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Pictorial Recipe Sichuan Chili Pepper Chicken (辣子雞丁) I don't cook Sichuan style dishes too often. Recently I have been to a Sichuan restaurant and had the Chili Pepper Chicken dish: http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11413761..._2014_29757.jpg The wonderful flavor of chili combined with the numbing taste of Sichuan peppercorns is addictive! I tried to reproduce this dish following some recipes found in different websites. It took me 3 trials to come up with the best result that I like, which I am presenting here. The real Sichuan style would have used 150 - 200 dried red chilis. I have used only about 50. Feel free to add more dried red chili if you like. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 4 Preparations: Main ingredients (upper right, clockwise): - Chicken meat (with skin and bones), about 2 lb - Dried red chili peppers, use at least 50 (up to 200 or so) - Sichuan peppercorns, about 3-4 tsp (or you may use more) - 2-3 shallots - Ginger, about 1 to 2 inch in length - Garlic, use 5-6 cloves - 4 stalks of green onions - A few prigs of cilantro for garnishing Chop the chicken meat into cubes (with skin and bones), about 1 x 2 inches. Dark meat has more flavors. I used some chicken thighs and chicken wings. To marinate: very simply... add 2-3 tsp of light soy sauce, 2 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine, 1 tsp of salt (or to taste). Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside for 30 minutes before cooking. [Not shown in the pictures: Peel and cut the shallots into small wedges. Peel and mince 5-6 cloves of garlic. Trim end and cut 4 stalks of green onions into 1 to 2 inch in length. Peel and cut 1-2 inch of ginger into small slices.] To make the dried red chili peppers not as easy to burn, soak them in water for 20 minutes or so. Drain the water well before use. Cooking Instructions: Use a wok. Set stove to high. Heat up about 3 to 4 cups of frying oil. The oil must be very hot before deep-frying the chicken meat. This may take up to 10 minutes or more to heat up on a regular stove. Observe the oil. Wait until it start swirling before use. Add the marinated chicken. Note that the chicken pieces will start sizzling right away (it they don't, the oil is not hot enough). Deep-fry for a few minutes until the chicken pieces turn golden brown and crispy on the outside. You may need to divide the deep-frying into a couple of batches. Use a colander to drain off the excess oil. Drain all frying oil. Clean the wok. Set stove on high again. Heat the wok until fuming hot. Add 2-3 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil starts fuming. First add all dried red chili peppers and Sichuan pepper corn. Stir. Fry for 15-20 seconds. Add minced garlic, chopped shallots, chopped green onions (white portion only) and sliced ginger. Add 1/2 tsp of salt, 1-2 tsp of chili bean sauce, 1 tsp of brown bean sauce. Stir-well. (Be careful of the choking smell from the Sichuan peppercorns. Dash in 2 tsp ShaoHsing cooking wine. Stir the ingredients well. Cook for 1 minute or so. Return the chicken pieces and add the chopped green onions (green portion). Dash in 1-2 tsp of dark soy sauce. Stir and fry for a couple of minutes until all ingredients are well-mixed. Finished. Transfer to a serving plate. Serve immediately. Picture of the finished dish. Add some cilantro for garnishing if desired. Serve with more hot chili oil or chili sauce as condiments if desired. Keys to cooking this dish 1. (Per one website's comment): You may use more or less dried chili pepper and Sichuan peppercorn as you like. The best is have all the hot chilis covering the chicken, and not just a few chilis mixed with the chicken pieces. 2. You should use salt to marinate the chicken meat before deep-frying. If you only add salt while stir-frying the chicken later, the outside of the chicken meat is already dry from the deep-frying so the salty taste will not infiltrate into the meat. 3. The oil you use to deep-fry the chcken meat must be very hot, so that the meat is crispy on the outside while still tender on the inside. If the oil is not hot enough, you end up having to deep-fry the chicken for too long and the meat becomes hard.

Your final dish looked really good! I am glad you like the taste. Wow... this is the first time that I have participated in commenting and, as it turned out, have influenced the outcome of a blog! In real time!

Looking good... I would have used a lot more ginger. Perhaps 2-inch worth in length cut in thin slices. Sorry I should have provided quantities when you have selected my entry. Well... this is a test to your Chinese culinary skills. You do have the lid on when you cooked, right? Oh, yeah, you showed us the glass lid from previous pictures...

