Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (31 page)

1 tsp sugar

A few slices of peeled ginger

1 spring onion, green parts only, finely sliced

Cut the eggplant in half lengthways, then into three sections. Now cut each section lengthways into about three chunky strips. Sprinkle lightly with salt, mix well and leave to drain in a colander for 30 minutes or so.

Heat a wok over a high flame. Add the oil and heat to 350°F (180°C). Add the eggplant in a couple of batches and deep-fry until tender and golden. Set aside to drain on paper towels.

Combine the stock, soy sauces and sugar in a small bowl.

Pour all but 1 tbsp oil into a heatproof container and return the wok to a high flame. Add the ginger and sizzle briefly until you can smell its fragrance. Give the stock mixture a stir and pour it into the wok. Return the eggplant and stir briskly until the liquid has largely evaporated. Then stir in the spring onions and serve.

STIR-FRIED GREEN PEPPER WITH PORK SLIVERS
QING JIAO ROU SI
青椒肉絲

Stir-fried green pepper with slivered pork is one of the most common supper dishes in many parts of China. In Sichuan, they like to use long, thin-skinned green peppers with a spicy edge to them, but you can use bell peppers instead if you’d rather. The same recipe works with beef, lamb or chicken slivers. The optional egg white in the marinade gives the meat a more silky texture.

4 oz (100g) lean pork

Salt

1 green pepper (see headnote)

A few slivers of red bell pepper for color (optional)

3 tbsp cooking oil

1 tsp sweet fermented sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

For the marinade

½ tsp Shaoxing wine

¼ tsp light soy sauce

½ tsp potato flour

1 tbsp egg white or cold water

Cut the pork evenly into fine slivers and place in a small bowl. Add the marinade ingredients with a couple of good pinches of salt, and mix well.

Cut the green pepper lengthways into quarters, discard the seeds and membranes and cut evenly into thin slivers to match the pork.

Heat the wok over a high flame without any oil. Add all the peppers and dry-fry them until they are hot, fragrant and a little supple, then set aside. Return the wok to the heat with the oil, add the pork and stir-fry to separate the slivers. Then add the sweet fermented sauce and stir a few times until you can smell it. Return the peppers, add the soy sauce, and salt to taste, and stir-fry until everything is incorporated. Serve.

VARIATION

Stir-fried green pepper with firm tofu

Use firm tofu, cut into thin strips, instead of meat. Omit the marinade and the sweet fermented sauce and simply season with salt and light soy sauce to taste.

STIR-FRIED CUCUMBER WITH WOOD EAR
HUANG GUA MU’ER
黃瓜木耳

Stir-fried cucumber can be a revelation if you’ve never imagined eating it hot. This recipe, a simple marriage of sliced cucumber and frilly cloud or wood ear mushrooms, is a Sichuanese supper dish taught to me by Chef Zhang Xiaozhong. Add a little pork if you like (see variation, right). And if you have neither pork nor mushrooms, sliced cucumber simply stir-fried on its own, with a little salt, can be really wonderful, bringing out a whole new side to this familiar vegetable.

A handful of wood ear mushrooms (about 4 oz/100g, after soaking)

4 oz (100g) cucumber

1 spring onion, trimmed

1 Sichuanese pickled chilli or ½ fresh red chilli

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp peeled, sliced garlic

1 tbsp peeled, sliced ginger

Salt

Light soy sauce, to taste

¼ tsp potato flour mixed with 1 tsp cold water

Pour hot water from the kettle over the mushrooms and leave to soak for 30 minutes.

Cut the cucumber section lengthways into thin slices. Lay these flat on a chopping board and, holding the knife at an angle, cut them into diamond-shaped slices. Drain the wood ears and, if they are large, break them into bite-sized pieces. Cut the spring onion and pickled or red chilli on the diagonal into “horse ears.”

Heat a seasoned wok over a high flame. Add the oil, then the garlic, ginger, pickled chilli or red chilli and the spring onion and stir-fry briefly until you can smell their fragrances. Then add the cucumber and mushrooms and stir-fry until everything is piping hot.

Add 1 tbsp water, season with a little salt and light soy sauce to taste, then pour in the flour mixture, stirring vigorously as you do so. Stir a couple of times more, then serve.

VARIATION

Stir-fried cucumber with pork and wood ear

Cut 3 oz (75g) lean pork into thin slices. Marinate in a couple of pinches of salt, 2 tsp Shaoxing wine, ½ tsp potato flour and 1½ tsp cold water. Stir-fry the pork slices briefly to separate them before you add the garlic and other seasonings, then proceed as in the main recipe above.

SWEET AND SOUR ZUCCHINI
TANG CU YI DA LI GUA
糖醋義大利瓜

It was one of those evenings when I wanted to make something quick for supper but seemed to have nothing very promising in the refrigerator or larder. In the end, I rounded up some mushrooms, some eggs, a fading tomato and a couple of zucchini that were a little past their best. I put some rice on to cook, stir-fried the mushrooms with garlic and the eggs with the tomato, then peeled and cut the zucchini and gave them a sweet-and-sour stir-fry treatment.

