Pork in Spicy SiChuan Broth - Shui Zhu Rou Pian

My First Attempt at this Dish.  75% Correct.

This is my ABSOLUTE favorite dish.  I rank this up there with Homemade Spaghetti sauce for it's healing power and all around comfort foodedness.  (it is a word!)  I would say that I have gotten as close as I will ever get to making it perfect.  There is always room for improvement.  The ABSOLUTE KEY is that the meat is extremely tender and soft in your mouth.  Melts in your mouth would not be an understatement.  This is achieved by following the directions very carefully.  You will need to read the instructions for making this several times and then plan out your strategy before you just whip this dish up.  After 2-3 attempts you should have it down.

Here are the Ingredients you will need to gather.

Prickly Ash Berries or SiChuan Peppercorns

1lb     Pork Tenderloin sliced into thin strips.  (1"x4")
6-8     Dried Red Chillies Whole
3T      Crushed Red Peppers
5        Cloves Minced Garlic
1        Head of BokChoi
1        Bunch of Green Onions
2        Egg Whites
1T      Potato or Corn Starch
1T      Kosher Salt
1        Package of Prickly Ash Powder
1        Package of Prickly Ash Berries or SiChuan
          Peppercorns

Bean Paste.  Not the brand I use but it will work

1        Container of SiChuan Bean Paste                 
2t       Chicken Granules or 1.5 cups of Chicken Stock.
2t       Soy Sauce
1         Bottle of Peanut Oil (Any oil will work but Peanut is best)

Ok, thats a lot of stuff.  Don't worry though it will be worth it.

To begin slice the Pork meat into thin flat strips.  Mix the egg whites and starch together in a bowl.  Using a meat tenderizer lightly pound the meat flat before you put it in the egg mixture.  I use the side meant for Steak.  It has little points on it that will penetrate the meat.  Put the meat in the bowl and let it sit for at least 15 minutes.  You will come back to it later.

Chop up the BokChoi as if you were going to make a salad with it.  You want it in Large Square pieces. 

In your wok pour a generous amount of Peanut Oil in the wok and heat it until it's hot but NOT smoking.  Halve the Whole Chillies and get rid of the seeds unless you are insane and want to literally choke on spicy air for the next 30-45 minutes.  Put the Chillies and 1TBSP of the Peppercorns in the Oil.  Let them cook until the oil has a nice fragrant smell to it.  Use a strainer to take the spices out of the oil and bring the heat down so it doesn't start smoking.  Chop up the spices you just took out of the oil finely and set them aside. 

Crank the heat up on the WOK with the fragrant Oil in it and let it heat until it just starts to smoke.  Add the BokChoi and a nice Pinch of Kosher Salt and stir fry them until they are coated in the oil, hot but still crunchy.  In a Medium glass Serving bowl (make sure it can handle high heat) put the BokChoi in the center in a mound.

Heat up some water and add your chicken Granules to the water so it has time to dissolve. Alternatively you may use 1.5 cups of Chicken Stock.

In the Wok heat another 3-4 TBSP of Peanut Oil until it smokes then turn the heat down to medium and ad a generous amount of the Bean Paste and the Garlic.  1-2TBSP heaping should be sufficient. Stir fry a minute or two until the Oil is red and smells like it would kick your butt but then bandage you up afterward.  Add the Stock and Soy Sauce and bring it to a very light boil.  Add the chilies and peppercorns that you finely chopped early after taking out of the oil.

At this point you need to go back to your meat.  Bring the broth on the stove down to a very very gentle simmer and add the meat.  Adding the meat will naturally bring the temperature of the broth down.  That's ok.  You don't want the mixture to boil at ALL.  When you have added the last piece of meat turn the heat off on the stove and let the broth sit for 3-5 minutes with the heat off.  Check the temperature of the broth and make sure it's at least 180-190.  If you need to leave the stove on for it to get to that temperature that's ok.  Do NOT let it boil.  Take a piece of meat out after about 3 minutes in the broth at temperature and pull it apart.  If you don't see any pink it's ready.  When you taste the meat it should literally melt in your mouth. 

Using a slotted spoon put the meat on top of the BokChoi pile and then pour the broth over the top until the bowl is 3/4 full.

Sprinkle the Crushed Red Peppers over the top.  If you are brave you will put them all on top.  If you don't really like spicy stuff then just a light sprinkling is fine.  Sprinkle about 1tsp of the Prickly ash powder on top of the whole thing.