Wow! I feel like dancing! I am honored. I hope you would like that recipe. I have forgotten to mention salt. Just add some to taste if you like. Both nam yu and fu yu are a bit salty. You adjust. (I have edited the original note.) Let's see how it comes out!

Since you have quite a bit Chinese ingredients, I can suggest the goat/mutton Cantonese style. I can't tell the scale of these meats. Perhaps make a few cut to make them more manageable. First brown the meat with a little bit of oil, salt, pepper (white or black would work). Since goat meat is quite musky, you may want to sprinkle some whole cumins while browning. Remove from pot. Use the same pot, add a little more oil, stir-fry: nam yu (2-3 cubes if small), fu yu (2 cubes), garlic, ginger, a little bit of salt (to taste), drop 2 tsp ShaoHsing wine. Stir well. Add broth and water - just enough that would cover the meat. When the liquid comes to a boil, add five spice powder or the whole five spice (cinnamon, clove, star anise, cumin, sichuan peppercorn and such) and some dark soy sauce, a little bit of sugar. Once boiling, turn down the stove to a simmer. Return the goat meat to let it simmer/bubbly for 2 hours with a lid on. That's it. If you want something to accompany the goat meat: use beancurd sticks (I showed that in the braised bass pictorial recipe) - soak for an hour first. Add to the pot about 30 minutes before serving. Or you can buy a daikon. Peel and wedge it. Add about 1 hour before serving. Use a bit of cilantro to garnish.

I always got confused when people talk about tripe. Commonly there are 2 kinds of tripes (which are both called tripe in English). In Chinese they have 2 distinct names: 1) 牛肚. This is also called the honeycomb tripe. Pictures: http://images.google.com/images?svnum=100&...%89%9B%E8%82%9A These are the one usually sold in wonton shops over noodle soup, or rice noodle soup. I think that's the kind you are referring to in the original post. And: 2) 牛柏葉. This is the tripe that is usually white in color not brown. Pictures: http://images.google.com/images?q=%E7%89%9...%E8%91%89&hl=en From my experience, if you just boil the tripes the muscles tend to get very tough. I think the proper way to cook it is: Clean the tripe first. Put it in a pot of boiling water and quick boil for only 2 minutes. Remove and cleanse the tripes under running water to wash away the suds. Then use a pot to prepare your flavoring sauce: nam yu, lo shui, etc.. Boil this pot of sauce. Once it starts boiling, immediately turn down the heat to a simmer. Put in the tripe and simmer (bubbly) for 2+ hours (whole, don't cut the tripe until serving time). Then the muscle should be soft enough to chew on with ease. Here is one recipe that illustrate how to do the sauce. I cooked beef shank but you may cook tripe or tendon exactly the same way: Beef Shank Braised with Five Spice and Soy Sauce (五香牛腱) The key is not to boil the muscles on high stove setting (except the cleansing round). Only simmer right from the start.

Ha! I can't bake a thing to save my life. Maybe I will try this too! Too tempting

The "red" label, as in most cultures, means "unsafe to eat" or "eat at your own risk"!

I have been to this Saigon restaurant on El Cajun Blvd! I can recognize the interior and the painting on the wall. I like their food too. That was about 4 years ago. Looks like they are doing well...

Do you mean you can pick your own plate of appetizer? But this is not a buffet restaurant? US$15.00 pp sounds like a terrific deal.

Great minds think alike! I love to get bottles of carrot juice from Trader Joe's. I usually get the 64 oz... multiple bottles. At US$3.50 or so I think it's a pretty good deal. I can drink this all day too.

Thanks for the link to the picture, Kent. I got it now! It is a matter of different regional naming in Chinese. Cantonese call these "Mein Gun" [Cantonese dialect], "Mein" as in "noodle", "Gun" means "root", which is totally different from "Kao Fu" in Mandarin. No wonder I have not clue. In Hong Kong Cantonese practice, they cook these in all sorts of different sauces (sweet and sour, oyster sauce, curry, etc.) in some "vegetarian" shops/restaurants. I guess we Cantonese don't eat it in daily cooking as often.

