麻婆豆腐 (mapo tofu)

Nothing special here except tofu cutting technique and use of korean pepper paste which helps thicken the sauce without cornstarch or reducing everything too much.  Also, about double the spicy stuff of the traditional recipe: alter the oil, chili flakes, and peppercorns to your taste but keep the ratio.  If you like your MPDF with ground pork, fry it at the same time as the mushrooms in the same fashion (that is, lightly coated with cornstarch and an appropriate amount of soy sauce) until crispy and serve it poured over everything at the end so that it stays crunchy.  Or, leave it vegan mapo tofu- I personally think the shiitake's carry enough presence such that meat is unnecessary.

• 1 brick of silken tofu (16-20oz), cubed into 10mm (see below).  Firmer tofu is for n00bs
• .5C  dried shiitake broth and the two associated mushrooms
• 1t cornstarch
• .25C oil
• 2TB crushed red chili flakes
• 1TB sichuan peppercorns
• 2TB soy sauce
• 1TB 辣豆瓣醬 (Chinese spicy chili broad bean paste)
• 1TB korean red pepper paste
• 1TB fermented black beans, rinsed of grit
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 green onions, whites and greens separated
• .5" minced ginger

The tofu
IMO the main difference between lame mapo tofu and good mapo tofu is the use of silken tofu, and then maintaining it in neat cubes for texture.  To cut the tofu: first cut the top plastic film off using scissors.  Then , cut off one of the bottom corners of the tofu box.  Place a small cutting board on top of the tofu box and then invert: now that you've just cut a vent, you should be able to pull the box off of the tofu without breaking the brick (save the box).  You'll probably need to do two cuts parallel to the cutting board plane to split it into thirds: this is the most annoying part: if you find it too annoying, just do one cut to split it in half (newb).  Then, cut the tofu from the top into 10mm squares: err on the side of smaller, being careful to keep all the pieces together.  Get that box you saved and put it back on top of the now cubed tofu, invert, and now your tofu will be MUCH easier to work with now that it's in a vented box.

The rest
Slice the mushrooms you got from making half the recipe of that mushroom broth into thin strips, about 2mm wide.  Coat with about 1 teaspoon cornstarch.  Heat the oil with the peppercorns on medium high heat.  When they turn dark brown, add the mushrooms and lower the heat to medium after the coating first solidifies.  Add the chili flakes and cook until the oil is red and the chili flakes are darkened but not burnt (this can be tricky...).  When the chili flakes look done, scoop all the solids out with a strainer and set them aside: don't worry about being too thorough.  Add the garlic, green onion, and chili bean paste and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute.  Add the mushroom broth, soy sauce, ginger, and korean pepper paste and stir until uniform.  Heat through until thick, then gently add the tofu which should be easy now that it's in that neat little box and should drop without too much effort because of that vent.  Using a broad, flat, soft object (i.e. wooden spatula) very gently stir the tofu into the sauce and simmer for 1 or 2 minutes.  To serve, carefully pour the tofu into a bowl, then top with the fried chili flakes/peppercorns/mushrooms you removed earlier, then top with the green onion greens, cut however you believe is the most visually appealing (I like using the shredder thingy that looks like 4 x-acto knives glued together to make long strings).

Dried shiitake broth

When I need a low sodium broth or a vegan broth this is what I use.

• 1C water, hot but not boiling (I use the microwave for 1 minute)
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms
• Pinch of curry powder (that is, 1/8 teaspoon)

Put the mushrooms in the water.  After another minute or two, they should be soft enough to stick a fork through all of them: the weight of the fork will keep the mushrooms from floating up.  Let sit for another 20-30 minutes, but it works best for several hours or even over night.  Squeeze the mushrooms as you take them out: use them for something else.  Add a pinch of curry powder: you don't want to taste it so much as have it add a little depth.

Important note: cooking the broth for a long time destroys the subtle flavors.  You can heat the broth, but try not to actually cook with it for best results.

宮保雞丁 (kung pao chicken)

Note: new version here

What makes mine different is: ground peanuts, chili oil in lieu of whole chili/peppercorns, lemon juice.

The stuff

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed to L = 15mm, brined.  If you're not sure what 15mm looks like, get a ruler.  This dish works with pieces up to 1" cube in size.
• 1/3c coarse crushed peanuts, roasted (see below)

 Sauce stuff

• 2 green onions, whites thinly sliced and greens reserved for garnish
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• .5" ginger, grated
• 3 TB soy
• 2 TB 紹興酒 Shao xing rice wine
• 2 TB dark brown sugar, packed
• 2TB lemon juice, divided (Using a sour grapefruit also works)
• 2TB chili oil
• OPTIONAL: zest of a half a lemon (or grapefruit zest if using for the acid)

-To get peanuts roasted, dry toast in a wok or skillet on medium heat until fragrant.  Or, put in a 350F oven, stirring every 5 minutes, for a total of 15 minutes, or until fragrant.

