6 minutes (original was 8-10, but with fish pieces, it'll cook more quickly, and was mostly cooked from the frying phase)
Add 1 rounded tsp cornstarch stirred into 1 Tbs cold water, 1/2 tsp black Chinese vinegar, and about 1/3C sliced ramp leaves, stir and serve over brown rice.

Sorry, no pics tonight.
Deeply spicy, garlicky, fragrant... I could probably convince my fish-hating wife that this was edible. If I do this again, I'll probably kick the ginger up a bit more than the garlic.

LTH,

General Tso Chicken is typically an American Suburban over fried sweet goopy mess, fun name, poor execution. One exception 5-6 years ago at Shirley 'The Hammer' Tse moving to New York party left me wondering if there were unplumbed depths to this much maligned classic. House of Fortune's version, ordered in Chinese by Shirley's father, was a revelation, crisp, hint of sweet, delicately sauced, nuance of vinegar, spice and everything nice. Unfortunately I have never been able to repeat, even at House of Fortune. Cue Fuchsia Dunlop's "Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook" with two General Tso Chicken, one Taiwanese and the one I made which she labels "closer to the Americanized version"

Interestingly both versions use an egg yolk in the meat marinade, not something I've encountered before in Chinese cooking, egg white, sure, not yolk.

Marinade Mise en place



Dish is started by crisp frying chicken, removing all but a couple of tablespoons of oil and start adding, in sequence, dried red chili, ginger, double concentrate tomato paste, sauce, chicken, scallions. Remove from heat and drizzle sesame oil.

Ducks in a Row



Sizzling chicken



Ginger, crushed red pepper



Almost completed dish



General Tso Chicken



The very observant will notice there are no scallions incorporated into the dish, I simply forgot to add them. There were cut ready in a prep bowl just never made it to wok. Even with this mistake I thought General Tso Chicken terrific, nice spice, hint of vinegar, hint of sweet, in balance, nothing overpowered.

Next time I'll fry the chicken a little crisper and be sure to add the scallions. Thanks Ms Dunlop, another spot-on recipe.



Enjoy,
Gary

On the ongoing subject of Kung Pao, "Simply Ming" on PBS today featured Kung Pao as its master sauce, used for chicken, clams with pork, shrimp, and bok choy to be served with seared tuna.

The sauce recipe is a big departure from Dunlop, mainly in the use of sambal oelek in place of the bean paste, and rice vinegar instead of the Chinese black vinegar.

I'm betting your average TV viewer will find this tastes very close to what they can get in their neighborhood Chinese resto (Ming's mom even said it was "Very good, very authentic" but the lack of beans and that "sumthin sumthin" of the Chinese black vingegar is going to be a major shortfall compared to Dunlop's.

I drove from Montréal down to Plattsburgh NY this morning to pick up my copy. [Amazon can't/won't deliver a bunch of things into Canadia, go figger.] I spent a few minutes looking through it whilst waiting to come back through the border. Oh boy, oh boy! Tnx Gary and all you others who lured me into buying it! Just can't wait to try it out.

Geo
PS. BTW, didn't notice niu rou mian in the index--does she do it?

G Wiv wrote:I made Kung Pao chicken from Land of Plenty last week, for a first effort I was pleased with the results. Couple of small operator errors, crowded the chicken in the wok, needed a finer mince on the ginger and next time out will add more garlic and, though it is not called for in the recipe, fermented black beans.

I had a fantastic version of Kung Pao Chicken tonight at Red Light, with real-tasting chicken and a complex, smoky flavor. After dinner I had the pleasure of a brief chat with the ever-charming chef Jackie Shen, and I asked her what made her Kung Pao Chicken so good. Three things, she said: fermented black beans, toasting the dried chiles just shy of burnt, and a wok that's deeply seasoned from years of heavy cooking.

Kennyz wrote:Three things, she said: fermented black beans, toasting the dried chiles just shy of burnt, and a wok that's deeply seasoned from years of heavy cooking.

I'd add talented chef, Jackie Shen, and a high output burner.

G Wiv wrote:

Kennyz wrote:Three things, she said: fermented black beans, toasting the dried chiles just shy of burnt, and a wok that's deeply seasoned from years of heavy cooking.

I'd add talented chef, Jackie Shen, and a high output burner.

An interesting thing I read in an old Chicago Magazine article about Jackie Shen is that she didn't know how to cook Chinese food when she took the position at Red Light. She had been trained in French technique in Houston and previously ran Jackie's in Lincoln Park, which had no Asian influence at all. Her claim to fame was/is the chocolate bag.

stevez wrote:

G Wiv wrote:

Kennyz wrote:Three things, she said: fermented black beans, toasting the dried chiles just shy of burnt, and a wok that's deeply seasoned from years of heavy cooking.

I'd add talented chef, Jackie Shen, and a high output burner.

An interesting thing I read in an old Chicago Magazine article about Jackie Shen is that she didn't know how to cook Chinese food when she took the position at Red Light. She had been trained in French technique in Houston and previously ran Jackie's in Lincoln Park, which had no Asian influence at all. Her claim to fame was/is the chocolate bag.

She also spent the first 17 years of her life growing up in Hong Kong, so even if she wasn't cooking I suspect that affected her palate substantially.

Here's the result of another go at fish fragrant pork. I didn't have pickled chiles so I subbed the chile-fava paste. I really like this dish.

thaiobsessed wrote:... I didn't have pickled chiles so I subbed the chile-fava paste.

In my experience, Sambal makes a good substitute, it's got the acidity and the heat.

In Kung Pao chicken she suggests using potato flour in both the sauce and the marinade. First I tried dumping the flour into the liquid ingredients and it simply turned into clumps. Then I tried slowly adding liquid ingredients to the flour. It again turned into clumps. How do you incorporate potato flour into liquid?

lougord99 wrote:In Kung Pao chicken she suggests using potato flour in both the sauce and the marinade. First I tried dumping the flour into the liquid ingredients and it simply turned into clumps. Then I tried slowly adding liquid ingredients to the flour. It again turned into clumps. How do you incorporate potato flour into liquid?

Try adding very little liquid to the flour, whisk until it forms a paste . . . then add some more liquid and repeat. By adding minimal amounts of liquid and whisking after each addition, you'll avoid clumps.