Mr Wozencroft

Fuchsia Dunlops Sichuan Cookery is hands down my favourite chinese cookbook. Many of the recipes are old friends now. I had better plan some space in my allotment for a wealth of broad beans . As sheepish says they are not only expensive but usually starchy by the time they get to supermarkets. I'm going to email Ms. Dunlop and see if she has any leads on this. Oh and btw Sheepish, I have a local supply of some amazingly potent Sichuan peppercorns and facing heaven chilli's. If you are interested, pm me.

Forgive me for not being more precise. I am looking for a chili bean paste recipe that would be best used in sichuan/hunan cuisine. But on the other hand I love chinese food and would be interested in any formulation that impressed your good self. Best regards, Mr. Wozencoft.

I live in the U.K. I have the same problem. Lee Kum Lee is ok but I feel I'm missing out on the real thing. As the ingrediants are readily available here so I'm wondering if anyone knows how to make it from scratch? I've searched the internet but come up lacking. Its salt preserved so all we would need is a salt/flour/broad bean to chilli ratio. I'm presume the broad beans are cooked and mixed with chilli's, salt, water and flour. Then heated to thicken. Does anyone have any leads on this?

There are many variationx of tahina and Chinese sesame paste. Graded from very light to very dark. I prefer the toasted unhulled versions of both. I have used dark and light tahina in Chinese dressings/sauces with good results but the moment I use a Korean dark sesame paste. I have not come across peanut butter as an ingrediant in any of my chinese cookbooks, but peanut butter is cheaper/ more widely available in the west so I'm guessing its used as an aproximation. But is it works and it tastes good, its all liberty hall

For me, like many others, its about squirelling away the good stuff to enjoy another day. I only have a relatively small freezer compartment and its jam packed. So for the last month I have bought no meat; but somehow, magically, its contents never seem to diminish. Any one else have my fortunate problem? -Bags of chicken stock ice cubes. -Fat. Butter, Pork(and skin), duck and beef. Once again in ice cube sized portions. -Fish heads, prawn heads and shells. -Chinese fish cakes. -Egg whites. -Pigs blood. -Chicken feet for stocks and dim sum. -Sichuan hotpot stock. -Red braising stock. -100 gram bags of pork, beef and lamb mince. -Prawns. -Small bags of ham. -Baby squid and other prepped sushi protiens. -Wonton, pizza dough and puff pastry. -bags of bread pieces. -deep fried chinese gluten and blanched canned bamboo shoots. -frozen peas. -bags of meat trimming and shitake mushroom stalks. -Bags of ginger peelings for chinese stock. -and lots of left over soups, stews and currys. I really hate wasting food. I like to portion everything up before I freeze so I only defrost exactly what I need. I also list everything a note pad on the fridge door. So in theory I should know what I have.

Asian ingrediants, my larder is like a mini chinese market. Rows of dried mushrooms, spices, soy sauces, vinigars, dried and preserved goods and a ten kilo sack of great thai rice. Freezer full of stock, fish heads, chicken feet and pork and beef mince. It has been a great little adventure growing from a chinese market newbie to someone who knows their way around the subject a bit. The guy a my local market has finally stopped asking me if I am sure I want to buy the century eggs, chinese sausages and fermented tofu. I like the feeling that apart from fresh goods I am stocked to go.

Speed peeler. Peel goes into a jar of shoasing wine to be used in chinese chicken stock (or freezer bag). Microplane for the flesh. If any flesh is left over I store in a jar with Shoasing wine so I can let them both get to know each other. Little knobbley bits... into the wine jar to be used in stock. p.s. Its easier to grate along the grane rather than against it .

You win. You the man. If we ever get into a garlic pissing contest I'm sure you'll be shooting cloves at the moon But consider cooking when an asian dish with garlic and ginger, the microplane shreds through both quickly and leaves one item to wash up. I'm drinkin beer, your still trying to get that last bit out of the press Cheers...

Does any anyone use a microplane to grate the garlic? Its takes seconds and its closer to a puree than grated garlic. Really usefull for dressings etc...

There many ways of dealing with it. I like to braise it with some aromatics and a glass of wine. When tender strip the meat from bone, cjop and make a ragu with it. Onion, a stick of celery. garlic and olive oil. Then simmer with a few chopped fresh peeled tomatoes and a dash of thai fish sauce. Really good cheap eats.

Spring onions (scallions, welsh onions) deep fried in tempura batter are a revelation.

When working with wet doughs, I prep a plate of cornmeal and flour and coat the doughball lightly in that before shaping. Then I shape onto a non stick matt which then goes onto a peel. Solves the problem of the pie getting stuck on the peel.

I have a thick piece of welsh slate underneath my grill (broiler). I preheat for an hour , shape the pie on a teflon mat before sliding onto the stone with a peel. Then I turn the grill off for a few minutes to give the crust a chance to brown and then turn it back on again to finish off the top. Works a treat.

