Category: Soups & Stews

Noodles / Plant / Restaurant Classics / Soups & Stews

Sichuan Malatang Recipe: DIY Personal Hotpot

Making Malatang Personal Hotpot at Home~~ Malatang (麻辣烫, málàtàng), “spicy hotpot,” is an easily recognizable food trend from Sichuan beloved by on-the-fly diners, especially during the cold, damp winter. Whereas regular hotpot around a communal broth requires assembling whole groups for a 1-3 hour self-cooking affair, malatang vendors cook ingredients to order for you, then serve everything in a personal serving bowl with the piping hot hotpot broth. Notable for operating out of cramped stalls and carts on narrow streets, malatang shops allow you to choose ingredients (pre-skewered, for speed...

Noodles / Plant / Poultry / Restaurant Classics / Soups & Stews

Yangzhou Dazhu Gansi (Simmered Tofu Noodles, 大煮干丝) | Zoe Yang

A Jiangnan test of skill~~ There is no dish more exemplary of Jiangnan cuisine than the Yangzhou classic 大煮干丝 (dàzhǔ gānsī), simmered tofu noodles. Every ingredient is an homage to the Yangtze River Delta—duck gizzards, miniature river shrimp, slivers of chicken and rich Jinhua ham, baby greens, fresh mushrooms and, of course, the tofu itself. I didn’t know all this on the first day of cooking school in Nanjing, 12 years ago, when I came to class dutifully toting the above ingredients. In fact, the other reason—perhaps the main reason—my...

Pork / Soups & Stews

Healing Century Egg and Pork Congee (Pidan Shourou Zhou, 皮蛋瘦肉粥)

Congee, An Old Buddhist Remedy~~ When you find yourself tired or ailing, let this 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pídàn shòuròu zhōu), century-egg and lean-pork congee, restore you. A thick suspension of pearl rice made creamy by time and preserved egg yolk, pidan shourou zhou is the most lavish of peasant (and monk) fare. The benefits are manifold for those who consume and proffer zhou—in ancient 10th-century Buddhist texts, the monk 義楚 Yichu describes the blessings of both eating and giving the gift of congee¹. Although my parents both grew up eating what they...

Fish & Seafood / Restaurant Classics / Soups & Stews

One-Pot Weeknight Suancaiyu (酸菜鱼): Pickled Mustard-Green Fish Stew

Shortcut Suancaiyu~~ When it comes to weeknight 酸菜鱼 (suāncàiyú), spicy and sour Sichuan fish (yu) with pickled mustard greens (suancai), even devout cooks need the occasional shortcut. Like most fish dishes on the mainland, suancaiyu uses whole fresh fish. And try as one might, Ma simply won’t be found buying, killing and gutting live fish on a Tuesday. Not that there’s much live fresh fish to be found around those parts—what suburbs have in 4-bedroom family homes, they lack in specialty fishmongers. So, we use fish fillets. No, it’s not the...

Bao & Dumplings / Pork / Poultry / Soups & Stews

Danjiao (蛋饺) Egg Dumplings ft. Pork and Ramps

Taste of Jiangnan: Egg-Skin Dumplings~~ 蛋饺 (dànjiǎo), or egg dumplings, have long been a mainstay of Chinese New Year banquets across the southeastern regions of China. Elders will tell you it’s because danjiao look like lucky gold ingots/”sycees”(金元宝, jīn yuánbǎo). I think the practical reason is that they demand so much attention and time! See, to make danjiao, you basically have to make a tiny omelet in a ladle, lay a tiny quenelle of pork filling in the middle, and then oh-so-gently fold one edge of the omelet over the...

A white bowl of dunjitang served with wontons and mushrooms and greens

Poultry / Soups & Stews

Clarified Old Hen Soup (Dunjitang, 炖鸡汤)

All-Purpose Golden Broth for Soup, Noodles, Chaoshou and More~~ Documenting my mother’s recipe for 炖鸡汤 (dùnjītāng), stewed chicken soup, made me wonder what you can tell about someone from how they process a whole bird. It all starts with deducing a person’s qualities from the kind of chicken immediately at stake, a brand of kitchen table checkers I cherish. Someone who already had what they needed in the freezer is likely not just a regular cook, for example, but also a confident one—they don’t need to know the fate of...

