Yunnan Stir-Fried Mushrooms With Sichuan Pepper Oil (Huajiao You Chao Pinggu; 花椒油炒平菇)

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Stir-Fried Mushrooms With Sichuan Pepper Oil

Mala-Infused Yunnan Mushrooms

If you’ve ever been to central or northern Yunnan in the summer or fall, chances are you ate a whole lot of mushrooms while you were there. The province is famous for its bounty of fungi. Over 800 kinds grow wild all throughout the region’s various mountain ranges, and in the summer and fall you’ll find massive piles of them in pretty much every market you visit. While most prized varieties—the porcinis, matsutakes, chanterelles and summer truffles—get the most attention (and bring in the most money), locals gravitate toward more unusual, or at least less-famous, options like gān bā jūn (干巴菌; dried beef fungus), which is named for its textural similarity to dried beef and has a piney flavor, and qīng tóu jūn (青头菌; green head fungus), which has a blue-green cap. 

There are lots of ways to enjoy mushroom season in Yunnan; there are even a handful of dedicated mushroom restaurants in Kunming that offer feasts incorporating a range of species—including the trickier varieties that can be poisonous if not cooked correctly. But by far the most common way to eat mushrooms is stir-fried with a handful of sliced chilies (fresh or dried) and some garlic. Order stir-fried mushrooms in pretty much any small restaurant, and this is probably what you’ll end up with. It’s an easy dish for the cooks to put out, and the simple preparation lets the fungi’s natural flavors shine. Occasionally you’ll also find a fun twist on the basic format, like this recipe for oyster mushrooms with Sichuan pepper oil (huājiāo yóu chǎo pínggū; 花椒油炒平菇) that I stumbled onto at a spot in Benzilan with the strange name Dali Special Clothing Restaurant.

The small town of Benzilan is in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the northernmost part of Yunnan, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, just below the Tibetan Autonomous Region (and just west of Sichuan). Most visitors who make it this far north head straight to Shangri-la (Xiānggélǐlā; 香格里拉), but if you take the narrow, winding road even farther north, you’ll find small Tibetan villages, stunning temples and monasteries, a few old Catholic churches (built by French missionaries in the early 1900s) and important Tibetan religious sites like the mountain of Kawakarpo (known in Chinese as Méilǐ Xuěshān, 梅里雪山). Benzilan sits near the overlook from the Great Bend in the Jinsha River (a popular spot for photos) and has a small commercial center and a boutique hotel. When I visited, with my husband and daughter (who was still a toddler at the time), I was just stopping for lunch. We went into pretty much the first restaurant we saw, where I explained to the owner that I was learning about Yunnan’s foods for a cookbook and asked if I could watch as he cooked our meal (my usual research move in small, family run spots).

This part of Yunnan is home to some of China’s best mushrooming spots—in some areas you’ll see little huts on the side of the roads where foragers live during the busiest parts of the season—so at first I was disappointed when the mushrooms the cook pulled out were basic (if beautiful) oyster mushrooms. But the dish he made with this humble ingredient was fantastic. He started by cooking the Pleurotus ostreatus with some garlic and mild diced pepper, then drizzled in some homemade Sichuan pepper oil and added a dusting of mild chili powder. The mushrooms absorbed the warming flavor of the oil—and all its numbing properties—and became bright and flavorful, a perfect accent to the homey meal of mild pork, stir-fried greens and rice it was served with.

Recipe Tip

The dried chili used in this part of northern Yunnan is pretty mild—used primarily for flavor rather than heat. If using Sichuan-style ground chili, such as The Mala Market’s version, you can add just a touch, for flavor, or opt for a bit more, for some nice heat. Either way, I wouldn’t add more than ¼ teaspoon total or it will overwhelm the other flavors.

