In Praise of Green Mala~~

What do you do with green Sichuan pepper, some readers and shoppers have asked. Well, there’s lots you can do with this mesmerizing spice, I would say, but you should probably start with this Green Sichuan Pepper Fish to experience the full power and potential of qinghuajiao. If you’ve eaten at Chengdu Taste in L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley (or any of their many other locations) you might have ordered this dish (called Boiled Fish in Green Pepper Sauce), as it’s a crowd favorite there. Otherwise, think of it as the green version of the better-known shuizhuyu, or water-boiled fish, which is fish filets in a sea of red chili bean paste, red chilies and red Sichuan pepper.

This dish, 藤椒鱼, called tengjiaoyu in Chinese, is fish filets in a sea of green vegetables, green chilies, green Sichuan pepper and green Sichuan pepper oil. If you’ve met and liked red Sichuan pepper, then you have to meet its green cousin, which is a different species and has an altogether different aroma and flavor. It’s more floral and fresh tasting, more spring and summer, than red Sichuan pepper’s earthy and musky, fall and winter taste. (Both have a citrus zing and are members of the citrus family, rutaceae, not the peppercorn family.)

Green Sichuan Pepper vs. Tengjiao

Tengjiao, sometimes called vine pepper or rattan pepper in English, actually refers to a slightly different green-colored Sichuan pepper than qinghuajiao and is usually eaten fresh. In Chengdu itself, you’d find a branch—or five—of fresh green tengjiao on top of this dish (and many others). It would be just-picked if was the summer harvest season. You rarely see fresh tengjiao in the U.S., however, even at restaurants like Chengdu Taste, because the only good preservation technique is freezing and, even then, it’s really not the same as fresh tengjiao.

Fortunately for us, the other way that tengjiao can be preserved is in oil. Our Yaomazi tengjiao oil is made from just-picked tengjiao, the essence and numbing potency nicely preserved in the cold-pressed rapeseed oil. So we’ll use both dried green Sichuan pepper and tengjiao oil to top this dish and make it taste of Sichuan.

You probably won’t find a recipe for green Sichuan pepper fish—or any other dish using qing huajiao—in English-language Chinese or Sichuan cookbooks. Green Sichuan pepper has been popular in Sichuan only for the past couple decades—and available in the U.S. for only a few years—so hasn’t made it into the cookbook canon.

I came up with my own recipe for this dish a few years ago based on some recipes on the Chinese web, but note that this recipe is a completely revamped version of the recipe I first published back in 2017. I took many shortcuts to this restaurant dish back then, but after recently revisiting the recipe, I determined that it is more than worth the extra effort to make it the restaurant way—by starting with a homemade fish stock (instead of boxed chicken stock) and finishing with the hot tengjiao oil instead of omitting it as before, since it provides the true tengjiao essence of the dish.

The recipe now also more closely follows the method for making red shuizhuyu, and is all the better for it. 

Choosing Vegetables and Fish for Tengjiaoyu

The vegetables used in this dish may include celery or celtuce, mung bean sprouts and cucumber—plus, fresh green chilies of course, since this is a green málà (numbing and spicy) dish. All the vegetables are sliced thinly with a knife or mandoline to make sure they cook quickly in the broth.

In Sichuan, the fish used would be freshwater and probably carp. Here you can use catfish, red snapper, bass, or any other white-flesh fish you like. Whatever fish you choose, it’s important to start with a whole fish. Have the fishmonger clean and filet the fish for you, but retain the head and bones so that you can make a fish stock from them.

Prep the filets by slicing them at an angle into 1/2-inch slices and marinating in a thin cornstarch-egg white batter. This is slightly thicker than in a restaurant, but makes it easier not to overcook the fish.

Making the Fish Stock for Tengjiaoyu

I learned from Chef Wang’s various videos how to make a fish stock solely from the one fish you are cooking and still end up with a lovely aromatic fish stock (in addition to the filets you add later). The keys to a concentrated fish flavor are browning the head and bones in oil with ginger, garlic and green onions. Fry them slowly until all the bits are toasty brown and aromatic, about 10 minutes, then add boiling water. You then cook that for 20-25 minutes at a medium boil, reducing the stock and concentrating the flavor. Finally, you strain, add salt and white pepper and, ta-da, Chinese milky stock. If it’s milky yellow-white, then it’s right!

You can make the stock ahead, and then prep the vegetables and fish filets and finish the dish when you are ready to eat. 

Composition and the Finishing, Sizzling Oil Bath

• When it’s go time, you’ll quickly stir-fry the vegetables (except the chilies), just to break their rawness, and put them in the bottom of your serving bowl. 
• Mix the tengjiao oil with a neutral oil in a very small pan and slowly heat it up while you prepare the dish. 
• In a wok, stir-fry some more aromatics, add your fish stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce it to a simmer, and add the marinated fish piece by piece, so they don’t stick together (easiest with your hands). Do not stir! Let them slowly poach until just done. 
• Carefully dump the entire wok full of stock and fish on top of the waiting vegetables in your bowl. Garnish with the green chili slices and green Sichuan pepper. When the tengjiao oil is just on the border of smoking, pour it over the top of the chilies and huajiao and watch it sizzle.
• Serve with rice. 

Green Sichuan Pepper Fish’s charm is being heavily flavored without being heavy. It may seem like a lot of spice, but this dish is meant to be quite mala. As always, you are not meant to eat the Sichuan peppercorns, but they are easy to spot and avoid in this light-colored dish. Similarly, remember to pluck your food out of the broth to put in your rice bowl and not to treat the broth like a drinkable soup.

Serving Hotpot Style

You can also serve this, as I did here, over a flame (or induction) burner so the stock stays hot over a leisurely dinner spent fishing out the delectable morsels of fish and veg. You won’t need to pre-cook the vegetables and you’ll just barely cook the fish, so that it all finishes cooking in the pot. Otherwise, make it the same way as outlined above but building it in the hotpot instead of a bowl. Then set the hotpot on the portable cooktop and keep the broth at a simmer while you eat. 

You could even supplement with homemade chicken stock to stretch the broth enough to add additional vegetables, tofu and noodles after you finish the fish.