A pictorial guide to Chinese cooking ingredients

[liuzhou]

Today I’m getting volcanic and beating about the bush.

 

火山豆 (huǒ shān dòu) literally means ‘volcano bean’ and is one name for a culinary nut, better known as 夏威夷果 (xià wēi yí guǒ), literally meaning Hawaii being a phonetic rendition and really meaning very little in a literal sense. This nut doesn’t originate in Hawaii, though. It is one of two species native to Queensland, Australia - Macadamia integrifolia or Macadamia tetraphylla. There are two other species of Macadamia but they are inedible as they contain cyanogenic glycosides which you don’t want to contain.

 

They are named after chemist, medical teacher, and politician John Macadam, who was the honorary Secretary of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria beginning in 1857.

 

The nuts were eaten in the bush by Australian aboriginals but only produced en masse commercially in the 1920s after seeds of the trees had been introduced to Hawaii in the 1880s. Today the largest producer is South Africa.

 

The trees do not produce nuts until around seven years old and the nuts have to gathered by hand making them relatively expensive. Although, once they do produce nuts they go on doing so for up to 100 years.

 

The are used mainly as snack nuts or in cakes and desserts. Macadamia oil is also available. It has a high smoke point, but is expensive. Their shells are extremely hard to crack; those sold here come with a key to facilitate entry.

 

 

Note: Macadamias are toxic to dogs and cats.

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

 

 

This one is for my mother.

 

Corylus avellana are hazelnuts, cobnuts or filberts depending on species. The have several names in Chinese but 榛子 (zhēn zi) is most common for the unshelled nuts, while 榛仁 (zhēn rén) covers the shelled kernels.

 

 

The English name ‘hazelnut’ is ancient, dating back to the Old English ‘hæselhnutu’ first recorded in 725 AD, ‘Filbert. came from the French ‘noix de filbert’ in the 13th century and ‘cobnut’ from their cobblestone-like appearance in the 15th.

 

Hazelnut Kernels

 

They are used here much as they are elsewhere – in cakes, pies and mainly in chocolate. I’m told some of Starbucks’ Chinese competitors do a hazelnut flavoured coffee, but I never go there. We even get Nutella (能多益 - néng duō yì) here. I most certainly don’t go there. Can’t stand the stuff.

 

Nutella Ingredients. PD Image

 

 

[liuzhou]

I’ve been pining for this one. But I’m not fussy.

 

There are no songs related to these that I know of but 松子 (sōng zǐ) or, less often, 松瓤 (sōng ráng) here are Pinus koraiensis, pine nuts. I’d always considered these to be European but I was very wrong. In fact, the top producing areas are all in Asia with  China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan leading the way in that order.[

 

 

Pine and its nuts, from the Latin ‘pinus’ entered English over 1,000 years ago. The name ‘pignoli’, as sometimes used in America, is not the Italian name which is ’pinoli’. ‘Pignoli’ in Italy more usually means ‘picky’ or ‘fussy’. How, this amusing error arose is not clear, but I have theories which I won’t trouble you with.

 

As with most ‘nuts’, pine nuts are not nuts in any botanical sense; they are simple seeds, gymnosperms in botanical terms with that being from the Greek ‘γυµνόσπερµ-ος’, meaning ‘naked seed’.

 

There are 20 viable edible species, with P. koriaensis being the most common worldwide. Europe favours P. pinea whereas America tends to go most for P. edulis, P. monophylla or, in Mexico, P. cembroides.

 

Here they are used in pseudo-salads, stir fries, braises with meats etc much as in the west. I use them to make pesto, a decidedly not Chinese sauce. I have to grow the basil. Pine nut oil is seldom used as it has a low smoke point rendering it unsuitable for frying. The producers can make more selling the nuts.

 

Some (not many) people, when eating pine nuts, find they suffer from what is known as dysgeusia, a ‘taste disturbance’ popularly known as ‘pine mouth’. This can last up to two weeks. Symptoms are a bitter metallic taste in the mouth a day or two after consuming pine nuts. The US Food and Drug Administration investigated this and concluded that it was largely, if not entirely, caused by food fraud, with cheaper non-edible Pinus armandii being substituted for more expensive species. Results were not conclusive though as not everyone who eats the same nuts suffers the condition and some report the symptoms with other species.