Making Red Sichuan Pepper Oil

Flavoring oil with dried Sichuan pepper is an easy way to transfer huajiao’s classic numbing quality and warming, citrusy flavor to a variety of dishes. It also offers a milder alternative to adding the peppercorns whole. It can be used to flavor anything that absorbs oil well, like these mushrooms, and it’s great for dishes that you wouldn’t cook with the peppercorns themselves, like a liangban (cold dish) preparation. I’ve also had it in simple stir-fries, where the more mild flavor of the oil can be used to complement other mild ingredients, and I’ve even seen it added to a sour vegetable stew out in Mangshi (near Yunnan’s western border with Myanmar) to round out a medley of other strong flavors. 

Making the oil is pretty simple—all you do is combine a mild vegetable oil (like Canola) and whole Sichuan pepper in a wok and let them simmer until the oil takes on the peppercorns’ numbing flavor. The key is to keep a careful eye on the wok, stirring frequently and making sure you pull the mixture off the heat before the peppercorns brown, as that will give the mixture a burnt flavor. You can store the oil at room temperature for a few days, but after about a week the flavor won’t be as strong. (You can store it with the peppercorns still in it and sift them out before using or just add them to dishes along with the oil.) 

This version is made with dried red Sichuan pepper, such as either da hong pao or Sichuan Tribute pepper, which gives the oil a warming, toasty flavor and a more mild numbing quality that works well with the savory flavor of the mushrooms. Fresh, just-picked varieties of green Sichuan pepper are used to make green Sichuan pepper oil (like the The Mala Market’s teng jiao you), which provides a similar numbing sensation but gives the dish a brasher, more overwhelming flavor that doesn’t work as well with mushrooms.

oyster mushrooms
Oyster mushrooms in northern Yunnan

Cleaning and Preparing Oyster Mushrooms

There are a lot of conflicting ideas out there about how best to clean mushrooms. For a long time, in fact, Western cooks insisted that you shouldn’t get them wet and insisted we should all just use gentle brushes to clean dirt off mushrooms or, if really necessary, a damp cloth. If you’ve been following this instruction, I have some good news for you: It’s totally fine to get your mushrooms wet! After all, mushrooms are a product of the rainy season; they definitely got wet at some point during their growth, and they still landed on your table just fine.

If you want a more scientific opinion about the value of wetting/not wetting your mushrooms, check out the work of American food scientist Harold McGee. He tested the idea that soaking mushrooms would make them too water-logged (and therefore cause them to steam in the pan, instead of browning), and he found that button mushrooms absorbed only a tiny bit of water when they were soaked in a bowl. Moreover, if you have a kind of mushroom that absorbs more water, you can just squeeze the water out after you’ve cleaned them. The real issue with washing mushrooms is actually that it can break down their outer layers and cause them to start turning brown, so you want to cook them right away. Here’s how to prepare your mushrooms for this dish:

  • Oyster mushrooms absorb more water into their frilly undersides than button types do, so you’ll want to rinse them briefly and then squeeze out excess water. This will break up their pretty shapes a little bit, but since you’re going to stir-fry them anyway, this visual damage won’t matter. 
  • Once you’ve washed your mushrooms, trim off the firm and/or dirty parts on the bottoms.
  • Pull the cleaned mushrooms into 1–2 inch pieces, starting at the bottoms (where the stems connect to each other) and pulling them apart vertically, so each piece has some of the stem and some of the cap. If you have small mushrooms, you’ll end up with a few caps in each piece; if you have large, fan-like oyster mushrooms, you’ll be pulling those large caps apart into smaller wedges.

Note: I’ve also tried making this dish with similar but more flavorful mushrooms, like hen of the woods/maitakes. The result is lovely, but it’s not nearly as striking as the oyster mushrooms because the fungi’s inherent flavors and umami tend to overwhelm the flavor of the Sichuan pepper oil. After a few tries, I determined that this method is best with the mildest kinds of mushrooms; I give others the more standard Yunnan treatment of just garlic, sliced chilies (fresh or dried) and maybe a touch of soy sauce for a boost.

