Murgh Kari, literally “chicken curry” in Hindi and Urdu, is a classic style of North Indian home cooking. Unlike the richer cream- and butter-based curries that often dominate Indian restaurant menus in the West, Murgh Kari is everyday cooking—chicken simmered in a deeply flavored gravy built from browned onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and warm spices.
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Guizhou Spicy Chicken-贵州辣子鸡, is very different from the dry, crisp laziji associated with Chongqing and Sichuan. The defining ingredient is cíbā làjiāo—a coarse paste of softened dried chilies, ginger and garlic fried in oil—which is cooked with the chicken until the meat becomes deeply infused with chile and coated in a rich, glossy red mixture.
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Ciba Chili Paste gets its name from its sticky, cohesive texture, which resembles freshly pounded glutinous rice cake (cíbā). Unlike dry chili flakes or smooth purées, it is a coarse, moist paste made by rehydrating whole dried chilies and pounding or grinding them together with fresh ginger and garlic, then slowly frying the mixture in oil until fragrant and glossy.
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The more I cook Hunan food, the more I realize that some of its most distinctive flavors don’t come from complicated recipes. They come from the ingredients that Hunan cooks keep on hand. Duo Jiao (剁椒), chopped salted chilies allowed to ferment until they become tangy, savory and deeply aromatic, is one of those ingredients.
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This vibrant Hunan seafood dish pairs shrimp with Duo Jiao—a pickled relish made from crisp green chilies, garlic, and ginger. Flash-fried over high heat, the chilies create an aromatic, savory-sour glaze that clings to the shrimp without the need for heavy cornstarch sauces.
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This Hunan pork belly recipe was suggested by a friend and is adapted from a recipe by UK based site, School of Wok. It’s delicious.
This dish belongs to a family of Hunan stir-fries known as xiao chao rou (小炒肉), literally “small stir-fried pork.” There are many variations, but the combination of fatty pork, fresh green chilies and fermented black beans is classic Hunan cooking.
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This braised chicken recipe comes from Jennifer Brennan’s wonderful The Original Thai Cookbook, 1981, one of the pioneering English-language books that introduced authentic Thai cooking to Western home cooks. Brennan describes first discovering Gai Tung after an afternoon wandering Bangkok’s bustling Sam Peng market, where a simple neighborhood restaurant served her a fragrant braised chicken over rice that became one of her most memorable meals. After making this recipe for years, I understand exactly why it left such an impression.
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Harissa is a fiery paste which is commonly used in North African cuisine. You see it show up in Tunisian and Moroccan food quite often. It is packed with flavor and comes in many varieties, but common ingredients are chilies, olive oil, garlic, sundried tomatoes, salt, coriander, cumin and caraway seeds.
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As I’ve mentioned before, I have a large collection of modern, vintage, and antique cookbooks. One of the things I enjoy most is comparing how recipes have evolved over the decades and seeing how cooks adapted authentic dishes to the ingredients available at the time.
Continue reading “Twice-Cooked Pork: From Joyce Chen’s 1961 Kitchen to Today’s Sichuan Pantry”
Kung Pao Shrimp is one of those dishes that proves Sichuan cooking isn’t just about heat. The first thing you’ll notice is the balance of flavors. Sweet, sour, salty, and the unmistakable tingling warmth of Sichuan peppercorns all come together in a glossy sauce that coats the shrimp.
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