Sharmila on Food

Sichuan twice cooked pork

My love affair with Sichuan food is now a long standing one.  It’s the food I crave the most, and now that I’ve learnt to cook a few dishes at home, it’s a cuisine that is within reach on a more everyday level.  A trip to China initially ignited this love, followed by trips to restaurants in London (Bar Shu initially, though I generally opt for Chilli Cool now) and Manchester (Red Chilli, which I still love), which cemented it.  My interest piqued, I purchased a copy of Sichuan Cookery by Fuchsia Dunlop a few years ago.  It still remains one of my favourite cook books (the food stained pages being testament to that).

When I heard Fuchsia Dunlop was doing a cookery demo evening at Divertimenti, I pounced on tickets immediately.  It was a lovely evening, and was fun to go with two friends who had never cooked SIchuan food, but were interested to find out more.  Of the dishes prepared, I had cooked many before (such as Gong Bao chicken and fish fragrant aubergines), but it was good to see how an expert does them.  Beyond this, it was great to hear some anecdotes about Dunlop’s time in China.  The one dish I hadn’t prepared before though, was twice cooked pork, a Sichuan classic.  It was so tasty that I had to make it myself.  It’s a great combo of crisp and melting sliced pork, sweetness and deeply savoury bean flavours.

I was very happy with the way this turned out, and am looking forward to making it again.  On the side, I attempted healthiness by having some stir fried cabbage, and a lovely salad of celery and boiled peanuts (sounds strange, tastes great).  I’d had this in Gourmet San and wanted to make something similar - a recipe cobbled together on the internet soon yielded a great side dish.

A note on the pork - you are meant to use sweet bean paste.  Due to being unable to get to Chinatown, I ended up using Waitrose hoi-sin sauce.  It still turned out very well, though I used about half as much as I would have for the sweet bean paste.

Twice cooked pork (taken from Sichuan Cookery by Fuchsia Dunlop)

350g streaky pork belly (with skin still attached) - you wil need a piece here, rather than thin slices, as you will eventually slice this into thin pieces, which is an easier job with a large piece

6 baby leeks (I used two normal size leeks, but stir fried them for a few minutes beforehand to “break their rawness”, as Dunlop says to do in the book)

1 and a half tablespoons chilli bean paste (I use Lee Kum Kee, which is made with a base of broad beans)

1 and a half tsp sweet wheaten or sweet bean paste

2 tsps fermented black beans

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp white sugar

salt

1. Bring a good panful of water to the boil.  Add the pork, return to the boil and then simmer at a gentler heat until just cooked (around 20-25 mins, depending on the thickness).  Remove from the water and leave to cool.  Put the pork in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm it up (which will make it easier to slice).

2. When the pork is cold, slice it thinly, into slices around 5cm x 3cm.  You want each slice to have a mix of flesh and fat.

3. Chop the leeks diagonally at a steep angle into thin slices.

4. Season the wok, add 2tbsp of oil over a medium hot flame, and add the pork slices.  Stir fry until the fat has melted out a bit, and the pieces are slightly curved.

5. Move the pork to one side of the wok, and add the chilli bean paste to the space in the wok.  Stir fry for 20-30 seconds until the oil is richly red, then add the sweet bean paste and black beans and stir fry for another few seconds until they are fragrant.  Mix everything in the wok together and add the soy sauce and sugar (and some salt if necessary - the blacks beans are pretty salty anyway).

6. Add the leeks and toss and stir till just cooked.

Celery and boiled peanut salad.

A few sticks of celery (not too large and old, with any stringy bits trimmed)

100g aromatic boiled peanuts (see recipe below)

1 tbsp rice wine

1 tbsp sherry vinegar

2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp light soy

1/2 tsp sugar

For the boiled peanuts, I use the recipe from Sichuan Cookery by Fuchsia Dunlop, as follows;

800ml water

200g peanuts in their pink skins

2 tsp salt

1 tsp whole Sichuan pepper

a few pieces of cassia bark

1 star anise

2 cloves, powdery tips nipped out and discarded

1/2 tsp of fennel seeds

salt

1. Bring the water to the boil, add the peanuts, salt and all the spices (wrapped in a piece of muslin if you have it).  Return to the boil, then turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 40 minutes.  When cooked drain and leave the peanuts to cool and dry out.

2. Slice the celery at a steep diagonal angle into thin slices.  Toss with 1/2 tsp salt and leave for an hour to get rid of some of the water and firm up the celery.

3. Combine the rice wine, sherry vinegar, soy sesame oil and sugar to make a dressing.

4. Toss the celery and peanuts together, and mix with the dressing.