This past Sunday was my next foray into the Land of Plenty cookbook, but this time I vowed there would be no more ingredient substitutes! You know what this means…back to Buford Highway!
While the Super H is totally money, Buford Highway is so much closer than Duluth, and I was told that Ranch 99 would have the Tianjin preserved vegetables that have been alluding me. Also, that morning I read Bliss’ post regarding the piroshkies at the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market, and the Slovak in me said they had to be mine. Subsequently I ate 2 each of the beef and the cabbage within 24 hours.
Back to the meal at hand – on the menu for this evening we had Fried Sichuan Peanuts, Spicy Cucumber Salad, Spicy Noodles with Soft Bean Curd, and Boiled Beef Slices in a Fiery Sauce. Sounds like a spicy food lover’s dream, no?
I’ve got lots of photos from this meal…I’m trying to get better with the camera, but I’m not quite there. I am starting to think that the only way I’m ever going to take really great photos is if I purchase a SLR. What’s another grand?
We started by deep frying peanuts. I had some raw red peanuts from Super H, which I fried in peanut oil at 225 for about 30 minutes. It takes some effort to maintain that low of a temperature without dropping down so low that they don’t cook. You can cook them 20 minutes, but I like peanuts a little overcooked.
Sprinkle the peanuts with some Sichuan pepper and salt and it’s a very tasty snack.
Next up, here I’ve gutted and sliced the cucumbers, then salted them to extract water. I do the exact same thing to cucumber when making tzaziki.
After 30-60 minutes, I’ve taken the cucumber, squeezed out the excess water, and patted the sticks dry. I quickly stir fried some Sichuan pepper and dried chilies in peanut oil, probably for 30 seconds or less. Then I added the cucumber for 10 seconds, removed from the heat, stirred in the sesame oil, and plated, allowing the dish to cool before serving. This was a very nice accompaniment to spicy food as it had a nice crunchy cooling effect, while having just a touch of back-end heat itself. I think this dish is a good example of Sichuan technique and simplicity. You have to move quick, have your ingredients ready, and there is a very intentional method of flavor layering.
I finally found the Tianjin preserved vegetables at Ranch 99. I had no idea what I was actually looking for; I knew it was finely chopped cabbage fermented with salt and garlic, but I didn’t know what it actually looked like. I inquired with one patron and two staff members and no one had an idea. I was finally directed to a supervisor, and she couldn’t help either.
Finally I had the idea to Wikipedia the item on my iPhone and the resulting page displays the Chinese characters. I showed my phone to the supervisor and she exclaimed “ohhhh yess!” I had two earthenware pots of the stuff in a matter of seconds. Technology to the rescue!
The first “main” dish we ate was the spicy noodles with bean curd. Here you can see the fermented bean curd, which is pretty much pickled/fermented tofu that has a softer, cheese-like texture, and a strong/pungent flavor that I can only describe as an acquired taste. I gently simmered the bean curd as instructed, however, it kind of fell apart.
I don’t have pretty plating for this dish, but it’s simply a mix of Shanghai flat noodles, Tianjin preserved cabbage, bean curd, a sesame paste/chili oil based sauce, and a garnish of scallions and fried peanuts.
This was quite interesting, definitely one of the more interesting dishes I’ve had in a while. The overall flavor was extremely salty, especially if you got a bite of the bean curd and the Tianjin at the same time. I even rinsed the Tianjin because I read it was good to do so due to the salt content. However, in many bites the salt was balanced by the heat, the sesame paste sauce, and the cheese-like flavor from the bean curd. I’m not going to fib and say I was in love with this, but I did enjoy the experience, and there is at least one person that really liked it because I looked over at my brother midway through eating my portion and and he was licking his bowl clean.
Deep fried peanuts, stir fried cucumbers, fermented cabbage, and fermented bean curd…that’s four ingredients I’ve never eaten or cooked with, and the meal was only half way through!
But I’m saving the other dish for my next post, because this one is getting long and I also have a (somewhat) special announcement in the next post. Well, it’s not really that special, but it’s kinda neato. Yeah, that’s what I’m going with, kinda neato. Check it.
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