I tend to finely chop my garlic and grate my ginger of a microplane and add them together. A super hot woks murders the garlic in seconds, so I am always more cautious with my heat levels. When they are fragrent, they are ready. This is one of the reasons I despair of cooking when I have a cold.

I have used the Lee Kum Lee Chilli bean sauce. Its ingrediants are: Salted chilli pepper (48 %), water, fermented soybean paste, fermented broad bean paste, white sugar, garlic, m.s.g. etc. I prefer the Baijia brand. Its ingrediants are: Salad Oil, fermented broad bean sauce, chilli, sichuan pepper, sugar ginger, garlic and m.sg. Not sure which one is more authentic or anything like that, just a personal preference. Incidentaly I bought the Baijia brand at a Korean shop, which was the only place I have found facing heaven chilli's and really good quality Sichuan peppercorns. Suprisingly better than my local chinese markets in terms of Sichuan ingrediants. Perhaps, like myself, the Korean people have a love for Sichuan food? I use the dark pearl river soy sauce and have been happy with it. I prefer the Lee Kum Kee light soya sauce, especially for dipping and noodle sauces.

For the last year i've been trying out various brands of the same products to find out which ones I prefer. So I thought I'd list a few that I recommend: Lee Kum Kee Double Deluxe Soy Sauce. Pearl River preserved black beans. BaiJai chilli bean paste (which has the highest amount of fermented broads beans I have seen so far) Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce. Does anyone use any of these brands? Are there others that you prefer? Please feel fee to list your preferences.

A sourdough mill loaf; mostly unbleached white and part rye. The crust must sing as it comes out of the oven.

Regarding peanut oil, the stuff I find at my local supermarket doesnt taste of much of anything at all. Which makes it fine for stir frys or deepfrying but when I want the taste of peanuts prominent in the oil I head down to the local chinese or korean market. They sell some amazing peanut oils that have a great flavour. I use them for making a sichuan chilli oil but I'm thinking they would be a superb addition to your peanut butter.

Yesterday I made some sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves. So I had a fair amount of mushroom and dried prawn soaking liquid left over. I used a mixture of these two instead of chicken stock in a brocelli with ginger and oyster sauce dish. It worked a treat. I also keep the soaked chinese mushroom stems in the freezer to enhance stocks etc. Parma ham ends that you some times buy very reasonably from deli's make a great addition to a chicken stock if you want to make some thing very special. Edited - cos I forgot to mention I freeze all my ginger peeling to add to stock also, seems a shame to waste them because they are very flavorfull

Am I the only one who likes to mix sriracha with ketchup? You know.... for the fries?

XO sauce is wonderfull stuff with almost limitless possibilities. It amazes me that is was only created in the 80's. Its usually served as a dipping sauce in dim sum joints. I like to use it as a condiment for plain rice, mix it into eggs for an omlette or use it as a spicy unami hit for fried rice. I have been known in the wee small hours to slather it liberally on good bread

I like to braise or confit . Low and slow is the way to go . Its good with mash and perhaps salsa verde or mustard. Once cooked and cooled you can also cut into hearty slices and fry them off. The possibilities are endless. Try looking east, red braised etc.

I have a thick cast iron wok that I use for deep frying. Its heat retention means that you dont get much of a temp drop when you add ingrediants. I use this in tandem with a infrared thermometer so that I can get an accurate temp read. I did try using it for stir-frying when I first got it but I found I prefer a wok to be more mobile and temperature responsive. So now it sits next to my wok on the stobe top for when I want to deep-fry and then pass over with a spider to my carbon steel wok for stir-frying. For this aspect of cooking I highly recomend it.

If you go to FuchsiaDunlop.com and click on the blog link a few people (including myself) have talked about where they get Chinese Ingrediants. I have found the quality of Sichuan Peppercorns in my local chinese markets to be really awfull but most do sell acceptable Lee Kum Kee chilli bean paste and Pearl River Brand black beans. Turkish or middle eastern shops always sell mild, red pickled chilli's. I have never seen them in a chinese supermarket apart from those Thai birdeyes that are far too hot for purpose. Strangley I have had much more success in Korean/Japanese shops and have even sourced some great facing heaven chilli's and very fresh Sichuan peppercorns. I wonder why this is? Perhaps Sichuan food is popular with Koreans or Japanese peoples? I would love to find out if anyone knows. Anyway, I hope this helps.

When I'm in a rush I use a technique I read about in Jeffrey Steingartens "The Man who ate everything" that is attributed to Joel Robuchon. Use a mandoline to cut the potatoes, rinse them in a collander and dry them with t-towells. Then toss them in a cast iron wok and cover with peanut oil or (even better) beef, duck or goose fat. Then I turn on the heat to full and let them cook, stirring occasionly until they are ready. If you are using a double or triple cook method I cant recomend a cast iron piece of cookwear highly enough; as you dont get the temp drop that you usually get in an electric deep fat fryer. An infrared thermoter is very handy indeed for getting a precise idea of temps. Btw do others season with pepper as well as salt?