-Once chicken is brined, thoroughly wash chicken and drain.  Mix with just enough cornstarch that the chicken starts sticking to itself, probably 2 to 3 tablespoons.

-Heat a well seasoned wok with about 1 tablespoon of cooking oil until shimmering.  Add the chicken and spread out into a single layered "pancake" (if your wok is small, divide the chicken into appropriate sized batches).  Cook for about 2 minutes or until you can see the chicken start turning white from cooking up to about a third of the thickness.  Use a thin, wide spatula to loosen the chicken and rotate in the pan to make sure that your "pancake" is holding together.  Flip the pancake (or slide the chicken out onto a plate and flip the whole assembly back into the wok uncooked side down).  Cook another 2 minutes or until this side starts showing white coming up the sides of the chicken as well.  Break the pancake with the spatula, then stir fry quickly, tossing in the wok until the chicken is just tinged pink in most areas, about another minute or two.  Reserve chicken.

-Heat the sauce ingredients excluding the chili oil and 1 reserved tablespoon of lemon juice on high until it turns into a very thick, dark caramel with lots of small bubbles forming.  You want this to be REALLY thick because the juices and oil on the exterior of the chicken will dilute the sauce when you mix it.  Add the ginger, green onion whites, and garlic and cook in the caramel until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add the chicken, half of the peanuts, chili oil, and remaining lemon juice and coat the chicken and finish cooking it, about another 30 seconds to a minute.  Plate the chicken, sprinkle with remaining roasted peanuts and green onion greens and serve immediately.

嗆包心菜 (Charred cabbage)

One of my favorite foods both to cook and eat.  Short ingredient list.  Neat technique.  Smoky.  Traditional.  About 60 cents per dish.  The final product's taste is highly dependent on the process: too little char and you get tough, flavorless cabbage with bitterness from the raw vegetable taste.  Too much char and it's cancerlicious and bitter from the burnt flakes of cabbage-turned-into-carbon.  When it's done right, it's sweet, smoky; it's tinged with bitterness, complex, and tender-crisp.  I still mess this up.

You need to have a well-seasoned wok or cast iron skillet to make this.  If you don't, don't bother trying.  To make it spicy, I find it simpler to substitute chili oil for the neutral oil rather than trying to cook chilis and peppercorns into the dish, but feel free to do whatever you want.  I like it both ways depending on what else is going on the table.

• 1 small head of cabbage (~ 1lbs.) OR .5 lbs each of red and green cabbage or some combination thereof.  Smaller cabbages tend to be sweeter, so go for them.
• 1 tablespoon canola oil OR 1 tablespoon chili oil
• 2 gloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt, or kosher salt in a pinch
• OPTIONAL: 1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar or balsamic vinegar
• OPTIONAL: Pinch of shredded Korean chili OR a few slivers of green onion green (see note on plating)

Quarter the cabbage(s) and cut out the root.  Don't be skimpy in discarding the root: it's like $0.40/lbs and it's not worth it.  Cut each quarter along the equator to get eight sections.  Place each section, without separating the leaves, onto the dry wok: it might look crowded, but that's okay.  Allow the cabbage to char for about 4 minutes, then rotate the pieces.  Continue moving around the segments and rotating the pieces until there are charred spots all over the cut surfaces of the cabbage (should be 3 sides per segment): if it starts coming apart, don't worry about it: try to avoid moving the cabbage around until the next layer is charred.   Once all the segments are charred all over, break up the segments into their constituent leaves, and allow to sit in the wok longer, charring the unexposed leaves.  Repeat this process, tossing briefly as necessary, until all the leaves show at least some charring- this takes some practice... good thing cabbage is cheap!  This process should also get easier as the cabbage shrinks from cooking and it starts fitting in your wok better.  Once all the cabbage leaves are tinged with charred spots, clear out the center of the wok and toast the sea salt (if your wok isn't seasoned so well, this is where you're going to see why I told you not to attempt this dish... everything will be stuck at this point and I don't know what to tell you!).  After about a minute, add the oil and garlic to the center and cook until just fragrant, about 30 seconds.  If using the vinegar, add it now to the oil in the center of the wok and let some of the acid release.  Toss to coat everything.  Adjust seasoning using extra sea salt or soy sauce, but most of the time you won't need any.  Once everything is well mixed, plate and serve.

Note on plating: when using green cabbage, I use shredded dried Korean chili for garnish.  For red, I use slivers of green onion greens.  When using both red and green, I arrange the red on the outside in a ring, green mounded in the center with dried Korean chili on top.