 

 

[Katie Meadow]

13 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I’ve been pining for this one. But I’m not fussy.

 

There are no songs related to these that I know of but 松子 (sōng zǐ) or, less often, 松瓤 (sōng ráng) here are Pinus koraiensis, pine nuts. I’d always considered these to be European but I was very wrong. In fact, the top producing areas are all in Asia with  China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan leading the way in that order.[

 

 

Pine and its nuts, from the Latin ‘pinus’ entered English over 1,000 years ago. The name ‘pignoli’, as sometimes used in America, is not the Italian name which is ’pinoli’. ‘Pignoli’ in Italy more usually means ‘picky’ or ‘fussy’. How, this amusing error arose is not clear, but I have theories which I won’t trouble you with.

 

As with most ‘nuts’, pine nuts are not nuts in any botanical sense; they are simple seeds, gymnosperms in botanical terms with that being from the Greek ‘γυµνόσπερµ-ος’, meaning ‘naked seed’.

 

There are 20 viable edible species, with P. koriaensis being the most common worldwide. Europe favours P. pinea whereas America tends to go most for P. edulis, P. monophylla or, in Mexico, P. cembroides.

 

Here they are used in pseudo-salads, stir fries, braises with meats etc much as in the west. I use them to make pesto, a decidedly not Chinese sauce. I have to grow the basil. Pine nut oil is seldom used as it has a low smoke point rendering it unsuitable for frying. The producers can make more selling the nuts.

 

Some (not many) people, when eating pine nuts, find they suffer from what is known as dysgeusia, a ‘taste disturbance’ popularly known as ‘pine mouth’. This can last up to two weeks. Symptoms are a bitter metallic taste in the mouth a day or two after consuming pine nuts. The US Food and Drug Administration investigated this and concluded that it was largely, if not entirely, caused by food fraud, with cheaper non-edible Pinus armandii being substituted for more expensive species. Results were not conclusive though as not everyone who eats the same nuts suffers the condition and some report the symptoms with other species.

 

 

In my college years in New Mexico, when it was the right time of year, we would take a large blanket and drive up into the lower hills of the Sandia Mountains in search of piñon pine trees. We'd lay the blanket carefully under the tree and shake the limbs. Instant pine nuts.

[liuzhou]

Here’s one grand nut yew may not know.

 

 

香榧 (xiāng fěi) is Torreya Grandis, literally ‘fragrant nutmeg yew’ but better known (but not much) as Chinese torreya or Chinese nutmeg yew. They are related to neither nutmegs or yews. These are the seeds of a large conifer endemic to south and South Eastern China. Around 80% are harvested in The Kuaijishan Ancient Chinese Torreya Community, a sustainable agriculture heritage site in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province where Shaoxing wine originates.

 

 

 

These originated in the Jurassic period, about 170 million years ago and are considered to be a living fossil, although people have said that about me. It is know to have been cultivated for at least 1,500 years.

 

There is a similar species in Japan, Torreya nucifera, also known as the Japanese torreya or Japanese Nutmeg Yew. Not very imaginative are they? An American species, Torreya californica has been listed as a threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on their Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book

 

In addition to be eaten as a snacking nut, Torreya grandis is used  in TCM and some of the claims have, unusually, been backed up by modern chemical and medical analysis, It seems that T. grandis does have a number of benefits and curative effects on the human body; for example, it has an inhibitory effect on lymphoblastic leukemia, and also has the effects of regulating blood lipids. In addition, the paclitaxel in the plant’s leaves, bark, and arils can be used to treat a number of types of cancer. Take that as you will; my only medical qualifications are knowing how to call an ambulance and shouting ”more painkillers, nurse!’

 

 

These are 芥末味脆皮香榧仁 (jiè mo wèi cuì pí xiāng fěi rén), Mustard-flavoured crispy torreya kernels. The ‘shell’ isn’t the nut’s original shell, but an edible coating. Although the English on the packaging says ‘Wasabi Torreya’, there isn’t a drop of wasabi in them. It’s the usual fake stuff made from mustard and horseradish. The Chinese says it correctly. Still, I’m quite partial to these.

 

 

[liuzhou]

Today I’m going to be peeking at another nut.

