Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (34 page)

1½ tsp potato flour

Cut the pork into thin slices and put in a bowl. Stir the marinade ingredients with 1 tbsp water and mix well into the pork. Set aside.

Break the eggs and drain the whites into a cup, keeping the solid, waxy egg yolks in the shell. Cut the yolks into small pieces. Slice the mustard greens across into ⅜–¾ in (1–2cm) ribbons. Peel and slice the ginger.

Bring the stock to a boil in a saucepan.

Heat a wok over a high flame. Add the oil, followed by the ginger and stir-fry briefly until fragrant. Then add the greens and stir-fry until they are wilted, fragrant and half-cooked. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Add the egg yolk, separating the pieces if they stick together. Use chopsticks to drop slices of pork into the soup.

Boil for a couple more minutes until the greens are tender and the pork cooked, then reduce the heat and drizzle in the egg whites. When they have set into frothy strands, taste the soup, adding a little salt if necessary, pour into a deep bowl and serve.

VARIATION

Winter melon and salted duck egg soup

Salted duck egg is also an exquisite match for winter melon, lending a thrilling intensity of flavor to its delicate, pale green flesh.

Peel 2 lb (900g) winter melon, then cut away and discard its soft, seedy center. Cut the flesh into bite-sized slices ⅛–⅜ in (½–1cm) thick. Peel and cut into slivers a ⅓ oz (15g) piece of ginger. Break 3 salted duck eggs into a bowl. Remove the yolks and chop them into small pieces. Sizzle the ginger in 2 tbsp cooking oil in a seasoned wok, add the melon and stir-fry for a minute or two. Then add 6⅓ cups (1½ liters) stock, bring to a boil and simmer until the melon is nearly cooked. Add the egg yolks, stirring so they don’t stick together. When the melon is cooked, scatter the egg whites into the soup. Taste the liquid and add a little salt if you want. Serve as soon as the wisps of egg white have set.

SOUR-AND-HOT MUSHROOM SOUP
SUAN LA SHAN ZHEN TANG
酸辣山珍湯

I’ve never been crazy about the sour-and-hot (or hot-and-sour) soups they serve in Chinese restaurants in the West, but I adore the subtler southern Chinese versions, of which this is one. I like to make it with a good chicken stock, but if you use a vegetable stock the recipe is entirely vegetarian.

The soup is floaty with slivered mushrooms, tofu and exotically lovely day lily flowers, its light mushroomy broth enlivened by Chinkiang vinegar and a good kick of white pepper. Feel free to vary the variety of mushrooms as you please. A few slivers of leftover chicken, added to the broth, would make a nice addition for meat eaters. You’ll need a deep pot or tureen to serve this soup.

4 dried shiitake mushrooms

Small handful of dried day lily flowers (optional, but nice)

1 qt (1 liter) stock of your choice (see headnote)

⅓ oz (15g) piece of ginger, peeled

3 oz (75g) fresh shiitake mushrooms

3 oz (75g) oyster mushrooms

2 oz (50g) enoki mushrooms

8 oz (225g) plain white tofu

1 tbsp cooking oil

2 tsp light soy sauce

¼ tsp dark soy sauce

Salt

2½ tbsp Chinkiang vinegar

½ tsp ground white pepper

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tbsp finely sliced spring onion greens

Soak the dried shiitake and lily flowers (if using) in hot water from the kettle for at least an hour before you begin.

Set the stock in a pan to heat up before you begin cooking.

Cut the ginger into fine slivers. Trim off and discard the stalks of the soaked mushrooms and thinly slice the caps. Discard the stalks of the fresh shiitake and cut the caps into ⅛–⅜ in (½–1cm) wide strips. Cut the oyster mushrooms lengthways into similar thin strips. Gently pull apart the clumped enoki mushrooms. Cut the tofu into strips of a similar size to the mushrooms (it may disintegrate slightly, but don’t worry about this).

Heat the oil in a seasoned wok over a high flame. Add the ginger and sizzle for a few moments until fragrant. Then add the dried and fresh mushrooms and lily flowers (if using) and stir-fry until the mushrooms are about half-cooked and smell wonderful. Pour in the heated stock and bring to a boil. Add the tofu and stir gently. Season the soup with the soy sauces, and salt to taste (a good salty flavor is a necessary base for a sour-and-hot soup).

Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the vinegar and pepper and continue to simmer for 30 seconds or so to fuse the flavors. Remove from the heat, stir in the sesame oil, then ladle or pour the soup into a deep pot or tureen. Scatter the spring onions over the soup and serve.

FAVA BEAN AND SNOW VEGETABLE SOUP
DOU BAN XUE CAI TANG
豆瓣雪菜湯

This is a simple soup from Shanghai, where fava beans are a seasonal treat and snow vegetable is one of the most ubiquitous preserves. The sour-juicy vegetable is wonderful with the delicate, savory beans. Sichuanese pickled mustard greens may be used instead of the snow vegetable, if that’s easier. And if you have any leftovers of a roasted or poached chicken, do shred them and add them to the soup.