Much difference? Dun know. I paid very little attention to where the rice was farmed: China or Thailand. When I saw the Chinese words on "Sticky Rice", I just grabbed the bag and go. I like this particular brand (Budhha) on their regular long grain rice. So I just picked their sticky rice as well.

Yeah. Those can be considered baby bok choy. But in Sacramento I can get some dwarf baby bok choy (baby baby bok choy?) about 1/2 to 2/3 of the height of yours. Ooouuu... I love your cleaver! Looking *sharp*! Pun intended.

Thank you for the testimony, John. Did you resolve to using the oven to roast the peanuts like I did? Or you did it all on a wok/pan? I am about to make a second batch. See if I can get some better result this time - not have too many burnt peanuts. 80% of my last batch went to my wife's snack jar.

mizducky loose in an Asian market again? It is nice to live close to one of these market isn't it? I might just have fresh fish everyday! When I went to SDSU in the early 80's, I could count the number of Vietnamese restaurants along University Ave with one hand. I understand since I departed in 83 there were many new Vietnamese immigrants set up shops along University and El Cajon Blvd. It would be nice to have them close by too. From one Pho restaurant to another, I think the most important distinction is in the soup. The raw beef slices, bean sprouts/basils/jalapeno slices... anybody can prepare that... The vegetable you showed in this picture: (White stems, green leaves) is what Cantonese call "bok choy". In Cantonese (at least Hong Kong Cantonese), "choy sum" is a vegetable has green stems and green leaves. http://www.foodsubs.com/Cabbage.html#bok This is a picture of what Cantonese call "choy sum" (click on the image to enlarge): (Choy Sum)

Hmmm.... I think that "kao fu" is 烤腐 then, with "fu" referring to "fu pi"? But that still doesn't quite make sense. Fu in "Fu pi" is made from soy beans. Gluten is made from wheat? Why would it be called "fu pi"? Kao meants BBQ or bake from your translation. Are those gluten really BBQ'ed or baked? Did we misunderstand the Chinese name for this? A picture of the package or the dish would really help. Most of the time I have trouble recognizing an English translation of the item, or the recollected phonetic memory of somethint called in Chinese, then identifying an item from a picture. I guess I am totally a visual person.

The word "Rou Song" [Mandarin] literally just mean "fluffy meat". While "Rou" (meat) typically implies pork (from Chinese rural culture, oxes are raised as farmer helpers but pigs are raised to be food). It can definitely be made with other types of meats. And just about anything goes... but the popular ones are just fish (swordfish I think) and pork. Tepee's link point to some other meat products, such as chicken and prawns. But I have not tasted any other than fish and pork. Crocodile song, any one?

I have a hard time figuring out what "kau fu" is, both in Chinese and in English. I know you guys are referring to wheat gluten. But they come in different forms and shapes; some flavored, some not; some deep-fried, some "puffed", some are "solid". Some wheat gluten forms the shape of intestines, chicken meat, duck meat for different kinds of mock meat dishes. Regardless of the forms and shapes, one thing in common is that the wheat gluten itself, like tofu, is very bland. It relies on the seasoning you add to it, be it soy sauce, oyster sauce, nam yu, whatever, for flavor. I suggest that if you use wheat gluten to cook with other vegetables, first fry the gluten slices with a little bit of oil, then add some soy sauce to coat it with some dark brown color/flavor, remove, then later add it to the vegetables you want mix the gluten with. Cantonese use dark soy sauce in many of the braised dishes (e.g. chicken, beef stews, innards, etc.). We add sugar to it some times, depending on the recipes. Perhaps not as liberally in as the Shanghainese style.

Welcome back, Gastro Mui-Mui! We all miss your humorous postings! Did you bring your cheong-sam to the Big Apple? And the Gai Mo So? I thought you went learning to make Italian food in Europe! Pork belly? Well... you know... The ruler of our house (and it ain't me ) has established a list of forbidden ingredients for cooking. I just have to cook without those. Tease me as you may... but no pork belly, no chicken dark meat (may be occassionally uplifted), no skin... et cetera, et cetera.

