I recently purchased these to find a homemade substitute for all the delicious Sichuan food I was introduced to in Houston last year. I miss it dearly and I need to find some authentic, Sichuan food in Buffalo. But in the meantime, I'm cooking away...
It all started with Sichuan Eggplant.
Then it turned into a cooking madness of these recipes in the past month (all recipes courtesy of Serious Eats-my favorite food blog/website):
- mapo tofu (the recipe is vegetarian but I added in ground beef)
- mapo chicken (the following links have no pics from me. contrary to popular belief, I don't take pics of everything I make/eat).
- real deal kung pao chicken- sooooo much better than your average Chinese restaurant Kung Pao.
- three cup chicken- this recipe omits the traditional three cup ingredient of sesame oil. just add in 1/4 cup of some. love the star anise flavor. (although Taiwanese and not Sichuan, I'm finding other uses for my Chinese ingredients).
Looking forward to making these:
One ingredient: Sichuan Peppercorns. I've mentioned this before but they have a different and special kind of spiciness. It's numbing and kind of lemony (especially if you drink water after eating). I purchased mine at Penzey's since I got confused at the Chinese grocery. But don't be afraid to ask or search the aisles for bags of red peppercorns that look like this:
So, if you're up for an adventure with new food, stock up on those Chinese ingredients and also lots of ginger and garlic. Enjoy!
Oh my, this looks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteYou should def try the eggplant if you get all those ingredients. It totally turned me from ex-eggplant hater into an eggplant lover!
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