Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (15 page)

4 oz (100g) belly pork, without skin

5 oz (150g) garlic stems

3 tbsp cooking oil or lard

Pinch of salt

1 tbsp Sichuan chilli bean paste

1 tbsp fermented black beans, rinsed and drained

½ tsp sugar

Cut the pork into thin slices, each with a good mixture of fat and lean. Cut the garlic stems into 1¾ in (4cm) sections, discarding any fibrous parts at their bases.

Add the oil or lard to a seasoned wok over a high flame, then add the pork, reduce the heat to medium and stir-fry until the slices are curved and tinged with gold and the oil is clear, adding a good pinch of salt about halfway through the cooking time.

Use a wok scoop or ladle to move the pork to one side of the wok. Add the chilli bean paste and black beans to the oil that pools in the space you have created and stir-fry them briefly until the oil is red and fragrant. Then mix everything together, add the sugar and then the garlic stems.

Increase the heat to high and stir-fry until the garlic stems are cooked (taste one to check: when they are ready, their aggressive raw pungency will have mellowed to a sweet garlickiness). Serve.

BRAISED PORK WITH POTATOES
TU DOU SHAO ROU
土豆燒肉

This heart-warming stew is one of those you find on display outside Sichuanese restaurants specializing in braised dishes, simmering away in a clay pot on a stove alongside, perhaps, beef with bamboo shoots, spare ribs with carrots, pork with soy beans, and other concoctions. The chilli bean paste gives the stew a gorgeous richness. Make the dish with carrots instead of potatoes if you prefer, or a mixture of the two, or indeed with another root vegetable of your choice. Pork ribs may be used instead of shoulder.

This recipe makes a good amount of stew, so you may wish to make it when you are feeding a large group of people, or to serve it over a couple of meals.

1¼ lb (500g) boneless pork shoulder

2 spring onions

3 tbsp cooking oil

2½ tbsp Sichuan chilli bean paste

½ oz (20g) ginger, peeled and sliced

3 cups (750ml) chicken stock or water

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

11 oz (300g) potatoes

Cut the pork into 1½ in (3cm) chunks. Rinse thoroughly under the hot tap, or blanch in boiling water. Separate the green and white parts of the spring onions. Crush the whites slightly with the side of a cleaver blade or a rolling pin and cut the greens into 1½–1¾ in (3–4cm) sections.

Heat the oil in a seasoned wok over a medium flame. Add the chilli bean paste and stir-fry gently until it smells wonderful and the oil is richly red. Add the ginger and spring onion whites and continue to stir-fry until you can smell them, too. Then add the pork, stock or water and Shaoxing wine and bring to a boil.

Turn the contents of the wok into a saucepan, partially cover and simmer for an hour or so, until the pork is tender.

Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks to match the pork. Add them to the pan, return to a boil, then simmer for another 20 minutes or so until the potatoes are tender. Adjust the seasoning if necessary (though the saltiness of the chilli bean paste means you probably won’t need extra salt). Serve in the cooking pot or in a deep bowl, scattered with the spring onion greens.

STIR-FRIED BEEF WITH BLACK BEAN AND CHILLI
JIA CHANG NIU ROU
家常牛肉

The punchy flavors of Laoganma sauce, a spicy relish made from fermented black beans and dried chillies in oil, give an enticing lift to this colorful stir-fry of beef and peppers. Served with plain white rice, it’s enough for a quick, hearty supper for two.

11 oz (300g) lean sirloin or another tender steak

¼ red bell pepper

¼ green bell pepper

Small bunch of cilantro

(about 1½ oz /40g)

3 tbsp cooking oil

2½ tbsp Laoganma black bean sauce

Salt

1 tsp sesame oil

For the marinade

½ tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp Shaoxing wine

1½ tsp potato flou

Cut the beef into ⅜ in (1cm) strips, each 2–2½ in (5–6cm) long. Stir the marinade ingredients with 2 tsp water, add to the meat and set aside while you prepare the other ingredients. Cut the peppers into strips to match the beef. Coarsely chop the cilantro.

Heat the oil in a seasoned wok over a high flame. When it is really hot, add the beef and stir-fry until the strips start to separate. Add the peppers and continue to stir-fry until the beef is nearly cooked. Then add the black bean sauce and stir, adding salt to taste. When everything is hot and smells delicious, stir in the cilantro. Finally, remove from the heat, add the sesame oil and serve.

TUZI’S SLOW-COOKED RIBS WITH RED FERMENTED TOFU
NAN RU PAI GU
南乳排骨

There’s a wonderful travellers’ hostel in the village of Manjuelong, on the outskirts of Hangzhou, where I stay when I’m craving fresh air, greenery and good cheer. The village is famous for its osmanthus blossoms, which are used as an ingredient in sweet dishes and appreciated for their intoxicating fragrance; in the autumn osmanthus season people flock here in the evenings to breathe in the sweet floral air. The hostel itself has a popular restaurant where a female chef known as “Rabbit” (
tu zi
), conjures up a mixture of traditional and fusion dishes from local ingredients supplemented with European, east Asian and south Asian herbs she’s been given or has picked up on her travels.