I would say it's a tooth paste with both ends flattened? Tootsie Roll? Okay... from a solid geometry point of view, it is a cylinder intersecting two triangular prisms, one on each side, with the 2 prisms offset by a 90 degree angle along the axis of the cylinder... Signed, Ah Nerd Leung

You can say that again! It took me 1+ hour for the prep works in Day 1. Another 1+ hour for the prep works in Day 2 before wrapping. And 3-4 hours (can't remember) to wrap 40+ joongs. I was working by myself and I didn't work that fast. The wrapping part is best to recruit family members to help out... Get some cheap child labor in your house... Doing this once a year should be good. No more often than that...

mizducky: This recipe: Fried Bass with Tofu Sheets (beancurd sticks) (枝竹炆鱸魚) should also work with the big head carp.

#63, Joong/Jongzi (Sticky Rice Wrapped in Bamboo Leaves) (鹹肉粽)

Pictorial Recipe Joong/Jongzi (Sticky Rice Wrapped in Bamboo Leaves) (鹹肉粽) The fifth day of the fifth month (Lunar Calendar) is Dragon Boat Festival. The traditional treat for this festival is "Joong" [Cantonese], or "Jongzi" [Mandarin]. It is made from sticky rice and other ingredients/seasoning wrapped in a few bamboo leaves and boiled for a couple of hours. When ready to serve, simply heat up the joong and peel off the bamboo leaves. I made 40+ joongs this year. This is a series of illustrations on how to make joong (with salted pork and other ingredients (we call "liu")). The cooking part is easy. Most of the efforts goes into preparations. If you are learning how to make joong, don't need to make that many. Try making 5 or 10 to practice. Reduce the ingredient quantities proportionally. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 40 Preparations: Main ingredients: - Sticky rice (5 lb bag), use 2 1/2 bags (about 12-13 lbs) - Mung beans (12 oz package), use 3 packs - Salted eggs x 18 (3 packs, 6 eggs in each pack) or more - Dried conpoy, about 30 - Dried black mushrooms, about 30 to 40 - Pork butt or pork shoulder, about 2 lb - Raw peanuts (12 oz package), use 2 packs - Chestnuts (ready to eat, 12 oz package), use 3 packs - Dried shrimp (12 oz package), use 2 packs - Laap Cheung (Chinese sausage). Use 10 (1 pack) - 1 bag of dried bamboo leaves, about 150 Qty - 1 roll of small strings to tie the joong This is a bag of sticky rice, 5 lb package. Use 2 1/2 bags. These are mung beans, 12 oz packages. Use 3 packs. These are salted eggs, 6 eggs in each package. Use 3 packs (or more). A close-up view of the salted eggs. Dried conpoy. Use about 30. Dried black mushrooms. Use about 30 to 40. Pork Butt. Use about 2 lb. Raw peanuts. 12 oz in a package. Use 2 packs would be enough. Close-up view of the raw peanut package. Chestnuts, already shelled and cooked, ready to eat. Use 3 packs. Close-up view of the chestnut package. Note: If you use raw chestnuts, you need to precook them and shell them before wrapping. Dried shrimp, 4 oz in a package. Use 2 packs. Laap Cheung (Chinese sausage). There are different flavors. I used the ones made with duck livers. There are 10 sausages in a package. Use 1 pack. Dried bamboo leaves. Depending on how you wrap your joongs, you use 2, 3 or 4 leaves to wrap each one. I used 4 because my joongs are big. You may use 3 if they are smaller. Budget about 10% extra because some leaves do break during wrapping and cannot be used. Left-over, soaked bamboo leaves can be dried and store away for next year. They are very inexpensive anyway. (US$1.50 for a bag of 150 leaves or so). Close-up view of the dried bamboo leave bundle. The preparation of making joong starts the day before because many ingredients need to be soaked in water overnight. Day 1: Soak the sticky rice. Make sure you have enough water to cover the top. Soak the mung beans. Make sure you have enough water to cover the top. They expand quite a bit. Soak the dried conpoy. Soak the black mushrooms. Soak the raw peanuts. Cut the pork butt into big pieces (1 inch by 2 inches). 