In the WOK heat 2-3 TBSP of Peanut Oil until it's belching smoke.  Pour the heated oil over the top of the dish. 


This dish is AWESOME so don't let the recipe intimidate you.  It's totally worth it!

Enjoy.  慢慢吃饭

Peanut Noodles

This one sounds a little wierd but it's really tasty. 



Here's what you will need

Good Chinese noodles.  (Beijing or Shanhai Noodles will work.)
Chicken Stock - 1/2 Cup
Peanut Butter (Any Type - The more "natural" the tastier.) - 1/2 Cup
Crushed Peanuts - A small Handful
Apple Cider Vinegar (Get the real stuff not the Apple Cider Flavored stuff) - 2T
Salt  - 1t
Cayenne 1/2t
1 Onion or some shallots if you have them. (Red Onion is best.) - 1/2
Olive Oil - 2T

This is really simple but the key is in not overcooking it.  If you overcook it you will make it dry and pasty and frankly it will suck.

First boil your noodles.  Make sure you boil them correctly if they are too boiled or mushy then they will ruin the dish.  Al-Dente is always right.  Most of the noodles come with instructions.  In a pinch you can use the noodles from Ramen.  Save the flavor packet for another day.

In a saucepan pour in your oil and your onion Minced. 

Cook the onion until it's soft and translucent.
Pour in the Apple Cider Vinegar. 
Put in the Peanut Butter.

Mix up that concoction of stuff for a minute or so. The peanut butter will get soft and then oddly pasty and start to harden. When that happens pour in the Chicken Stock.

Mix in the chicken stock keeping your burner on VERY low.  Like I said you don't want to overcook the sauce or it's just nasty.

Add your salt and cayenne to taste.  It's supposed to be slightly salty, spicy and sour. 

When the sauce is smooth and mixed well you can take it off the heat.  You don't want it COMPLETELY runny but you also don't want it as thick as a "thin milkshake"  you want it about the thickness of Egg Nog. (If that's not confusing then I'll try to think of a way to make it more confusing.)

Dish up the noodles in some bowls and pour the sauce over the noodles. 

Garnish with Crushed Peanuts. 

Voila!  Peanut Noodles. 

As an aside, we like ours really "sour" so we add more Apple Cider Vinegar.  Yummmm!

Egg and Tomato (With Noodles)

Egg and Tomato is a great dish with just Rice.  The best way however is to get some good Noodles and put this dish on top of them.  I ate this EVERY day my first summer in China.  I was addicted!

Ingredients you will need.

Noodles - (Like the ones pictured)
Chicken Granules
Garlic
Salt
Vine Ripened Tomatoes - (You want the good ones  not the ones spray painted red.  If you have a garden
                     then EXCELLENT!)
Olive Oil
Eggs


Heat a Wok with Oil. (Enough to coat the bottom liberally)

Crack about 4-6 Eggs (Depending on amount of people to feed.) and whisk them really good in a bowl.

Poor the eggs into the piping hot oil.  If they puff up a little that's good.  Don't scramble them.  Try to flip them as a whole or in a couple large pieces.  When thouroughly cooked set aside on a plate.

Cut your tomatoes into 1-1.5 inch chunks.  If you can skin them it will taste a little better if not no worries.  Once they are cut put them in the pan with a little oil not too much.  Fry them for about 2 minutes.  Once they soften and "bleed" into the pan a little you can add a TSP of Chicken Granules dissolved in 1/2 cup water.  Let the Tomatoes simmer in that for about 3-4 minutes.  While they simmer cut the eggs into similar size pieces to the tomatoes.  After the tomatoes have simmered add the eggs.

Now just serve on a bed of rice or a bowl of noodles and enjoy.  It looks wierd but it will grow on you.

Enjoy!

Hot Pot

Hot pot is a blast and it's different all over China.

The most common is the type where you purchase Shaved Meats like Lamb, Beef and Pork and then slice up a ton of different veggies and then boil the hot pot and throw things in a few at a time.

My favorite type of HotPot is a variation on that. My chef in YiChang taught me this one so I don't know how authentic it is but he's Chinese and he's got his own restaurant now so it must be somewhat Authentic.

Here are the ingredients you will need.

