Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (10 page)

Handful of dried wood ear mushrooms (about ⅓ oz/10g dry, 4 oz/100g after soaking)

1 tsp finely chopped garlic

1 tbsp roughly chopped cilantro leaves

1–2 tsp chopped salted, pickled or fresh red chillies, to taste

½ tsp clear rice vinegar

Salt, to taste

1 tsp sesame oil

Soak the mushrooms in hot water from the kettle for at least 30 minutes. Then pinch or cut out and discard any hard, knobbly bits and tear or cut the rest into bite-sized pieces. Rinse, then shake dry.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and serve.

KOHLRABI SALAD WITH SESAME OIL
XIANG YOU PIE LAN 香油苤藍

Kohlrabi is known in some parts of China, rather poetically, as a “jade turnip,” on account of its luminous green flesh. It is an underrated vegetable that sparkles in this simple Sichuanese appetizer. I like to serve it alongside richer dishes at the start of a meal, or as a fresh, zesty complement to a bowlful of noodles if I’m rustling up a quick lunch for one or two. The recipe and its variations were taught to me by Chef Zhang Xia ozhong of Barshu restaurant.

1 kohlrabi (about 14 oz/400g)

1¼ tsp salt

2 tbsp finely sliced spring onion greens

For the sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp finely chopped garlic

1 tsp Chinkiang vinegar

¼ tsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

Peel the kohlrabi and cut it into very thin slices. Cut the slices into very thin slivers. Place in a bowl, add the salt and mix well, scrunching with your hand to squeeze the salt into the kohlrabi shreds. Set aside for at least 10 minutes.

Drain off the water that will have emerged from the kohlrabi and squeeze the slivers as dry as possible. Add all the sauce ingredients, mix well, then serve with the spring onion greens scattered on top.

VARIATIONS

Kohlrabi salad with sour-and-hot dressing

Add 2 tsp more Chinkiang vinegar than the recipe above, as well as 1½ tbsp chilli oil with ½ tbsp chilli sediment, to the sauce. You can add a few good pinches of ground roasted Sichuan pepper or a dash of Sichuan pepper oil if you wish.

Asian white radish with sesame oil (or sour-and-hot dressing)

Cut Asian radish into fine slivers and salt it in the same way as the kohlrabi. Serve it with either of the two sauces above.

SMOKY EGGPLANT WITH GARLIC
HUO SHAO QIE ZI 火燒茄子

The smoky flavor of charred eggplant is the soul of the Middle Eastern dish
baba ghanoush
and it’s also used in this Sichuanese appetizer. The recipe is based on one I tasted at a restaurant in rural Sichuan that specialized in old-fashioned cooking methods and insect cooking. The fridge there was full of extraordinary grubs and six-legged creatures, while the kitchen had a wood-burning wok range. A young chef crouched behind the range, tending the food he was cooking in the glowing embers. There was a whole duck caked in mud, as well as paddy eels, eggplant and green bell peppers strung up on bamboo skewers. The duck was slow-cooked for three or four hours, while the eels and vegetables were quickly burned, peeled and dressed with local seasonings. I adored this Sichuanese variation on the charred eggplant theme.

2 eggplant (about 1¼ lb/600g)

2 tsp light soy sauce

2 tsp Chinkiang vinegar

2 tbsp chilli oil with its sediment

1–2 tsp finely chopped garlic, to taste

½ tsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp finely sliced spring onion greens

Prick each eggplant a couple of times with a fork, then lay them on a very low gas flame and allow them to soften and char, turning from time to time for even cooking (this can take up to an hour, so it’s best done when you have other chores in or near the kitchen).

When the skins have blackened and the flesh is soft and pulpy within, remove them from the stove and allow to cool.

Strip away the burned skin and tear the eggplant into strips, discarding the seeds as far as possible. Pile on a serving dish and pour or scatter over the other ingredients. Mix well before eating.

SPINACH IN GINGER SAUCE
JIANG ZHI BO CAI 薑汁菠菜

This is a most refreshing appetizer, with juicy leaves in a delicate dressing of ginger, mellow vinegar and sesame oil. The combination of seasonings is known as “ginger-juice flavor,” and comes from the canon of classic Sichuanese flavor combinations. It can be used to dress many other vegetables, such as green beans, which should also be blanched and then refreshed under the cold tap before dressing. I’ve also had asparagus, a relatively recent import to China, served in this way.

Do use fresh bunched spinach for its wonderfully juicy texture (baby spinach leaves tend to melt away when you blanch them).

11 oz (300g) fresh bunched spinach

1 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp very finely chopped ginger

2 tsp Chinkiang vinegar

1 tsp light soy sauce

1½ tbsp chicken stock or water

Salt

½ tsp sesame oil

Bring a large panful of water to a boil (4–6 cups/1–1½ liters will do).

Wash and trim the spinach. When the water has boiled, add the oil, then the spinach and blanch for about 30 seconds. Drain the spinach and refresh in cold water, then shake dry in a colander. Gently squeeze it to remove as much water as possible.