1 piece of pork per joong. To marinate (for 2 lb of meat): Add 2-3 tsp of light soy sauce, 2-3 tsp of dark soy sauce, 1-2 tsp of salt, 4 tsp of Shao Hsing cooking wine, 1 tsp of ground white pepper, 3-4 tsp of five spice powder. Mix the ingredients well. Store in the refrigerator overnight. Soak the bamboo leaves overnight in a small water bin. Use something such as a soup bowl to weigh down the leaves to make sure they are all immersed in water. Day 2: (1 hour before wrapping) Soak the dried shrimp. It doesn't take long for them to become soft. Drain the water from the soaked black mushrooms. Trim ends and cut mushrooms into thin slices (or dices). Cut the Chinese sausages diagonally into 1/4 slices. Break open all salted eggs. Separate the egg white from egg yolk. (Only use the egg yolks to make joong.) I cut the yolks into halves. You may use whole ones if you like. Open the packages of the ready-to-eat chestnuts. Drain the water from the soaked dried conpoy. (You may save the soaking liquid for cooking other dishes.) Pul the conpoy into shreds by hand. Use a pan/wok. Set stove to high. Wait until pan is hot. Add 3 tblsp of cooking oil. Drain the water from the soaked dried shrimp. Add the shrimp to the pan. Fry for a minute or two. Add the sliced black mushrooms. Mix well and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Dash in 2-3 Shao Hsing cooking wine and 3 tsp of dark soy sauce. Mix well and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside. Drain the water from the soaking sticky rice. For each 4lb portion (there are 3 portions total), add 3-4 tsp of dark soy sauce, 1 tblsp of cooking oil and 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt. Mix the dark soy sauce, oil and salt with the stick rice well. Also, drain off the water from all other ingredients (e.g. mung beans, peanuts, etc.). Retreive the marinated pork from the refrigerator. This is how the bamboo leaves look after being soaked overnight. Drain the water from the bin. Boil one pot of water. Pour the pot of boiling water onto the bin. There are 2 reasons for this: 1) Sterilizatoin - killing off the molds that reside on the bamboo leaves. 2) Makes the leaves soft to make wrapping easier. (Note: Many recipes call for boiling the bamboo leaves in a big pot or on a wok. Chef Dejah also suggested adding a little bit of vinegar in the water to make the leaves softer.) Day 2: Wrapping of a joong There are different wrapping methods. I am showing mine which uses 3 to 4 bamboo leaves. There is an excellent web page (produced in Taiwan) that shows a video on how to wrap a joong. The page is written in Chinese. Click on the link at the upper left corner to view the video (about 7 minutes). The video was narrated in both Mandarin and English. They wrap a small joong with only 2 leaves, but form a perfect tetrahedron shape. Perhaps I should do that next year. http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/culture/chinese/cul...ml/vod14_09.htm Take one leave. Make it into a U-shape. Take a second leave. Wrap on the outside of the first leave. This extends the "wall" to surround the joong ingredients. Hold the 2 leaves in one hand. It becomes easier to hold them when you have added the ingredients onto the leaves. First add a few tblsp of sticky rice. Add the mung beans. Add the "highlight" ingredients: salted pork, salted egg yolk (half), 2 pieces of laap cheung. Add shreds of conpoy, 1 or 2 chestnuts. Add the stir-fried dried shrimp, black mushrooms and peanuts. At this stage, add a third bamboo leave to extend the "wall" to hold the ingredients. Add more mung beans. Finish off with adding more sticky rice. You may add a fourth leave to make it easier to close the joong. Just close the side and hold on to it in one hand. Start to tie the string but wrapping it around the bamboo leaves. Wrap it around by 7 to 8 times or so. Close out the bottom of the joong by folding the leave ends back up towards the center. Wrap the string around the leave ends to secure. This is how the joong looks like when the string is tied. Repeat the same process to make more joongs until the ingredients are used up. Cooking Instructions: Cooking is the easy part. Just use a big pot. Lay the joongs inside the pot. Fill the pot up with water. Boil the joongs (with lid on) for about 2 hours. Add more water once about an hour into boiling. Reduce the stove setting to medium from high after the initial boil. Remove the joongs from the pot and serve. You may need to divide the joongs into different batches and boil them one batch at a time, as most of us don't have a pot big enough to hold 40+ joongs. Joongs may be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. They also survive the freezing process rather well. If you make a big batch, you may spread it out the next couple of months to enjoy. Serve each joong individually. Cut the strings and unwrap. Discard the bamboo leaves. Picture of the finished dish. Serve with some slightly sweetened dark soy sauce.