Twice cooked pork, Szechuan style (for Paul)

[Jenise]

Paul, I enjoyed this video. So different from the Cantonese style twice-cooked pork dishes I know from L.A.-area Chinese restaurants. Do you use the chile-bean paste here he uses? I don't/haven't, but am curious.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/ ... 26b2&ei=37

That's the authentic Sichuan version, all right. I follow Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe. Garlic chives are hard to find here so I usually use her suggested substitutes of baby leeks or scallions.

The fermented broad bean and chile paste, doubanjiang, is the key ingredient here. What he was using, and what I use, is the version from Pixian in Sichuan (available from the Mala Market). Lee Kum Kee sells a Hong Kong variant that isn't quite the same, but it's readily available and is what I used to use until I found the Pixian version at Mala Market.

The other main flavoring ingredient is fermented black beans. Fuchsia Dunlop uses plain black beans and wheat paste. He uses Laoganma chile oil with fermented soybeans. I do not use the MSG or chicken essence.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I just bought that chile oil with black beans last week, coincidentally. Have not used it before but I once upon a time made my own from a recipe in the China Moon cookbook.

But yes re the doubanjiang. I get how important that would be to the dish. Next time I'm in an Asian market I'll look for it. Of course a problem is that the labels on these are usually all in Chinese which I can't understand--there are a million things I pass on because I can't tell what they are. Is the chicken essnence here just powdered boullion?

Regarding Pixian doubanjiang, I have never seen it in an Asian grocery, only online from Mala Market. After doing some research I see that Lee Kum Kee has two versions. The first is labeled "Chili Bean Sauce (Toban Djan)" and is the Hong Kong style version. The second is labeled "Sichuan Style Broad Bean Sauce" and is a lot closer to the style from Pixian in Sichuan. I've only seen the LKK Toban Djan in Asian markets around here, but I may simply have seen the "Sichuan Style Broad Bean Sauce" and not noticed it. I'll have to be on the lookout for it now.

I think the chicken powder is indeed just powdered chicken bouillon cubes. It shows up in a few Chinese recipes. I've never used it myself.

One other part of the twice-cooked pork recipe that I've never had to do is to use a flame torch to sear off the hairs on the skin of the pork belly. Around here there's about a 50/50 chance that the pork belly will be skinless, and if it does have the skin it is completely shaved.

-Paul W.