Category: The Food of Sichuan

Mapo Tofu and Sesame-Oil Broccoli (The Food of Sichuan)

June 2nd, 2023

Mapo Tofu is something that can go either way for me. I’ve had some very peppery, pungent versions that I love as well as some goopy insipid versions. I figure this is a good benchmark recipe to try from TFoS. At the very least I am glad to learn a canonical version of this classic dish to contrast with the pungent version I made from The Mission Chinese Cookbook.

Cooking Notes: I cut the amount of ground chiles as it seemed to be a lot; however, I believe using the whole 2 tbsp would have been fine. I increased the amount of Sichuan peppercorn and used a 50/50 blend of toasted and fresh peppercorns. I strongly advocate for increasing this key ingredient.

Tasting Notes: This version of Mapo Tofu is certainly a good one. It is not quite as intense as the one from The Mission Chinese Cookbook; however, the technique used to make the chile-bean sauce in the same pan as the tofu is very convenient. You could attempt to capture the flavors of the stronger version using this technique by adding some extra Sichuan peppercorn, a bit of ground black cardamom, and some mushroom powder directly to the sauce.

Joe’s Rating: 6.5/6.5 (Mapo / Broccoli)
Difficulty: 4.5/2.5
Gong Bao Chicken with Peanuts (The Food of Sichuan)

February 23rd, 2023

Despite having cooked approximately 20 Sichuan dishes from The Mission Chinese Cookbook and All Under Heaven, I had entirely neglected cooking any from the much revered Food of Sichuan by Fuchsia Dunlop. Looking for a quick stir-fry, I decided to do one last-minute tonight. This book turned out to be an excellent resource for learning about Sichuan cooking and eating; while it seems long, the first 60 pages of background material are packed with useful information for an aspiring Sichuan chef! The other cookbooks I mentioned familiarized me with basic ingredients and dishes of the region. The background material in Dunlop’s book covers the many canonical flavor profiles and cooking techniques as well as the different manners in which the people of Sichuan would value and enjoy a given dish. For example, texture is very important in Sichuan dishes. Reading this section made me really want to try fire-exploded kidney and jellyfish so I could see what all the fuss was about pertaining to their unique textures.

Gong Bao Chicken (also commonly transcribed as Kung Pao Chicken) is a Chinese stir-fry, meaning in a commercial kitchen it will be cooked over a burner with almost ten times the heat output compared to a residential stovetop burner. Because of this, I opt to use two burners on my 15-inch cast iron to get a similar effect. The heat builds up in the middle of the pan for when I need it to rapidly cook the chicken, but until then, I cook off to the side where there is less heat content.

This dish features a “lychee-flavored” sauce, meaning the flavor profile is sweet-sour (and does not actually contain lychee.) I took a lot of care to cut everything to even proportions, to good effect. I’d recommend doubling the number of chiles and peppercorns and throwing in a few extra scallions too.

Tasting notes: This dish was very good. It isn’t as spicy or numbing as some Sichuan dishes I’ve had, but perhaps that is appropriate for Gong Bao Chicken. The sauce works well, contributing gummy bits of deeply savory flavor when found in a bit.

Joe’s rating: 6.5
Difficulty 5

Category: The Food of Sichuan

Mapo Tofu and Sesame-Oil Broccoli (The Food of Sichuan)

Gong Bao Chicken with Peanuts (The Food of Sichuan)