Cooking with Fuchsia Dunlop's "The Land of Fish and Rice"

[Chris Hennes]

As discussed here, Fuchsia Dunlop has a new book out, The Land of Fish and Rice. Tonight I made one of the quicker recipes from it...

 

Chicken with Young Ginger (p. 106)

 

This is a straightforward chicken stir-fry with a large amount of ginger and a soy sauce and Shaoxing glaze. Lacking access to "fresh young ginger" I simply used the ginger I had on hand. Not great, I know, considering that the whole point of the dish is the ginger, but I was hungry and this dish was fast. 

[liuzhou]

I've made this a few times (not from this book), sometimes using regular ginger and sometimes the specified "fresh young ginger". I've enjoyed both, but the fresh young approach is, to my mind and palate, preferable. The ginger is somehow more alive and peppery, with a fresher taste*.

 

But all we have to use what we can find.

 

By the way, ginger grows easily and fresh young ginger is only a few steps away for even the worst horticulturist. Although, if you need to eat tonight, that doesn't help at all.

* Apologies for my inadequate taste describing vocabulary.

[Wayne]

 

Growing ginger is one of my projects for next season's gardening. I'm a pretty fair horticulturalist so it should be interesting to have young ginger (very difficult to find in my area).

 

 

[liuzhou]

I was in my local supermarket this evening and, as usual, they had three different gingers.

 

Young ginger (子姜 - zi jiāng)

 

Regular ginger (姜 - jiāng)

 

Old ginger (老姜 - lǎo jiāng)

 

The young ginger is mainly used in delicate stir fries such as Chris's example while the old ginger is more used in certain soups, hot pots and stews/braises etc. Regular ginger sits somewhere in between being used in both.

Looking forward to more from Fuchsia's latest book.

[Anna N]

@liuzhou

 Thanks for that. We do it very very occasionally see young ginger in the supermarket and somewhat more often in the Asian grocer. Our supermarket ginger has improved remarkably in recent years.  At one time it was usually old and mouldy. 

[liuzhou]

If anyone wants to dip a little toe into the water of this book before committing, there are three recipes in this Washington Post article. Ignore the moronic headline.

[Wayne]

 

@liuzhou

Thanks for posting the photos. Generally what's available in my area is regular shading into old ginger.

Interesting that your photos show clear healthy 'eyes' on the rhizomes.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2016 by Wayne (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Stir-fried potato slivers with spring onion (p. 200)

 

 

Just slivered potatoes, spring onion greens, and salt, stir-fried briefly to cook the potatoes but leave them a bit firm.

[Okanagancook]

Unbelievably, today at Superstore, they had 'young ginger'.  Did not look all that young so I bought the fresh turmeric instead and I have made  note to try ginger in the garden next season.  Thank you.

 

[liuzhou]

4 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

Just slivered potatoes, spring onion greens, and salt, stir-fried briefly to cook the potatoes but leave them a bit firm.

 

 

Interesting variation on the more usual version with vinegar. Must try this.

[Chris Hennes]

Spicy Chinese cabbage (p. 46)

 

This requires advance planning since the cabbage needs at least a few hours in the salt, but is otherwise nearly trivial. Its ingredients are cabbage, salt, Sichuan peppercorns, dried chiles, and oil. The chiles and fried quickly in the oil and the oil is then poured over the cabbage which had been resting in the salt and peppercorns. 

 

[Chris Hennes]

Shanghai noodles with dried shrimp and spring onion oil (p. 258)

 

Hey look, this one's got seafood in it! Sort of. Still cooking from pantry staples. The only fresh ingredient in this one was the spring onions, since I used dried noodles and everything else is just a pantry item. The longest part of the cooking process was the half-hour soak of the shrimp in Shaoxing and water. They are then fried in oil with the green onions, and that combo is poured over noodles. A bit of soy sauce in the bottom of the bowls, and dinner (or lunch, or midnight snack...) is served.

 

[MelissaH]

Would you make (and eat) these last two again? They look easy enough to be weeknight staples.

[Chris Hennes]

Yes, I'll certainly make them both again. I'll make the cabbage less spicy next time, though.

[Chris Hennes]

Ningbo soy sauce greens (p. 43)

 

This is basically bok choy braised in Shaoxing and light and dark soy sauces. Served at room temperature, so you need some advance planning, and it's very rich.

 

Red-braised fish (p. 141)

 

I'm bad at turning fish over without destroying the lovely crosshatch pattern, so I wouldn't serve this to guests. But braising fish in dark soy and Shaoxing is a good cooking method. I was afraid the dark soy would overwhelm the fish, but it really didn't.

 

 

[liuzhou]

4 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

I was afraid the dark soy would overwhelm the fish, but it really didn't.

 

Dark soy sauce is mainly used for colour. It isn't particularly overwhelming. In fact, I'd say light soy sauce is more so.

[Chris Hennes]

20 hours ago, liuzhou said:

It isn't particularly overwhelming.

I've always found its flavor quite strong (hence my concern). Any recipe I've tried that had dark soy in them, the flavor was always in evidence, it never seemed to disappear into the background, no matter how little there was.

[Chris Hennes]

Hangzhou sweet-and-sour pork (p. 91)

Green bok choy with dried shrimp (p. 192)

 

The pork is deep-fried then glazed with a Chinkiang-and-sugar-based sauce. The bok choy is tossed in stir-fried dried shrimp and finished with a bit of stock.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Shanghai fried rice with salt pork and green bok choy (p. 243)

 

The name says it all, more or less. It's also got red onion, dried shiitake, and ginger.

 

[Chris Hennes]

"Toothless" glutinous rice dumplings with pork and leafy greens (p. 253)

 

I'm definitely outside my comfort zone on this one, I've never had this style of dumplings before. Their texture was unexpected. The dumplings are served in a chicken stock, bok choy, and pork soup. 

 

[rotuts]

wow    that looks delicious.   Ill have to look it up.

[MelissaH]

I might be way off base here, but it's hard to tell from a picture. How similar are those to the Korean rice cakes called dduk or some other spelling that may or may not be along those lines? I can buy them ready-made at the Korean supermarket in Syracuse. If they're at all similar, this would be a super-easy comfort food type of dish.

[Chris Hennes]

@MelissaH, I am not sure, I haven't yet used those rice cakes, though I have a package in the fridge for later this week. I'll make sure to compare the textures when I post about it.

 

Shanghai stir-fried chunky noodles (p. 257)

 

Another borderline-trivial dish: stir-fried pork tossed with noodles, bok choy, and soy sauce. I've been working my way through the dozens of available fresh noodles at the store and liked this brand least of all, but I can't exactly hold that against the recipe!

 

[Chris Hennes]

Shanghai potsticker buns (p. 272)

 

These are yeasted wrappers around a pork dumpling filling. I found the cooking instructions to be a bit off ("high burner" started to burn the ones in the middle of the skillet in under a minute, rather than the 2-4 minutes it was supposed to take to get them browned). Easy enough to compensate for, thought. They were about as easy to make as their non-bun cousins, but ultimately were easier to serve because you can cook them all in one fell swoop instead of doing it in batches.

 

 

[Smokeydoke]

These photos are gorgeous!

 

I would like to participate in this thread. I just checked LAND OF FISH AND RICE from the library.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Smokeydoke (log)