1-2lbs of Beef
OR 1/2 LB Each of Lamb, Beef and Pork Shaved.  
          (Usually you can find this frozen at an asian  
           market too.)
8-10 Potatoes
DouBanJiang - THe Stuff in the container with the
             red lid. (You can find it at an asian market.)
 OR - A bag of Hot Pot sauce.  (Also can find at asian market.)
Mushrooms
Bean Sprouts
Carrots
Baby Bok Choy
Lotus Root
White Turnips
Snap Peas
Snow Peas
Cucumber
and any other veggies you can think of.  Not Broccoli!

Once you have all your ingredients together
You will want to cut them in 1/4 inch slices.
         Look at the top picture.

If you are making my "Variation then you won't be using the shaved meat.  Cut the Beef into 1 inch squares.

Heat a skillet with oil coating the bottom to as hot as you can get it and sear the beef.  Sear it really well.  If it "dries out" a little that's ok.  I like to sear it until it's really done on the outside but when you pick one up and squish it in your fingers you can tell the inside is not quite cooked.  Basically rare for lack of a better way to describe it.

Once you have it done set it aside in a separate container and do the same thing to the potatoes.  They will be best if you pan fry them really dry.  YOu want them to soak up the hotpot juices later.

Once the potatoes and beef are done.  Combine them in a stock pot or "Hot Pot" if you bought one when you were at the Asian market cause you just couldn't resist.  They look like the pot on the right.  I like the undivided ones but usually you would serve one "Spicy" hotpot and one that looks "milky".  Unfortunately I don't have any recipes for the milky ones cause I hate them.  So good luck if you want to do a double.

Actually before you combine the beef and potatoes in the Hot Pot combine them in the Frying Pan or Wok again and add a couple heaping tablespoons of DouBanJiang.  Fry them up in the DouBanJiang for about 2-3 minutes and then put everything in the pot.  You can even rinse the WOK into the Pot.  YOu want all that oily spicy goodness in there.

Then add water to the hotpot until it's about 2/3 full.

At this point you will add Beef Bouillon and Salt to taste.  You want it to be spicy but also salty.  Saltier than a beef broth because you want the food you put in to soak up the flavors.

Once it's tasty tasting, sorry but if you don't know what tasty is you shouldn't be cooking, let it boil at a roll for about 30 minutes.  Then let it cool.  If you want AWESOME hotpot let it sit in the fridge OVERNIGHT.  It's like Spaghetti sauce it always tastes better the second time.

When you are ready to serve put it on your portable butane burner that you also bought at the asian market cause you couldn't resist.

Bring it to a very slow boil.  

Usually we eat the beef and potatoes out first and then we use the "Broth" for all our other veggies.  Throw whatever you like in it.  

Hot Pot is meant to take a couple hours to eat.  It's a blast to just sit and enjoy good company and eat and eat and eat.  

It's really good if you serve it over fresh clean steamed rice.  When you are getting to the end the rice will have all that awesome broth mixed in it and it will be a heavenly ending to the meal.  

If you have a bunch of broth left over.  Eat it the next day with the shaved meat you bought because you weren't sure which style you wanted to make.  

Enjoy!

Shredded Potatoes Spicy/Numb/Sour

This dish is a local favorite from YiChang China. Here are the list of ingredients you will need to get started.

Chicken Stock
Rice Wine Vinegar
Prickly Ash Powder - This might be hard to find but go to a local Chinese Market or Asian Market and your odds will increase exponentially.
DouBanJiang - I don't know how to translate this stuff but
if you just say (DoughBonJong)to someone at the Asian Market. You'll find it. If you don't want to trouble with it just use some Tobasco or other spice. It will not be the same but you'll get a similar effect.
Salt
Corn Starch

You will also need a tool to Julienne the peeled potatoes or you will need to have a very sharp Knife to cut them like shoestring potatoes. For best results don't try to do more than 3-4 potatoes your first couple times.

Wash your potatoes and then cut them with the Julienne. You want them to be quite small if you are cutting by hand with a Knife. Think as small as you can possibly cut them and you'll be close enough. You want LONG strips if possible. Like really skinny French Fries. Really Really skinny.

Once they are cut wash them off with a big bowl of water to get as much starch as possible off.

To add a little color to the dish you can take 1 Pepper, Any Color and slice it as thin as the potatoes and mix it in with them.

I usually leave them in the big bowl until I 'm ready to throw them in the pan.

In a large skillet or well seasoned wok pour a generous amount of Oil to coat the bottom.

Heat your skillet or wok till it's piping hot and then put your potatoes strips in the pan. They should hit and sizzle really good. Make sure to keep them moving so they get coated in the oil.
Heat should be full blast on your biggest burner.