The zucchini dish turned out to be so delicately pleasing that I’ve been making it deliberately ever since. The zucchini are tender but not overcooked and the understated sweet-sour flavor is delightful. Zucchini are not generally available in China, although in the south they stir-fry the flesh of young green pumpkins to similar effect.

2 zucchini (11 oz/300g)

Salt

2 tbsp cooking oil

2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

½ tsp sugar

1 tsp Chinkiang vinegar

Cut the zucchini in half lengthways, then cut each half into about three sections. Thinly slice each section lengthways and place in a bowl. Add ½ tsp salt, mix well and set aside for 30 minutes or so. When you are ready to cook, drain the slices and squeeze them to get rid of excess water.

Heat a wok over a high flame. Add the oil, then the garlic, and stir-fry for a few seconds until you smell its fragrance. Add the zucchini and stir-fry until they are hot and just cooked, but still a little crisp. Add the sugar and vinegar, with salt to taste, stir a couple of times, then tip on to a dish and serve.

VARIATION

Zucchini slivers with garlic

Cut the zucchini evenly into thin slices, then into slivers. Salt them and squeeze as in the recipe above. Stir-fry the zucchini with the garlic only, as above, omitting the sugar and vinegar. This is how the Sichuanese often cook young green pumpkins.

STEAMED FUZZY MELON WITH GROUND PORK STUFFING
QING ZHENG NAN GUA
清蒸南瓜

One evening in Chengdu my Chinese teacher, Yu Weiqin, served us a whole little squash stuffed with ground pork that had been steamed until tender. It was so lovely to eat that I have never forgotten it. Fortunately she showed me how to make it and I’ve recreated it at home using the squash that I can buy here. Use the same method to cook zucchini and other varieties of squash, store-bought or home-grown: the stuffing is fabulous.

1 dried shiitake mushroom

Small piece of ginger, unpeeled

4 oz (100g) ground pork with a little fat

½ egg

1 tbsp finely chopped spring onion greens

½ tsp sesame oil

1 tsp potato flour

Salt

Ground white pepper

Around 14 oz (400g) fuzzy melon

Soak the dried mushroom for 30 minutes in hot water from the kettle. Crush the ginger with the side of a cleaver or a rolling pin, then put it in a glass with cold water to cover.

When the mushroom is soft, chop it finely. Place the pork in a bowl and add 1 tbsp of the ginger-soaking water and all the other stuffing ingredients, including salt and pepper. The stuffing should be slightly over-salted, to balance the blandness of the melon.

Trim off both ends of the fuzzy melon. Cut the rest into round 1 in (2½ cm) sections and hollow out their pulpy centers. Arrange the sections in a shallow heatproof bowl that will fit into your steamer. Fill the centers of the sections with the ground pork mixture.

Steam over high heat for 30 minutes, until the pork is cooked through.

SILK GOURD WITH GREEN SOY BEANS
QING DOU SI GUA
青豆絲瓜

I first tasted this dish after a wet morning’s fishing in a lake in the Zhejiang countryside. We went out, three of us, in a wobbly wooden punt (a flat-bottomed boat) and when we were in the middle of the lake it started to drizzle. The fisherman cast his net from one end of the punt and pulled in a few fish that he stored in the watery hold. Soon the rain came more steadily and the sky and water were the same soft grey, almost indistinguishable. We paddled back to the shore and lit a fire in the kitchen to warm ourselves up as the fisherman finished preparing our lunch.

He turned out to be an astoundingly good cook, offering us an unforgettable red-braised pork, poached free-range chicken with a soy sauce dip, braised catfish with ginger, stir-fried river shrimp and this sumptuous stew of silk gourd and soy beans. The silk gourd has a soft, juicy texture and the beans and ham give the dish a rich umami savoriness. Vegetarians may omit the ham and perhaps add a little sweet red bell pepper for color. I suspect the same recipe would also work excellently with zucchini.

1 silk gourd (about 1¼ lb/500g)

1½ oz (45g) Chinese or Spanish ham, or 3 slices of bacon

4 oz (100g) shelled green soy beans

2 tbsp cooking oil

½ tbsp Shaoxing wine

⅔ cup (150ml) chicken stock

Salt

1 tsp potato flour mixed with 1 tbsp cold water (optional)

Peel the silk gourd (I use a potato peeler), then roll-cut into chunks (tap
here
). Cut the ham or bacon into small, bite-sized slices. If you are using fresh soy beans, boil them for about five minutes until tender (the frozen kind are already cooked and simply need defrosting).

Heat a seasoned wok over a high flame, then add the oil and swirl it around. Add the ham or bacon and sizzle for a few seconds until you can smell it. Then add the beans, stir-fry for 30 seconds or so, and add the silk gourd. Continue to stir-fry until everything is piping hot, then add the Shaoxing wine and next the stock.

Bring to a boil, season with salt to taste, then cover and simmer gently for about three minutes. Lastly, if you wish to thicken the sauce, give the potato flour mixture a stir, add it to the wok and stir as the sauce thickens.

VARIATION

Silk gourd with garlic

Heat a wok, add oil then sliced garlic and stir-fry briefly until the garlic is fragrant. Add roll-cut silk gourd and stir-fry until hot. Pour in some stock, bring to a boil, season with salt to taste, then cover and simmer for a few minutes. Thicken the sauce with potato flour as above if you wish.