2 tbsp cooking oil

4¼ oz (125g) snow vegetable, chopped

7 oz (200g) shelled, skinned fava beans

6⅓ cups (1½ liters) chicken stock

A few slices of tomato, for color

Salt

Heat the oil in a wok over a high flame. Add the snow vegetable and stir-fry until hot and fragrant. Add the beans, stir a few times, then pour in the stock.

Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes or more, until the preserved vegetable has lent its gentle, aromatic sourness to the soup and the beans are tender. Add the tomato slices and simmer briefly to heat through. Season with salt to taste, and serve.

VARIATION

In Sichuan, one of the most popular everyday soups is a quick brew of pickled mustard greens in stock, with a skein of slippy, transparent bean thread noodles for mouthfeel and a handful of sliced spring onion greens for color. With its clean, slightly sour taste, it makes a refreshing conclusion to a spicy Sichuanese meal. To prepare this soup, simply fry 4¼ oz (125g) sliced mustard greens in a little oil, add 6⅓ cups (1½ liters) of stock and a good handful of pre-soaked bean thread noodles and bring to a boil. Season with salt and white pepper, garnish with finely sliced spring onion greens and serve.

FRIED EGG AND TOMATO SOUP
FAN QIE JIAN DAN TANG
番茄煎蛋湯

This simple, vividly colored soup is typical of the domestic supper table in many parts of China and it’s one of the soups I ate most frequently when I lived in Chengdu. Feel free to substitute other greens—spinach or pea shoots perhaps—for the bok choy, if you wish.

3 eggs

Salt

3 ripe, red tomatoes

2 heads of green bok choy

6⅓ cups (1½ liters) chicken stock

3 tbsp finely sliced spring onion greens

3 tbsp cooking oil

Ground white pepper

In a small bowl, beat the eggs with a little salt. Slice the tomatoes and cut the bok choy into chopstickable pieces. Bring the stock to a boil in a pan. Put the spring onion greens into a serving bowl.

Add the oil to a seasoned wok over a high flame and swirl it around. Pour in the eggs and swirl them around too. Let them set into an omelette. When the underside is golden, flip it over and brown the other side. Remove the omelette from the wok and set aside.

Add the tomatoes and bok choy to the hot stock, return to a boil, add the omelette and cook briefly until the vegetables are tender, seasoning with salt and white pepper to taste.

Pour the soup over the spring onions in the serving bowl. Invite your guests to use chopsticks to tear off pieces of omelette as they serve themselves soup.

DAI SHUANG’S YELLOW SPLIT PEA SOUP
DAI SHUANG PA WAN DOU TANG
戴雙豌豆湯

This is a recipe explained to me by Dai Shuang, the wife and business partner of Chengdu chef Yu Bo, as we strolled through a market not long ago. She was giving me tips on how to use various kinds of produce, including the cabbages and fat stem mustards that were then in season. We passed a stall that was selling
pa wan dou
, a coarse, dull yellow paste made from split peas that is used as a base for soups.

The following is Dai Shuang’s family recipe for split pea soup, a version of which they serve in the restaurant as part of their now-legendary 40-course banquets. They serve it in a grand tureen, augmented by little dishes of peanuts, fried dough twists, crisp soy beans, pea leaves and chrysanthemum petals, to be cast into the hot silky liquid. It is a soft, soothing soup, with a stirring hint of ginger. At home, the serving is less grandiose, but the flavors equally pleasing.

11 oz (300g) yellow split peas, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water

½ oz (25g) piece of ginger, unpeeled

2 spring onions, white parts only

3 tbsp lard or cooking oil

¾ tsp whole Sichuan pepper

Up to 6⅓ cups (1½ liters) chicken stock or water

Salt

To serve

A good handful of pea shoots

4 tbsp finely sliced spring onion greens

Handful of
Fried or Roasted Peanuts

Small handful of Chinese fried dough twists (
ma hua
) or croutons (optional)

Rinse the soaked peas, place in a saucepan with plenty of water to cover and bring to a boil. Boil vigorously for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until the peas are completely cooked and starting to disintegrate. Strain, reserving the water. (This step can be done in advance.)

Smack the ginger and spring onion whites hard with the side of a cleaver or a rolling pin, to break them open (without smashing them to smithereens!). Heat a wok over a high flame. Add the lard or oil, followed by the ginger and spring onion and stir-fry until the oil is wonderfully fragrant. Add the Sichuan pepper and sizzle for a few moments more until you can smell its aroma. Then use a slotted spoon to add the peas to the wok and stir them in the fragrant oil for a minute or two. Now measure and add the remains of the pea cooking water to the wok, with enough stock or water to make up about 6⅓ cups (1½ liters) in total. Season with salt to taste.