Comments on: First Adventures in Sichuan Cooking

By: kolo

kolo — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:17:23 +0000

having lived in Sichuan province, i can say these recipes really stand up on quality. I am always on the look out for recipes, to produce my fav food at home. I hate the state of Chinese food in the uk, completely one dimensional, considering it’s just a vast nation with a wide range of flavours and ingrediants. Real sichaun food is delicious…

By: Chinese Restaurant

Chinese Restaurant — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:01:09 +0000

Inspiring. Fantastic photos as well. Bravo!

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:18:00 +0000

I’m so glad you’ve started down the Sichuan cookery route – I’ve been dabbling in Chinese cooking for the last couple of years since I stumbled upon a copy of book called Chinese Regional Cooking by Deh-Ta Hsiung from the 1970s. I was somehow strangely seduced by the over-saturated but charmingly homely photography in that book, but it is nice to see your fresh and natural shots. I find it difficult to present the Pock-marked woman’s bean curd dish in a particularly attractive way, but you seem to have managed this – I’m very impressed!

So I know you’ve already seen it, but for the benefit of others here, my favourite Sichuan recipe from this book is “Pork in hot and sour sauce”. I’ve written up the whole thing for you (with step by step illustrations) on my blog here http://bathosphere.org/emstar/2009/09/20/a-sichuan-dish-pork-in-hot-and-sour-sauce/. The dish is a classic spicy Sichuan style thang, with a very distinctive flavour which comes from the dried mushrooms, preserved vegetables, leek and bamboo shoots. Well worth a try.

By: Nate

Nate — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:39:45 +0000

You did really well! The twice cooked pork looks so mouth-watering. I love Sichuan food. We had a really good Sichuan restaurant in Milpitas, near San Jose, CA. I have no idea whether there’s a Sichuan restaurant here in Kuching. Guess I’m gonna have to cook it myself then!

By: Bron

Bron — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:16:34 +0000

Lovelovelove her books – try everything!

Another one I like and use is Mrs Chiang’s Szchewan Cokbook – american and out of print (for maybe 20 years!) but you can get second hand copies online. Here’s a link to some of the contents – http://www.shibboleth.org/mrs.chiangs/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Introduction

Seriously recommend the anise chicken.

By: Nicisme

Nicisme — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:57:40 +0000

I can’t remember having rabbit before, you make me want to try it now!

By: Mr Noodles

Mr Noodles — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:10:16 +0000

Your twice cooked pork looks fab and looks pretty much like the portion I had at Chilli Cool recently (that’s a good thing as I have a season ticket at CC). You should try cooking dry fried green beans (gan bian siji dou) next.

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:03:19 +0000

A Forkful – Thanks! I knew you wanted this recipe in particular
Lizzie – Thanks again for lending me the book. I think I’ll have to buy my own copy, I love it so much. That’s a lovely tip with the black beans on the rice – I’ll definitely be trying that and the fish fragrant aubergines.
Rosie – No I haven’t but will definitely check it out – thanks for the rec
Sharmila – ooh the hot and numbing dried beef is on my hitlist too actually. I don’t mind the involved recipes; in fact I prefer them!
Alexis – Thanks!
Patrick – well I’m SE so it isn’t that bad actually. I’ll always go the extra few miles for some hard to find ingredients anyway, thanks for the recommendation.
Ginger, EatTravel, Y – Thank you all!
Helen – Brilliant! There was me thinking I couldn’t do one. I’ll check out your post.

By: Helen Yuet Ling Pang

Helen Yuet Ling Pang — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:04:05 +0000

What an excellent meal! To have hotpot at home, you don’t really need a special hotpot unless you want to do yinyang (half spicy half not), in which case you’ll need the split pot (shallowish pot with a metal separator down the middle or an actual pot with two separate sections. I do Cantonese hotpot, so I just use a shallow clay pot on a little gas stove on the dining table. I’ve written a long post on it if you want to see what’s involved…

By: Y

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:45:10 +0000

Stunning looking food, Helen!!