Blow-torched fish sauce broth

I hate canned broth: it tastes like metal-tastic old-ness.  I hate making broth since I'm lazy.  This is my compromise.  Blowtorching will keep this from stinking too much.

• 1TB Three Crabs fish sauce
• 1C water

 Heat the fish sauce in a pot that you don't mind hitting with direct blow torch heat.  As it starts to bubble and caramelize, torch the fish sauce so that the stinky gas getting released ignites.  You may end up charring the foam that comes up: this is expected and enhances the final product's flavor.  Once the fish sauce doesn't smell so bad anymore, add the water and deglaze anything that got caked on.  It tastes like umami: if you want to retain some fishiness, blowtorch less.  For smokier broth, blow torch the fish sauce like a madman.  Beware of the increased sodium.

麻辣紅油 (Tim's chili oil)

You could buy the stuff in a bottle, but it won't taste like mine.  This recipe is essentially making 花椒油 and then using that while still hot to make 辣椒油.  I use a french press and tea kettle so that my kitchen is still clean when I'm done.  Make absolutely sure there isn't any water anywhere on anything during this process or your hands and arms are going to start looking like mine (that is, messed up).

• 4C canola, soybean, or other neutral oil
• 2C crushed dried Sichuan chilies (or whatever crushed dried chilis you can find)
• 1C dried Sichuan peppercorns (no substitute for these exists)

Put the crushed red chilies in the french press.  Put the oil and peppercorns in the tea kettle and start heating up on high heat.  Use the peppercorn color to determine the temperature: they will turn very dark brown, but not black, when the oil is ready and the oil will probably just start releasing a few wisps of smoke.  At this point, remove the oil from the heat.  Pour the oil into the french press: hopefully your tea kettle doesn't suck and not too many of the peppercorns will get poured in.  If it bothers you, pour through a metal strainer.  The cooked chilis will start floating to the surface: use the french press to force them back into the oil.  You know you did everything right when all the chili flakes are floating, all the seeds sank, and the oil is a deep crimson color.  The oil is ready to use in 15 minutes, but will reach optimum flavor after a couple of hours.  It keeps well.

Variation: you can omit the peppercorns and use Korean coarse chili flakes to make an extremely fragrant, almost sweet oil.  Put the chili flakes in the french press as above.  Heat the oil until it just smokes, then remove from heat and wait for the oil to just stop smoking, then pour into the press.  This is necessary because the flavor of Korean chili is much more delicate and it's easier to burn.  Oh yeah, this costs a junk load of money if you use good chili flakes.

Basic brines

Why brine?  Because it makes things taste better.  Not necessary for everything, just low fat items such as chicken breast and pork loin.  You can flavor your brine with whatever you want, but I would keep the sodium and sugar content at the levels indicated, i.e. if you want to use soy sauce, use correspondingly less salt to maintain the same concentration.  Also, I wouldn't brine with black pepper or acidic ingredients: we have a mental association with hot dogs, ham, and spam with that flavor.  Because I prefer not to flavor my brine, most people never notice that my food is brined at all other than asking, "why is your chicken breast as juicy as dark meat?"

Concentration of the brine is what counts: YMMV of how much you need based on the shape of your meat and the shape of your container.

Saturated quick brine for ~ 1lb of meat:

• 3TB DCK salt (note: if using other brands of salt, look up the sodium/volume measure and adjust accordingly.  E.g. if using Morton's kosher use 2 TB.  Don't use iodized.)
• 3TB sugar (tip: baker's sugar dissolves easier)
• 1.5C water

 Mix everything up cold, rubbing the crystals with your fingers to dissolve them.  Add meat.  Brine time will vary based on the shape of your food: for small pieces, like 10mm-25mm cubes for stir-frying or slices for 水煮, 30 minutes is fine.  Larger chunks, like 25mm+ cubes or whole chicken breast will require 45 minutes to an hour.  For very large items, I recommend a long brine, which is listed below.

8 hour to 1 week brine:

• .25C DCK salt
• .25C sugar
• 3C water

For long brine, you REALLY want to follow my advice about not using acids or peppercorn or iodized salt.  This is stronger than the classic brine you'll typically find online that would be 4C water for that much salt and sugar, but this works better in my experience. Again, the typical complaints about spamminess aren't due to the brine so much as the weird things people like to put in their brine.  As a side effect, this helps your meat keep longer, but don't come sue me later when you get food poisoning from chicken sashimi that's been sitting in brine for 3 months.

Brined food will not need to be seasoned with salt anymore, but for asian foods involving fish sauce or soy sauce you typically won't have to adjust.  Just start with half as much and work your way up if you're paranoid, but don't be surprised when you end up using the original recipe amount at the end: the sugar in the brine does a lot to counteract the saltiness.