Combine the ginger, vinegar, soy sauce and stock or water in a small bowl, with salt to taste. Add the sesame oil.

Lay the spinach leaves out on a chopping board and cut them across into about four sections. Pile these sections neatly on a serving plate. Give the sauce a stir and pour it over the spinach.

TIGER SALAD
LAO HU CAI 老虎菜

The tiger is a symbol of strength and valor in China and also, along with the wolf, of ferocity and danger. This dish, with its lacing of fresh green chilli, can be as fierce as a tiger, hence the name. It’s generally held to be a northern invention, though it’s now popular across China and there are many different versions.

Green chillies and cilantro seem to be the essential ingredients: some cooks mix them with cucumber or tomato, while others use sliced onions (salted for a while to draw out some of their pungency). The final salad tends to have a refreshing, sour-hot taste. It’s particularly good for stimulating the appetite, as an accompaniment to alcohol, or to cut richer dishes. This version is inspired by one served at Yiwanju, a restaurant specializing in old Beijing dishes: the chef there, Xi Guyang, told me how to make it. There is no need to be particular about quantities: just assemble it as you would a simple salad and add as much or as little chilli as you please.

½ cucumber

Salt

Good handful of fresh cilantro

1–2 mild green chillies, to taste

¼ tsp sugar

2 tsp Chinkiang vinegar

½ tsp sesame oil

Ground white pepper

Cut the cucumber in half lengthways, then cut each half into three sections. Cut each section lengthways into thin slices and put the slices into a bowl. Sprinkle with ½ tsp salt, mix well and set aside for 30 minutes or so.

Wash the cilantro, trim off the ends of the leafy stems and cut into lengths to match the cucumber slices. (If you are using cilantro that is sold as leaves only, rather than on the stem, simply chop it roughly.) Thinly slice the chilli(es), discarding stem and seeds.

Combine the sugar, vinegar and sesame oil in a small bowl, with salt and pepper to taste (you may prefer not to add salt, because the cucumber will already be a little salty).

When you are ready to serve, drain the cucumber and squeeze gently to get rid of excess water. Combine with the cilantro and chilli, pour over the dressing and mix well.

SPINACH WITH SESAME SAUCE
MA JIANG BO CAI 麻醬菠菜

In southern China, it is still possible to find small backstreet workshops producing artisanal sesame oil and paste. The paste, richer and darker than Middle Eastern tahini, with a wonderful roasty aroma, is an essential ingredient in many appetizers and noodle dishes. It may be offered as a dip for batons of fresh cucumber, or mixed into a sauce for various vegetables, including the juicy spinach in this recipe.

The Sichuanese like to use the same sauce to dress
you mai cai
, a kind of crisp lettuce with no head and long, spear-like leaves. Trimmed and cut lengthways into quarters, it resembles the tails of the mythical phoenix, which is why this dish is known as “phoenix tail lettuce” in sesame sauce. (This particular variety of lettuce can be hard to find outside China, but the sauce is also lovely poured over a couple of hearts of romaine or little butter lettuces: this dish appears in the background to the photograph of
Twice-cooked Pork
.)

11 oz (300g) fresh bunched spinach

1 tbsp cooking oil, plus more if needed

For the sauce

1 tsp sesame seeds

4 tbsp oil-topped sesame paste

1 tsp sesame oil

2–3 pinches of sugar

Salt

Bring some water to a boil in a large saucepan (4–6 cups/1–1½ liters will do).

Wash and trim the spinach. When the water has boiled, add the 1 tbsp cooking oil, then the spinach and blanch briefly to wilt the leaves. Drain the spinach, refresh in cold water, then shake dry in a colander. Gently squeeze it to remove as much water as possible, then cut into chopstickable sections.

Toast the sesame seeds gently in a dry frying pan until they are starting to turn golden, then tip into a dish and set aside to cool.

Blend the sesame paste and sesame oil in a bowl, adding some oil from the top of the sesame paste jar if necessary to achieve a thick pouring consistency, like heavy cream. If there isn’t enough oil in the jar, use cooking oil instead. Add the sugar and salt to taste.

Arrange the spinach neatly on a plate. Pour the sauce over it, sprinkle with the sesame seeds and serve.

VARIATION

Sour-and-hot spinach

Prepare the spinach as in the recipe above, but dress it with a sauce made from the following seasonings: 2 tsp Chinkiang vinegar, 2 pinches of sugar, salt to taste and 1½ tbsp chilli oil. The same sauce is also good with purslane, similarly blanched.

RADISHES IN CHILLI OIL SAUCE
QIANG LUO BO 熗蘿蔔

This is a beautiful and stunningly simple dish to rouse the appetite at the start of a meal. Small red radishes are not a traditional Chinese vegetable, but a recent import. This recipe is based on one from a book of simple recipes for home cooking,
Ji ben jia chang cai
(
shu cai pian
), or
Basic Domestic Dishes
.

2 bunches of small red radishes