This is my attempt to recreate Rabbit’s fabulous pork ribs cooked with red fermented tofu, a typical seasoning of the Lower Yangtze region. The tofu has a vibrant red color which comes from red yeast rice and lends the sauce a rich, almost biscuity fragrance. If you can get it, add a little extra red yeast rice towards the end to give the sauce an intense crimson luster.

Do use chunks of pork shoulder or belly instead of ribs, if you prefer.

1½ lb (750g) meaty pork ribs, shoulder or belly

½ cup (100ml) Shaoxing wine

2 oz (50g) red fermented tofu, mashed into a paste with 3 tbsp juices from the jar

2 tbsp cooking oil

½ oz (25g) ginger, unpeeled, crushed slightly

2 spring onions, white parts only, crushed slightly

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp ground red yeast rice,
hong qu fen
(optional)

Ask your butcher to chop the ribs into bite-sized pieces. (They’ll be equally delicious if you cook them whole, but more difficult to eat with chopsticks.) Add the Shaoxing wine to the fermented tofu and mix well.

If using an oven, preheat it to 300°F (150°C/gas mark 2).

Pour the oil into a seasoned wok over a high flame, add the ribs and fry until lightly browned, stirring from time to time. Then add the ginger and spring onions and stir-fry until you can smell their fragrances. Turn the ribs, ginger and spring onions into a heatproof pot that has a tight-fitting lid. Add the fermented tofu mixture, sugar and ½ cup (100ml) water, stir well and bring to a boil. Cover with the lid and cook over a low flame or in the oven for 30 minutes.

Add the ground red yeast rice, if using, topping up with water from the kettle if necessary to prevent the pot boiling dry. Give it a good stir, then continue to cook for another 30 minutes. Increase the heat to reduce the sauce further, if desired, before serving.

BOWL-STEAMED PORK IN RICE MEAL
FEN ZHENG ROU
粉蒸肉

In the old days in the Sichuan countryside, steamed dishes like this were part of every feast. The fatty pork was a luxury and the cooking method made it possible to serve vast numbers of people: towers of bamboo steamers could be set up over makeshift stoves, each layer bearing a multitude of little bowls. When the guests arrived, the lids of the steamers could be whipped off and the food swiftly distributed to the waiting tables. For this reason, rural feasts were often known as “three steamed dishes and nine bowls” (
san zheng
,
jiu kou
), or “nine big bowls” (
jiu da wan
). Despite its homely appearance, this dish is glorious: one friend declares it his favorite among all the many dishes of mine he’s tasted. It’s certainly Sichuanese comfort food at its best: just thinking about it makes me sigh with pleasure. The sumptuously seasoned pork, soft and glutinous in its rice meal coating, melts away into the peas. Eat it with plain rice or, even more perfect, stuffed inside
lotus leaf buns
, which you can serve on the side.

This dish is easy to make but takes two hours to steam and, of course, you have to keep an occasional eye on it to make sure it doesn’t boil dry. The only bother is grinding the rice meal, for which you need a blender, but this can be made in quantity and stored in a jar. (You may find it in your local Chinese supermarket, labeled “steam powder”; see
Glossary
, for more information.) The whole dish can be made in advance and heated through in a steamer or microwave when you want it. You will need a heatproof bowl about 7 in (18cm) in diameter and 2 in (5cm) deep to make this recipe.

5 oz (150g) peas (about 1 lb/450g in the pod)

Salt

5 tbsp rice meal (see note below)

½ cup (100ml) chicken stock

¾ lb (350g) boneless pork belly, with skin

1–2 tbsp finely sliced spring onion greens

For the marinade

1½ tbsp chilli bean paste

2 tsp fermented tofu

2 tsp Shaoxing wine

1 tsp finely chopped ginger

⅛ tsp ground white pepper

¼ tsp dark soy sauce

Place the peas in a bowl and add ¼ tsp salt, 1 tbsp of the rice meal and 2 tbsp of the stock. Mix well. Cut the pork into slices like very thick bacon slices, about 4 in (10cm) long and 1¼–1¾ in (3–4cm) thick, and place in a bowl. Add all the marinade ingredients, the remaining rice meal and stock, and ¼ tsp salt, and mix well.

Arrange the pork slices over the sides and base of your bowl in an overlapping pattern, leaving no holes, with the strip of skin on each piece of meat resting on the bowl. Fill with the peas, spread evenly so the top layer is fairly flat. Bring plenty of water to a boil in a wok or steamer, lay the bowl on the rack, cover and steam over medium heat for two hours.

Remove the bowl from the steamer. Cover with a deep plate, then swiftly invert. Remove the bowl, leaving a bowl-shaped mound of meat and peas. If it subsides slightly in its tenderness, don’t worry, it’ll taste fantastic. Sprinkle with the sliced spring onions and serve.

To make your own rice meal

Place 5 oz (150g) dry Thai fragrant rice, 1 star anise and a couple of pieces of cassia bark in a dry wok. Heat over a medium flame for about 15 minutes, stirring, until the rice grains are brittle, yellowish and aromatic. Remove from the wok and allow to cool. Pluck out and discard the spices. Using a grinder or blender, grind the rice coarsely, until it has the consistency of fine couscous. Store in an airtight jar until needed.