 

Carya illinoinensis is formally 长山核桃 (cháng shān hé tao), which literally means ‘long, mountain walnut’ but less formally and more commonly 碧根果 (bì gēn guǒ), meaning 'jade root nut’. They are in fact a type of hickory. The ‘long’ in the first name points to them not being true nuts but yet another drupe. I’m talking about the humble pecan.

 

 

Pronunciation varies regionally to the extent that the US National Pecan Growers Association felt obliged in 1927 to choose one while acknowledging the others as legitimate variations. A classic case of hedging their bets. They opted for puh-KAHN, IPA: /pəˈkɑn/ with the stress on the ‘can’, stating:

 

Quote

those in the habit of using any other pronunciation therefore be requested henceforth to adopt exclusively the pronunciation above specified above and hereby adopted by the Association.

 

Of course the good people went on pronouncing it as they always had done.

 

The word comes from the native name of the nut in various Algonkin dialects, e.g. Cree pakan, Ojibway pagan, Abnaki pagann, suggesting they couldn’t decided either!

 

 

The nut itself comes from the southern USA and northern Mexico in the Mississippi region. Although known to the Native Americans and the early colonists, commercial cultivation began only relatively recently – in the 1880s. Nearly all cultivation still takes place in their native range. The pecans here are imported from the USA.

 

As elsewhere, they are used as eating nuts on their own and incorporated into baked goods, but aren’t a mainstream choice. Searching Taobao, China’s Amazon equivalent, for ‘pecans’, returns more instruments of torture for opening the damn things than it does the actual nuts. It is no coincidence that the original Algonquin name meant something like ‘that which is cracked with an instrument, by a stone or hammer’.

 

I heard a rumour that, in the nuts’ native area, people put them into some sort of pie! Obviously fake news! I searched the Chinese internet for ‘pecan pie’ and all I got was children’s comic books! Who starts these stupid stories?

 

 

 

 

Edited December 8 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

I’ve already said I’m going nuts. Now I’m going batty and to the devil.

 

菱角 (líng jiǎo) are mostly Trapa bicornis although T. natans is also sometimes available. Commonly known, among other names, as buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, ling nut, moustache nut, singhara nut. I call them water caltrops. They also get called water chestnuts but that is a misnomer. Water chestnuts are totally different plants and aren’t nuts in any sense; they are the corms of Eleocharis dulcis.

 

 

The word caltrop comes from the Old English coltetræppe, this being a name given to various devices that catch or entangle the feet. It then extended to plants that do so. The water caltrops grow underwater up to 15 feet deep, but more typically around 8 feet and can indeed trap the feet.

 

Trapa bicornis are known for their strange appearance, often said to resemble bats’ heads or the devils’ horns, hence the names above. The character 角 – jiǎo in the Chinese name means ‘horns’. Bicornis means ‘two horns’. Some people apparently see a moustache instead.

 

They were once widespread across Asia, Europe and North America. Today, they mostly only survive in Asia; the European caltrops are endangered and the North American variety extinct. The were re-introduced to North America around 1874, but are now regarded as an invasive species from Vermont to Virginia and a noxious weed in Florida, North Carolina, and Washington, as well as in Australia. Trapa natans was illegal to sell or ship in the United States from 1956 until 2020 and subject to a fine and or imprisonment.

 

 

Water caltrops have been cultivated in China and the Indian subcontinent for their edible nuts for at least 3,000 years. They were used in religious rites in the 2nd century BC and they were mentioned in a Chinese guide to herbal medicines published in 1694 CE with the unsubstantiated claim that they can cure hay fever and alcoholism.

 

The starchy kernel can be eaten raw or cooked but good luck getting intact nuts out of the shells in one piece. They are notoriously difficult to crack. Some people boil them in the shells for twenty minutes then attempt to break in. Care is required as the horns are very sharp.

 

 

The taste is pleasantly similar to that of chestnuts, with a cooked potato texture. Water caltrops are most often eaten as part of a tradition dinner for Mid-Autumn-Festival which falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar (which falls between mid September and early October by the Gregorian calendar – October 6 in 2025).

 

They are also used to make jams, drinks and ground into flour and used to make pancakes and fritters etc.

 

 

[liuzhou]

And now I’m going for the popular vote. Probably finally in this nutty saga, I come to the world’s most popular “nut”, which isn’t a nut, at all. It is a legume.

