Filtering by Tag: Szechuan

Favorite Sichuan Recipes From Fuschia Dunlop's Land of Plenty

August 17, 2024 / Christina Barrueta

Fuschia Dunlop's pock-marked Mother Chen's bean curd (ma po dou fu)

Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking by Fuschia Dunlop has been one of my favorite cookbooks for more than 20 years. I’ll be adding more photos as I find them, but here are a couple of my favorites:

Pock-marked Mother Chen's bean curd (ma po dou fu) (page 313). For the ma po tofu photo above, I used firm tofu, although I prefer it with soft.

Dry-fried chicken (ganbian ji) (page 243)

Chicken with chiles (la zi ji), page 240.

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tags / Fuschia Dunlop, Land of Plenty, dry-fried chicken, mapo tofu, Sichuan, Szechuan

Jiao ma ji pian (Chicken Slices with Sichuan Pepper and Sesame Oil Sauce)

December 24, 2015 / Christina Barrueta

Sichuan is one of my favorite cuisines and Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking is my favorite cookbook for authentic dishes. It's such a comprehensive resource for ingredients and techniques with helpful photos, and every recipe I've made goes into my regular rotation. There's a section in the book with four different sauces for cold sliced or shredded chicken. These no-cook sauces are easy to put together with a well-stocked Asian pantry and I make these dishes frequently for lunch. While the book calls for poaching a whole chicken to tenderness with ginger and green onion, I find the sauces are a perfect solution for leftover chicken. The green onions can be left sliced, or made into a paste as they are in this recipe. I use green onions from my garden. Both I'itoi's onions or Egyptian Walking Onions multiply prolifically here in Arizona, and this time I used I'itoi's onions.

TIPS:

Don't confuse "light" soy sauce with low-calorie or low-salt. It refers to a color; light versus dark soy sauce. The easy-to-find Kikkoman is a light soy sauce, although I prefer Pearl River Bridge brand (found at most Asian markets).

I haven't made it with the raw peppercorns as I always have some toasted, ground and sifted in a jar in the pantry. I toast them in a pan, grind in a spice grinder, and sift into a container. It has a very distinct taste so if you're trying them for the first time, go light on this ingredient. When shopping for Sichuan peppercorns, look for fragrance and more husks than seeds. I buy mine from Penzey's. I find they're always high quality with the prized tingling or numbing quality these peppercorns should have.

Jiao Ma Ji Pian Adapted from Land of Plenty

1/2-1 teaspoon whole Sichuan peppercorns or ground Sichuan peppercorn powder
5 tops of green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons chicken stock
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1-1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil
1 pound cooled cooked chicken

Recipe:

Soak the Sichuan peppercorns in very hot water for 5 minutes until softened and drain.
Puree peppercorns, green onions and salt in a food processor or grind to a paste in a mortar. Transfer to a bowl.
Add the chicken stock and soy sauce and when combined stir in the sesame oil. Salt to taste, and drizzle over the chicken slices.
Alternately: Whisk ground Sichuan pepper, salt, chicken stock, soy sauce and sesame oil until combined. Add sliced green onions, and pour over sliced chicken.

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tags / Sichuan, Szechuan, chicken, I'itio's onions, sesame oil

Sichuan cooking: Ma po tofu

June 21, 2015 / Christina Barrueta

I first fell in love with Sichuan food when I lived in Boston (some of my posts on Chowhound.com about Sichuan Garden here, and Anise here and here). Locally, I loved Miu's in Tempe (pictures here; now closed) and had a great lunch on one visit last year to Szechwan Palace at the COFCO Chinese Cultural Center. After discovering Fuschia Dunlop's Land of Plenty cookbook, now I can enjoy Sichuan at home too. Ma po tofu ("pock-marked woman's tofu") is one of my favorite dishes, and her version is excellent.

Tips: Silken tofu is the best for this, although I used firm in the dish above. The tofu is meant to be swimming in a hot and spicy chile oil, though you can cut down the oil in the recipe. My favorite chile bean paste is the first one with the blue and yellow label, although the Lee Kum Kee brand is very good and easier to find. I just picked up the one in the can, but haven't tried it yet.

I like it fiery so I add the optional fresh-ground chile peppers.

I buy Penzey's Szechuan Peppercorns because they are high quality and fragrant (your looking for the rosy-red pods with just a few of the black, gritty seeds).

Some of the bags I've bought at the Asian market have been old or mostly seeds. You want peppercorns that make your tongue tingle and give this dish its distinctive ma la ("spicy and numbing"). I toast them in a dry pan, grind in a spice grinder, and then put them through a fine sieve.

Fermented/salted black beans and garlic chives from the garden. I rinse the beans before using as they can be too salty.

Pock-Marked Mother Chen's Bean Curd (ma po dou fu). Adapted from "Land of Plenty".

Ingredients:

Serves 2 as a main course with rice

1 block of tofu (about a pound)
4 baby leeks/spring onions/scallions/garlic chives
1/2 cup of peanut oil
6 ounces of ground beef or pork
2 ½ tablespoons Sichuan chilli bean paste
1 tablespoon black fermented/salted beans.
2 teaspoons ground ground dried chiles (optional)
1 cup of chicken stock
1 teaspoon white sugar
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
salt to taste
2 tablespoons of cornstarch or potato flour mixed with 3 tablespoons of water
Ground roasted Sichuan peppercorns

Instructions:

Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes.
Slice the onions at an angle in 1 to 2-inch pieces.
Heat the peanut oil in a wok or pan over high heat.
Add the ground meat and stir-fry until it is crispy.
Lower the heat to medium and add the chili bean paste, stir-frying for about 30 seconds to turn the oil red.
Add the black beans, ground chile (if you like it super-spicy), stock, sugar, soy sauce, and salt to taste and stir to combine. Simmer for a couple minutes to blend the flavors.
Add the tofu and simmer for about 5 minutes so it absorbs some of the broth.
Add the green onions and when they are just cooked, pour in the cornstarch or potato flour mixture a little at a time (I use about half of it). You want the sauce to be slightly thick and glossy.
Pour in a bowl and finish with a sprinkling of ground Sichuan peppercorns.

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categories / Cooking In
tags / Sichuan, Szechuan, cooking, ma po tofu, bean curd