Pictorial: Ma Po Tofu

[Will]

I can get dried (and powdered) chaotianjiao (facing heaven) chilis here in LA a lot of the time, at least the bag claims they are. After drying, the shape is not so very different from Tianjin style peppers, but the top is a little bit wider, and the texture a bit different. I think the heat and flavor are both a little bit higher than standard peppers, but they are definitely not hot like Thai bird shit chilis. The ones I get look like this:

I've been trying to grow fresh ones for a while -- finally just got the first blossom, but probably too cold for any to grow this year.

Sichuan food tends to use dried chilies a lot more often than fresh, and I don't think either dried or fresh are usually used (directly) in mapo doufu - I think the heat usually comes from the doubanjiang and from chili oil being added, or possibly crushed chaotianjiao.

One tip for those looking for good doubanjiang. Most of the Pixian doubanjiang that doesn't have preservatives or MSG comes in little plastic pouches rather than in jars. So try looking with the sauces in pouches rather than jars when you're looking for it.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Will (log)

[KennethT]

@liuzhou I was watching this video and was wondering what you thought of it:

 

There are a few Sichuan restaurants near us, which have been deemed "authentic" by a friend of a friend who grew up in Sichuan province somewhere.  There are a few differences from their versions and this - they use copious amounts of garlic yet he doesn't seem to use any.  He uses a pickled ginger, whereas the restaurants here use chopped fresh ginger (I have no idea if they use a pickled chili or not).  The places here use quite a bit of leeks cut into about 25x40mm pieces while he uses what looks like garlic chives mainly as a garnish.  Is he using Sichuan peppercorns at all?  Is that what he means by 'Sichuan green peppercorns'? They look different than what I get here.

 

I'm curious as to how his version varies from what you see made in your local area...  Thanks!

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, KennethT said:

@liuzhou I was watching this video and was wondering what you thought of it:

 

There are a few Sichuan restaurants near us, which have been deemed "authentic" by a friend of a friend who grew up in Sichuan province somewhere.  There are a few differences from their versions and this - they use copious amounts of garlic yet he doesn't seem to use any.  He uses a pickled ginger, whereas the restaurants here use chopped fresh ginger (I have no idea if they use a pickled chili or not).  The places here use quite a bit of leeks cut into about 25x40mm pieces while he uses what looks like garlic chives mainly as a garnish.  Is he using Sichuan peppercorns at all?  Is that what he means by 'Sichuan green peppercorns'? They look different than what I get here.

 

I'm curious as to how his version varies from what you see made in your local area...  Thanks!

 

His ingredients do seem a bit odd. I've never seen pickled ginger being used in mapo doufu. He also uses pickled chillies. Pickled chillies are used a lot in Sichuan, but again, I've never seen them in mapo doufu. The lack of garlic is bewildering. Perhaps he just forgot!

The green peppercorns are indeed a variety of Sichuan peppercorn. The ones you are probably used to are the red variety. I have both, but I suspect the green ones are rarer outside China.

 

Green Sichuan Peppercorns

 

As to what the subtitles call the 'garlic sprout', the Chinese says 葱苗 (cōng miáo), which is literally 'onion sprout' and is the term used in Sichuan. I'm 99% sure that is what is known round here as 大葱 (dà cōng) meaning Chinese green onion or spring onion, a type of scallion See Allium Fistulosum.

 

大葱

 

That said, Chinese terms for scallion and leek type things are a notorious minefield. What means one thing in one part of the country often means the opposite in another. There is an old, confused and confusing eG discussion here on scallions, leeks etc. By the way, contributor @fiore is Fuchsia Dunlop.

 

 

Edited May 19, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[Hassouni]

12 hours ago, liuzhou said:

The green peppercorns are indeed a variety of Sichuan peppercorn. The ones you are probably used to are the red variety. I have both, but I suspect the green ones are rarer outside China.

 

Green Sichuan Peppercorns

 

 

 

 

 

@liuzhou, you're correct, the green ones are definitely more rare outside China, at least in the US. I only started seeing them recently and not frequently, which is a shame because I really like them!

 

From what I remember eating around Chengdu a year and a half ago, mapodoufu and similar dishes (such as shuizhu niurou, "water-boiled" beef) used the red Sichuan pepper, whereas primarily seafood used green, but I'm sure it's more subtle than that. 

Edited May 19, 2021 by Hassouni (log)

[liuzhou]

6 minutes ago, Hassouni said:

 

@liuzhou, you're correct, the green ones are definitely more rare outside China, at least in the US. I only started seeing them recently and not frequently, which is a shame because I really like them!

 

From what I remember eating around Chengdu a year and a half ago, mapodoufu and similar dishes (such as shuizhu niurou, "water-boiled" beef) used the red Sichuan pepper, whereas primarily seafood used green, but I'm sure it's more subtle than that. 

 

I'd need to think about which variety is used in which dishes. The last time I remember having green ones in a restaurant was about a month ago and we were eating frog. The peppercorns were fresh, still on the stalk and utterly wonderful. Frog does often appear in the seafood section of menus for some reason.

 

The restaurant I was in only does frog There is no menu. Only one dish - frog.

I've certainly had seafood with red ones though, but remember Sichuan is landlocked, so seafood is not a traditional or big part of their cuisine.

Edited May 19, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[Eatmywords]

so the green ones aren't premature red ones?

[liuzhou]

2 minutes ago, Eatmywords said:

so the green ones aren't premature red ones?

 

No.