An Excerpt From Fuchsia Dunlop’s New Book, Five Tastes

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Fuchsia Dunlop here at The Mala Market. Her first book, The Land of Plenty—reissued in 2019, with updates, as The Food of Sichuan—is the ultimate English-language guide to Sichuan cuisine (and a perennial favorite with our readers and customers). And her subsequent cookbooks, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes From Hunan Province, Land of Fish and Rice (focused on the foods of the Jiangnan region) and Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking are equally beloved (as is her memoir and her history of China’s culinary traditions). So we were thrilled when we learned that Fuchsia had a new book coming out this fall, Five Tastes, focused on the building-block flavors that underscore all of Chinese cooking. 

As Fuchsia explains in the book’s introduction, most Chinese recipes are defined by one of the country’s classic flavor combinations—like Sichuan’s mala, red oil and jiachang flavor profiles (and all the others we have been diving into in our exploration of the province’s fuhe wei). But in this book she goes beyond expected and traditional dishes and uses these flavors and ingredients in expansive and adventurous ways. She also dives into some lesser known, more unusual flavor profiles, like the citrus-forward seasoning in her recipe for steamed sea bass with preserved lemon, excerpted below.

Here’s what Fuchsia told us about the approach she took with Five Tastes: 

“With my previous cookbooks, I have kept myself closely tethered to Chinese culinary traditions, my intention to reproduce dishes I’ve tasted or been taught in China and mostly to remove myself from the recipes (there are a few exceptions to this, like my habit of using Bombay mix as a substitute for Chinese crunchy bits on silken tofu!). When I’m cooking at home, however, I’m not bound by any such commitment to ‘authenticity’ and I like to play around and improvise. Five Tastes is a reflection of this, and as a collection of recipes, it may be my favourite among my books so far. Some of the dishes come directly from specific people and places in China. Others are simply made up by me! While working on the book, I would sometimes wake up in the morning with an idea for a new recipe, try it and then see how it turned out. 

“In China, ‘five tastes’ refers to the five tastes of classical tradition (sour, bitter, sweet, pungent or spicy and salty), but it’s also a metaphor for flavours in general and for the pleasures of gastronomy. I chose it as a title because my focus in the book has been on using Chinese seasonings and flavouring techniques in ways both traditional and unconventional. For example, carrot is rarely the main ingredient in Chinese dishes (as a ‘barbarian radish’ [hu luobo, 胡萝卜] it’s a peripheral ingredient, used mainly for its lovely colour), but I’ve made a shredded carrot salad with a Sichuanese chill oil dressing—delicious. 

“I’ve also had fun with fermented tofu, which is one of my favourite ingredients, and almost completely neglected by Western cooks—despite the fact that it’s a perfect candidate for use as a dairy substitute in vegan recipes, with its gorgeous umami flavour and creamy mouthfeel. One of the best recipes in the book (in my opinion!) is a fermented tofu vinaigrette, inspired by sauces for cold dishes I’ve enjoyed in Yunnan and Guizhou. The main recipe uses it on steamed leeks, but it’s also fantastic as a dressing for a green salad or sliced tomatoes, or as a vegan “mayonnaise” in a potato salad. I’ve also borrowed from the Cantonese use of fermented tofu in cooked dishes (such as stir-fried water spinach), and used it with stir-fried zucchini slivers and even Italian linguine—yum. 

“I think of the book as a kind of follow-on to Every Grain of Rice, because the emphasis is likewise on simple, fast, economical home cooking—but the recipes are more eclectic and I hope the flavours are more scintillating. Like Every Grain of Rice, it’s also turned out to have a lot of vegetarian and vegan recipes. For example, almost all the recipes in the Cold Dishes chapter are meat-free. And one of the two or three meaty dishes is a beef and celery salad for which I offer a smoked tofu vegan version that is so good I almost prefer it to the main one! Many of the dishes are absurdly simple to make.”

Using Citrus in Chinese Cooking—and in Steamed Sea Bass With Preserved Lemon

One of the most unique and unusual flavor profiles in Five Tastes is the pungent combination of preserved lemon and soy sauce that Fuchsia highlights in her recipe for seabass with salted lemon. In the book’s introduction, she notes that lime juice is used in parts of Yunnan Province but that citrus is rarely used in other parts of the country. When we asked her to elaborate on how the flavor profile works in this recipe, she explained a bit about how the dish came about: 

“The following recipe for steamed sea bass with preserved lemon is inspired by an incredible dish I had at the Chairman restaurant in Hong Kong: steamed fish jaws with fried garlic and salted lemon. Citrus fruits play only a very minor role in most Chinese regional cuisines (although, of course, oranges and tangerines are widely eaten as fruits). However, salt-preserved lemons or limes are used in the cooking of the Cantonese and Chaoshan regions.”

Fuchsia elaborates on the dish’s origins in the headnote to this recipe: “I loved the Chairman dish so much that I started imitating it with whole steamed fish, but using the Moroccan salted lemons that are now widely available in the UK, have the same flavour profile and are made by a similar method. The result was incredible: a classic Cantonese steamed fish finished with soy sauce and sizzling oil but with sublime high notes of lemon and dill. I adore this recipe and now make it often! It also led me to devise a couple of recipes in which limes are paired with green Sichuan pepper, one of their botanical relatives—also delicious.” 

Making Preserved Citrus at Home

According to Fuchsia’s headnote for the steamed sea bass, “Salted lemon or lime is a Cantonese preserve, particularly favored in the Chiuchow region. It adds a captivating salt-citrus note to stews, steamed dishes and various drinks.”

Rather than buy Moroccan salted lemons, Taylor opted to preserve lemons herself the Chinese way, using our trusty Sichuan pickling jar and a salt brine. Our research found that some Cantonese cooks preserve lemons and limes by packing them in salt like the Moroccans, and some preserve them in a salt brine. The goal is a soft, mellowed peel that can be slivered and eaten as is to add a deep, tangy lemon flavor without mouth-puckering acid or bitterness, and both methods will produce that after about a month of preservation. A 7% brine (17 grams salt per 236-gram cup of water) works like a charm in a 75°F room, but in hotter homes or times (or just to be safe) you might want to push that up to 8% to 10%.

Curing lemons in a brine, you may get slight fermentation (fizz and cloudiness) if the brine is not strong enough. That’s not a big problem, but remember the goal is a salt-preserved fruit where microbes cannot grow, versus a fermented one where beneficial microbes turn it sour (it’s already sour!). When preserving in a brine, cut the lemons (preferably organic) in halves or quarters to speed the process, and make sure they are always submerged under the brine so they don’t mold. Other than that, just give them a few weeks to cure, and you’ll have delicious preserved lemons for Chinese dishes and beyond.

For more delicious fish dishes, check out Taylor’s Sichuan Wok-Fried Fish in Chili Bean Sauce (Douban Yu, 豆瓣鱼) and Green Sichuan Pepper Fish (Tengjiaoyu, 藤椒鱼) or Zoe’s Fish Vendor’s Shanghai Smoked Fish (Xunyu, 熏鱼).