Dessert / Plant / Soups & Stews

Snow Fungus Jujube Dessert Soup (Yin’er Tang, 银耳汤)

Refreshing Summer Dessert~~ This version of 银耳汤 (yín’ěr tāng), or snow fungus jujube dessert soup as we’ll call it, is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) quadruple threat. Yin’er tang is often served after banquet meals, and it’s a frequent staple in our Chinese home. Moreover, with high quality jujubes as a natural sweetener, we rarely end up adding extra sugar. Better yet, it transitions seamlessly between the hottest and coldest of days. In the winter, yin’er tang is nourishing and delicious eaten warm straight from the pot. Then, once summer arrives,...

Bao & Dumplings / Pork / Restaurant Classics / Soups & Stews / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

Sichuan Chili Oil Wontons (Hongyou Chaoshou, 红油抄手)

A Taste of Childhood These Sichuan Chili Oil Wontons (红油抄手, hóngyóu chāoshǒu) take us back to slurping down a bowl of chaoshou at our fave Chongzhou noodle shop. For authentic texture and hometown flavor, traditional technique is everything. Whether you know them as everyday 馄饨 (húntún), Sichuan 抄手 (chāoshǒu), or Cantonese-derived wontons, these soup-friendly meat parcels are a hole-in-the-wall mainstay. Unlike 饺子 (jiǎozi) or 水饺 (shuǐjiǎo), aka boiled dumplings, chaoshou are served “wet” in bowls of broth or, in this case, hongyou dressing. Moreover, the delicate, crossed wrappers trap sauce by...

yunnan mushroom hot pot

Chinese New Year / How to Cook With Chinese Spices / Non-Spicy / Plant / Poultry / Restaurant Classics / Soups & Stews / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

No Sweet Sour: Yunnan Mushroom Hotpot (Huoguo, 火锅)

Wild Mushroom Heaven I was so thrilled when I received the gorgeous handmade brass hotpot from The Mala Market. Finally, I could prepare a proper Yunnan mushroom hotpot in Norway! I love hotpot (火锅, huǒguō) not only because it is a fun way to cook food, but also because hotpot brings to mind a warm sense of social gathering. Whenever I meet old friends back in Kunming, we often share a hotpot meal while catching up with each other. Hotpot varies depending on the different geographic regions of China. In...

Sichuan mala hot pot with beef tallow

Beef, Lamb & Game / Chinese New Year / Fish & Seafood / How to Cook With Caiziyou / How to Cook With Chinese Spices / How to Cook With Doubanjiang / How to Cook With Douchi / How to Cook With Dried Chilies / How to Cook With Huajiao / How to Cook With Shaoxing Wine / Plant / Restaurant Classics / Soups & Stews / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

Sichuan Mala Hotpot, From Scratch (Mala Huoguo with Tallow Broth)

Hotpot Party at Your House Although this recipe for mala hotpot first published in early 2018 is the most popular recipe on our entire blog, we have revised and updated it as of November 2020. Why? Well, when I first developed it, there weren’t many recipes for Sichuan hotpot online in English—and none at all, that I could find, that included beef fat (tallow), a style of hotpot broth widely loved in Chongqing and Chengdu. There probably were Chinese-language online videos and recipes for it, but they were less accessible...

Shui zhu yu (water-boiled fish) from The Mala Market

Chinese New Year / Fish & Seafood / How to Cook With Doubanjiang / How to Cook With Dried Chilies / How to Cook With Huajiao / How to Cook With Soy Sauce / Restaurant Classics / Sichuan Pantry Compatible / Soups & Stews / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

Water-Boiled Fish With Tofu (Shuizhuyu, 水煮鱼)

Swimming Fire Fish Shuizhuyu, translated literally as water-boiled fish, may be the most misleadingly named dish ever. Far from swimming in a sea of water, the fish fillets float in a luxurious bath of mala spicy broth. Restaurateurs in the U.S. often give it a more fitting translation, the most creative I’ve seen being “swimming fire fish.” And yet, as I previously discussed when I published a recipe for shuizhu beef, shuizhu dishes are not as explosive as they appear at first sight. Yes, the main ingredient shares space with...

How to Cook With Chinese Spices / Noodles / Pork / Soups & Stews / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

Pork Rib Noodle Soup in Sichuan Broth (Paigu Mian)

Chengdu Challenge #26: Paigu Mian, My Favorite Mistake This is one of those recipes that is the result of a beautiful mistake. I was merely attempting to make Sichuan-style stock when I ended up with an entire soup. My daughter has been mostly deprived of one of her favorite foods—homemade soup—because I don’t particularly like or crave soup and just don’t ever think about making it. She grew up in China eating freshly made wonton soup every morning for breakfast at school. I grew up in Oklahoma eating Campbell’s chicken noodle...