Читать книгу Chinese Food Made Easy: 100 simple, healthy recipes from easy-to-find ingredients - Ching-He Huang - Страница 28

SERVES 4 TO SHARE

300g/11oz minced beef or pork

2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns

2 tablespoons groundnut oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped

1 tablespoon freshly grated root ginger

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

2 tablespoons chilli bean sauce

400g/14oz firm fresh dofu, cut into 2.5cm/1 inch chunks

200ml/7fl oz hot beef stock

1 teaspoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon cornflour blended with 2 tablespoons cold water

2 large spring onions, sliced

sea salt and ground white pepper

steamed jasmine rice to serve

FOR THE MARINADE

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry

1 Put all the ingredients for the marinade into a bowl and stir to combine. Add the minced meat and leave to marinate for 10 minutes.

2 Heat a wok over a high heat. Add the minced meat and cook until browned, then transfer to a bowl and put to one side.

3 Put the Sichuan peppercorns into a small pan and dry roast until fragrant, then remove from the heat and crush in a pestle and mortar, or place in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin. Reheat the wok and add the groundnut oil. Stir-fry half the crushed Sichuan peppercorns to release their aroma, then stir in the garlic, ginger, chilli and chilli bean sauce. Add the minced meat and dofu and stir-fry gently for 2 minutes.

4 Add the hot stock and bring to the boil, then season to taste with the soy sauce, salt and pepper. Add the blended cornflour and stir to thicken. Stir in the spring onions. Sprinkle on the remaining crushed Sichuan peppercorns, and serve with steamed rice.

This is a mouth-tingling numbing hotpot! The spicy soup stock base is a delicious broth in which fresh ingredients are poached – like a Chinese fondue. The Mandarin word for such a feast is ‘Huo-guo’, meaning firepot, because all the ingredients are cooked in a hotpot!

I love this kind of feast, it is easy to prepare and great for interaction with friends. All you need is an electric wok, set up in the centre of the table, plenty of soup ladles and away you go. I had this dish in Chengdu in the middle of summer and it was fantastic. Be warned – this is extremely spicy.