After about 30-45 seconds of Stir Frying them add a spoon full of whatever Spicy stuff you chose to use.

Drop the heat to a medium setting now.

Stir fry until it looks well coated and then poor in 1/2 cup of Chicken Stock. (We use chicken granules dissolved in water.)

Heat should go back up to Med-Hi

Cover and let it simmer/steam for about 2 minutes. Uncover and try to steam off most of the stock.

When there is just small "pool" of chicken stock left you can add Rice Wine Vinegar to taste. We like it really sour and spicy and numb so we add about 3-4 tblspns.

You can also add the Prickly Ash Powder. (THis is somewhat of an aquired taste so you don't have to add it but it's really good.) About 1 tsp is enough.

Stir Fry - Keep it moving.

You should also add a little salt to taste. Just grab a Potato out with a fork or spoon and taste it.

Drop your heat to Low-Simmer.

At this point you can add a little bit of Corn Starch Dissolved in water to thicken up the "pool" that's left. This will help the sauce to stay on the potatoes and add more flavor when you eat it.

All in All this dish should be cooked in under 10 minutes. (Cutting time not included.)

You can make variations on this at will. Don't add the Vinegar for a spicy/numb dish. Don't add the Spicy and just have sour/numb. I think you get the idea.

I hope you figure this out and enjoy it. Let me know if you try it and what suggestions you have to vary the flavor.

Bacon and Peppers

This is a wierd little dish that we've grown to like. It's really simple.


You need:

1lb Thick Cut Bacon or even better buy the 3lb Bacon Scraps Container from Cub.
2-3 Green, Yellow or Red Peppers. (Mostly Green is best.)
Prickly Ash Powder
Salt
Smidge of Chicken Granules

Cut the bacon up into 1 inch squares.
Cut the Peppers up into 1 inch Squares.

Toss the bacon in the pan and start frying it up.

When the bacon gets to the point that there's a nice puddle of bacon grease in the pan and the bacon looks edible but not crispy toss the peppers in. Stir fry the peppers in the bacon grease for 30-45 Seconds. Just make sure they are coated in the grease.

In a cup put a TSP of Chicken Granules in 1/2 cup hot water so they dissolve.

Pour the chicken stock in the peppers and bacon. Yes, you are mixing pork and chicken, it's ok! Take a deep breath and pour.

Make sure your heat is on full blast. Simmer the snot out of it until it looks like all the stock is gone. Let it fry for another minute or two and you have a nice flavorful little dish of Bacon and Peppers.

Home Style Lotus Root

I have no idea how to actually describe this dish but it's amazing.

Here's what you'll need.

1. Everything for Jiaozi except the JiaoZi skins.
2. Fresh Lotus Root.
3. Your Favorite frybatter recipe. (I'd recommend a beer batter that you'd use for fish.
(Click Here for a good one.)

Peel the lotus root or scrape the outer skin and wash well.

Slice it into very thin Rounds.

You will need pairs of rounds so I like to keep them facing the same way and stacked in piles of two. You can do whatever you like, just don't blame me if your halves don't fit together right or they look bad. The flavor will be the same. This can be a bit tedious but the taste is worth it.

Once you have your thin slices set them aside and make your JiaoZi Innards.

On one slice of Lotus root put a spoonful of Jiaozi meat and close it with a second round. Press down just a little so the meat fills the holes of the Lotus Root.

Once you've prepped all the Lotus Root "dumplings" you can heat a large flat bottomed skillet with some Oil. Frying oil like Peanut or Soy will taste the best but I always use Olive Oil. It's up to you. You aren't DEEP frying them so just about a 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom of the pan is fine.

Whip up a THICK batter and dip the Lotus root in coating both sides liberally. Then gently place them in the pan and watch the magic happen.

After a few minutes flip them over. They should be golden BROWN on both sides. Just golden with no browning and they may not be fully cooked.

Let them sit for about 5-10 minutes after cooking so you don't burn your kisser and you should be all set.

First Things First

Selena started a blog and she was posting recipes on it so I asked if I could post some on there. She agreed although I didn't really get the idea of her blog. She wanted to focus on things that are "out of the frying pan" as in not cooked. I was thinking, "out of the frying pan and INTO MY BELLY". Needless to say I decided to pull my recipes from her blog and put them up on my own blog. So for the 2 people who will actually read these recipes. ENJOY!