Pock-marked Grandmothers and Smacked Cucumbers

My slightly worn copy of "Sichuan Cookery"

In 2001 a new culinary star and was launched with the publication of Fuchsia Dunlop’s “Sichuan Cookery”.  This book had a major impact in altering the perception that recipes and ingredients in China were largely based around southern Cantonese cuisine by highlighting the distinctive nature of the often spicy and hot food from the south-west Sichuan region.

"Sichuan Cookery” became an instant classic of its genre; since publication it regularly appears on food writer’s lists of the best cookbooks of all time and Fuchsia Dunlop is now a ‘foodie superstar’ – writing more books and articles on the subject and invited to food festivals around the world.

English-born Chinese food exponent, Fuchsia Dunlop

The book also helped spark a worldwide interest in regional Chinese cuisine.  Until recent years, most restaurants outside of China served an often Westernised version of Cantonese fare.  Indeed, I remember as a university student in Melbourne in the late 1970s this was certainly the case; Chinese banquets were based around fried rice ... sometimes with pineapple added, stir fried vegetables ... always with cabbage,  and a few exotic dishes like spring rolls and ‘crystal prawns’ in a sweet and sour sauce ... often heavily laced with cornflour and possibly MSG!

Now restaurant reviewers and customers in Melbourne compare notes on the best xiao long bao dumplings and pan-fried pork potstickers, cue up in the winter rain outside the Dainty Sichuan restaurant and slaver over grilled oysters and chilli crabs.   There’s even cuisine-focused tours of China in the offing.

Fuchsia Dunlop in China

Fuchsia Dunlop grew up in Oxford, England - studied at Cambridge - and then after a stint as an East Asian analyst at the BBC, she moved to Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province, to study at Sichuan University.   This further piqued her interest in the region’s cuisine and she took up a course at the province’s famous cooking school - the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine.   As result she became one of the first westerners to study firsthand what was till then a relatively unknown aspect of Chinese food culture in the rest of the world.

As she wrote in the introduction to the book, “Chinese people say that ‘China’ is the place for food but Sichuan is the place for flavour’, and local gourmets claim that the region  boasts some 5,000 different dishes   ...  In Europe, strangely, Chinese cuisine is almost always treated as one great tradition, with some regional variations  ... (but) viewed from the inside, it is the differences that seem to matter, the differences between the fresh natural flavours of the south, the sweeter, oilier cooking of the eastern coastal areas and the spicy western diet; between the wheaten staples of the north and the southern rice-based diet.”
    
Fuchsia Dunlop speaks and reads Mandarin and has written a number of bestselling books on Chinese regional cuisine since this first publication; she also regularly contributes to the UK newspapers The Guardian, The Observer and The Financial Times.   Her second book - “The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook” came out in 2006 and focuses on the southern central province of Hunan, home to many Chinese communist revolutionaries including Chairman Mao Zedong.  Then, after publishing an autobiography - ”Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper”, she released “Every Grain of Rice” earlier this year, a book which focuses on simple Chinese home style cooking from across the country.

Sichuanese style steamed fish (before cooking) from "Sichuan Cookery"

I have been cooking from “Sichuan Cookery” since it was first published in 2001 and at the time found it relatively easy to hunt down exotic and rare ingredients in Melbourne’s Chinese supermarkets ... especially in Richmond or Chinatown in the city.   But here in Hyderabad it’s been more of a challenge.  

However, gradually ingredients such as Sichuan peppercorns, dried Chinese mushrooms, higher quality soy sauce and sesame oil have become available in some local supermarkets.   And after a recent trip to Delhi, where the markets are far more cosmopolitan and ‘international’ than their counterparts in the south of India,  I have also begun ordering more hard to find ingredients such as Korean chilli paste, Japanese miso and udon noodles from shops in the country’s capital and had them delivered to Hyderabad.  (Couriering goods around the country here is much cheaper than in Australia!)

Ma Po Dou Fu after adding the leeks & cornflour

One of my favourite recipes from Fuchsia Dunlop’s book is “Ma Po Dou Fu” or Pock Marked Mother Chen’s Beancurd.  The dish is reportedly named after the smallpox-scarred wife of a Qing Dynasty restaurateur, who sold it on the street side to labourers on their way to the market.   The recipe is a combination of minced meat (usually pork or beef), tofu cubes and the tingling Sichuan peppercorn.  Its cooked in a viscous red chilli oil & stock ‘soup’ with the addition of fresh winter vegetables like spring onions or leeks.  (Vegetarians can simply omit the meat component from the dish.)

It can be served as a stand alone meal in a bowl or with rice and a salad.   I usually accompany Ma Po with the “Smashed Cucumber Salad” from the “Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook”.  
Try it – its fantastic!

MA PO DOU FU    POCK-MARKED MOTHER CHEN’S BEANCURD

Ingredients:

1 block of beancurd, 400 - 500gm    4 baby leeks or spring onions    100ml cooking oil    150 – 250 gm minced pork, beef or lamb    2 ½ T Sichuanese chilli paste  (I use other chilli paste if I cant find this in India!)    1 T black fermented beans   (You could use black bean sauce – again for the same reason)    2 t ground Sichuanese chillis (or dried red chillis)    250 – 300 ml stock    1 t caster sugar    2 t light soy sauce    3 T cornflour mixed with 4 T cold water    ½ - 1 t toasted & ground Sichuan peppercorns (no substitute!)   

Method:

Cut beancurd block into 2cm cubes and steep in slightly salted hot water.  Slice leeks or spring onions on angle into ‘horse ear’ shape.

Cubes of beancurd soaking in hot water

Heat oil in wok on high heat until smoking.   Add meat and stir fry until brown.  Turn heat down to medium and add chilli paste, stir for 30 secs, and then add black beans and dried chillis.   Stir another minute or two until it forms a ruddy rich red slurry. 

Pour in stock, stir, and then gently add beancurd.   Stir into mixture - careful not to break up the cubes.   Add sugar, some salt and 2 t of soy sauce.   Simmer for 5 mins until beancurd has absorbed chilli flavour.

Add leeks or spring onions and stir in gently.   Add cornflour mixture in 3 parts and stir until mixture has thickened ... but not too much.  

Pour into bowl and sprinkle with Sichuan peppercorns.


PAI HUANG GUA     SMACKED CUCUMBERS

Ingredients:

 

1 to 3 cucumbers, depending on size (about 400gms)    salt    2 T very finely chopped garlic    2 T  rice vinegar    2 T vegetable oil    1 T dried chilli flakes

 

The cucumbers after being smacked with a cleaver!

Method:

 

Place cucumber(s) on chopping board and whack several times with the edge of a cleaver or the back end of a knife, to form jagged cuts in the cucumber.   The cut into slices ... I cut Japanese style - on the angle, rotating cucumber a ¼ turn before each cut.

 

Place in salad bowl and add ½ t salt, toss with hands to combine and then leave for 30 mins.   Drain off the water that has accumulated in bottom of the bowl.

Add garlic and vinegar to bowl, toss again and allow several minutes for flavours to blend.  

 Sprinkle chilli flakes over the cucumbers.  Heat the oil in a small pan to smoking point and then pour quickly over bowl with cucumbers.  

 

Mix well and serve with the Ma Po.

 

Tony saab, Hyderabad Dec 2012