 

Arachis hypogaea, 花生 (huā shēng), literally ‘flower (of) life’. The peanut, groundnut, goober, goober pea, pindar or monkey nut. 🥜

 

 

Not only are these not nuts; they are also rather odd in that they grow underground unlike most legumes. The scientific name hypogeae means ‘under the ground’ from the Attic ὑπόγαιος. The Romantic languages take their names from Arachis, whereas the Spanish name cacahuate comes from the Nahuatl tlālcacahuatl. My favourite is cneuen ddaear, the Welsh.

 

The peanut is native to South America but is now grown in tropical and semi-tropical areas world wide, with China being the highest producer today.

 

A large proportion of China’s production goes to peanut oil which is a major cooking oil in parts of China. 90% of the oil in my local supermarkets is peanut. It is valued for its mild flavour (but it isn’t totally neutral as some claim) and its for its high smoke point of 225°C (437°F).

 

 

The rest are eaten as roasted nuts, boiled nuts, salted nuts etc same as elsewhere. My favourite are 酒鬼花生 (jiǔ guǐ huā shēng), literally ‘drunkard’s peanuts’ – roasted, salted peanuts with chilli. They also come in a non-chilli version.

 

Drunkard's Peanuts

 

They also appear in many candies, cookies etc. They turn up in sauces and pastes. Most supermarkets also carry peanut butter, both domestic and imported. The American peanut butter and jelly sandwich is unknown, but the hardest part to source would be the bread.

 

 

Many Chinese dishes incorporate peanuts. Innumerable noodle dishes include them, including this city’s signature dish, luosifen. And of course 宫保鸡丁 (gōng bǎo jī dīng), known in the west as kung-pao chicken (or variations thereon) traditionally includes peanuts. The recent use of cashews is an American innovation.

 

Gongbao Jiding

 

Then we also get peanut shoots. These are the peanut version of bean sprouts. After all, peanuts are beans, so why not?

 

Peanut Shoots

 

So I leave you with this oddity. Black peanuts. A local cultivar.

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

There are two things with ‘nut’ in their popular names which are found here, but are so un-nut-like that I don’t feel they belong here. I have mentioned them before at the links below.

 

Nutmeg 肉豆蔻 (ròu dòu kòu), Myristica fragrans Houtt, while nut-like is not used as a nut*, but ground as a spice, so gets disqualified.

 

Fox nuts 芡实 (qiàn shí), Euryale ferox are totally misnamed. Which nut thought they were nuts?

 

* Other than by aging relics from the 1960s looking for a high!

 

 

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

敦煌市 (dūn huáng shì), Dunhuang is an oasis city in Gansu Province. It lies in the southern section of the silk road and the Great Wall passes by. It is probably the most important Buddhist site in China, with over 700 temples in caves, particularly the 莫搞窟 (mò gǎo kū), Mogao Caves which are highly decorated with Buddhist images, and which contained priceless Buddhist texts. A very important religious and cultural crossroads between east and west and the road from Tibet to Mongolia.

 

Buddhist image dated to c475 CE,  Mogao Caves

 

“But what’s this got to do with my dinner?”, you rightly ask.

 

Well, there is an ingredient which I never associated with Chinese cuisine and which none of my Chinese friends has heard of. 小扁豆* (xiǎo biǎn dòu), literally ‘small, flat beans’, are Vicia lens, lentils and they are grown in the Dunhuang area.

 

The lentil originated in the Middle East and travelled to South and SE Asia and to Africa before extending its range to Europe, then the Americas. I’m guessing they migrated east along the Silk Road to Dunhuang.

 

These are a small greenish-brown variety.

 

Dunhuang Lentils

 

The few that are eaten in China mainly seem to go into porridge mixes with other grains and seeds. Of course I use them in more traditional western dishes such as lentil soup and stews and curries.

 

My friends are baffled by red lentils and, although I can source them, so far as I can tell, they are all imported from India, Pakistan or most frequently, Turkey.

 

Turkish Red Lentils

 

* You have to be careful with this name. 小便 is also xiǎo biàn but the tone on the second character is different – this means ‘urine’. A slip of tone and you might order ‘urine soup’.

 

 

Edited December 18 by liuzhou (log)