Adding Pork Fat to Stir-Fried Mushrooms

While it’s not required for this dish, rendering a little bit of pork fat into your cooking oil is a great way to add a bit more flavor to these mild mushrooms. (It also adds a few extra calories, which is a good thing in a cold, high-altitude place like Benzilan.) The cook I learned the dish from cut a few pieces of fat off of a piece of fresh pork belly. When I make this dish, I trim some fat from any bacon I might have or add a scoop of rendered bacon fat from the jar in my fridge. Both options work well and add a subtle note to the mushrooms.

For more flavorful, spicy vegetable dishes check out Taylor’s Hot-and-Sour Eggplant (Suanla Liangban Qiezi) and Sichuan Dry-Fried Green Beans (Ganbian Sijidou, 干煸四季豆) and Michelle’s Crunchy Lotus Root Salad (Liangban Cui Ou, 凉拌脆藕).

Yunnan Oyster Mushrooms With Sichuan Pepper Oil (Huajiao You Chao Pinggu; 花椒油炒平菇)

By: Georgia Freedman

Ingredients 

For the Sichuan Pepper Oil

  • ½ cup neutral vegetable oil
  • ¼ cup whole red Sichuan pepper

For the Stir-Fry

  • 8–9 ounces oyster mushrooms (about 3½ cups once prepped)
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ½ ounce pork fat, from pork belly or bacon (optional)
  • ¼ cup diced red bell pepper
  • 3 scallions, white and light green parts only, cut into ½-inch pieces
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ⅛–¼ teaspoon dried ground chili

Instructions 

Make the Sichuan Pepper Oil

  • Combine the oil and peppercorns in a cold wok or small pot. Heat over medium until the peppercorns start to bubble and fizz, then immediately turn the heat to low.
  • Cook the Sichuan pepper, stirring frequently, until the oil takes on its numbing quality (dip a chopstick or spoon in the oil to test), but do not let the peppercorns start to brown.
  • Remove the oil from the heat and immediately transfer it and the peppercorns to a heat-proof container.* (The oil will keep at room temperature for a few days before it starts to lose its flavor a little.)

Stir-Fry the Mushrooms

  • Thoroughly wash and dry the mushrooms, then pull them apart into 1–2 inch pieces, working from the stem ends so each piece has part of the caps and part of the stems. (Small mushrooms will be left in clusters; larger mushrooms will be halved or even pulled into thirds.)
  • Heat the oil and pork fat (if using) in a wok on high heat until the pork shrivels and crisps, 1–2 minutes.
  • Add the mushrooms and bell pepper to the wok and stir-fry until just wilted, about 1 minute. Add 1–2 tablespoons of water to the wok and continue cooking until the mushrooms, including their stems, are wilted. (The water will join the liquid released by the mushrooms to help soften the stem ends.)
  • Add the scallion, garlic, salt and ground chili to the wok and drizzle in 2 teaspoons of the red Sichuan pepper oil. Stir-fry everything together for another minute. Transfer the vegetables and aromatics to a serving dish, leaving any excess liquid in the wok.

Notes

*This recipe makes ½ cup of Sichuan pepper oil. Store the remainder in a jar at room temperature and use it to season anything that could use a little added flavor, from stir-fries to liangban vegetables to soups. 

Tried this recipe?

About Georgia Freedman

Georgia Freedman is a California-based journalist, editor and cookbook author. She first visited in China in 2000, to study at Tsinghua University, then later moved to Kunming to research the foodways of Yunnan Province for her cookbook, Cooking South of the Clouds—Recipes and Stories from China’s Yunnan Province (Kyle, 2018).

Georgia’s work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Food & Wine, the Wall Street Journal, Saveur, Afar and Simply Recipes. Formerly the managing editor of Saveur, she has also edited for Afar, Epicurious, TripAdvisor and other food- and travel-focused publications and companies and has authored or co-authored four cookbooks.

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