You Cooked It!: Sichuan Dishes by Our Readers and Shoppers

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Happy Anniversary to Us

The Mala Project (now The Mala Market Blog) turns three years old this month, and I am celebrating by thinking of all the dishes YOU have made from our recipes over that time. I would never have stuck with this time-consuming sideline if not for your genuine enthusiasm and support for the effort. It started out as a  labor of love, and you have made it even more so.

So, a couple of weeks ago I invited readers to send me photos of dishes they’ve made using Mala Project recipes and/or Mala Market products. I bribed you with a promise of a contest and a drawing for one of our cool Mala Aprons. I knew I was going to get some good reader photos, but I was blown away by the range of dishes you’ve tried and the stories you shared about them.

Jason Stickler sent the photos above of a New Year’s Eve Sichuan feast he made on his friend’s farm, Kalaluna, in Colombia. He went through all our recipes, planned his menu and had his Sichuan ingredients shipped from the U.S. to South America just for the occasion! As well as the dishes on that magical table (don’t you wish you had been there?), some of Jason’s favorites include (as pictured) yuxiang eggplant, jiaoma chicken (in Sichuan pepper-scallion oil) and shuizhu (“water-boiled”) beef. Jason happens to be a CIA grad and professional baker, but he said that, “in the big picture, after you get the ingredients, I think the recipes are very straight forward for anyone.”

Jason wins the Mala Apron for the most inspiring Sichuan story.

Mala Project reader photos

One thing I learned from this giveaway is that mapo doufu is clearly your favorite dish to make. I loved seeing the many faces of mapo doufu: ingredients by Norry Hoshikawa and dishes by (clockwise) Spike Fullerton, Norry, Joel Ferris and Joan Kornblith. I’m also happy to say that longtime reader Norry is the lucky winner of a Mala Apron from the drawing.

Mala Project reader photos

I was planning to give away only two aprons—one from a blind drawing and one for the best effort—but I had a really hard time picking the best effort. Hudson Hoen and his son Hudson were the original inspiration for this contest through photos they sent me of their interpretation of my mapo doufu recipe. After I announced the contest, they then got together with their family and friends in Florida and made several more Mala Project recipes. This wonderful effort also wins an apron. How could it not?

Here’s how the senior Hudson described their dinner:

Inspired by our previous successes with two of your recipes and your Sichuan ingredients (mapo doufu and gongbao chicken with cashews), we decided to pull out the stops and tackle four different dishes! My son (Hudson IV) invited another couple to join us for dinner. The husband, Ed, is a very accomplished cook, and when we told him what we were up to, he jumped right in. So, the three men were the chefs. Hudson’s wife, Kris, rolled her eyes. She knew what was coming–total destruction of her kitchen. She and Ed’s wife, Aimee, took my two granddaughters and went for a walk so they wouldn’t have to witness the carnage.

We used a number of ingredients that Hudson had ordered from your market in February, and a packet of your Mala Dry Pot spice and homemade smoked bacon that I brought with me. Here’s what we did…

Pork Rib Noodle Soup With Sichuan-Style Broth (Sichuan Paigu Mian): I think you really nailed it with the Pork Rib Noodle Soup recipe—what a lucky “accident”! Our butcher was happy to bandsaw the ribs into smallish piece for us. We all loved the soup.

Mala Dry Pot With Cauliflower, Snap Peas and Bacon (Ganguo Caihua): The Mala Dry Pot was my favorite. I loved the mix of flavors and textures. When he lived in Wilmington, Delaware, my son had bought some pork bellies in Philadelphia’s Chinese Market, and smoked them to make some absolutely wonderful, smoky bacon. I still had a slab vacuum-sealed and frozen, so I brought it with me to use in the Mala Dry Pot. It made all the difference!

Laoganma Black Bean Chicken: A total success—everyone loved it, especially Kris, as she doesn’t like spicy-hot food.

Yuxiang Pork (Yuxiang Rousi): Another crowd-pleaser. The Zhenjiang black rice vinegar gives it a lovely tang.

We had a great time cooking these dishes, and a better time eating them!

Mala Project reader photos

While other readers did not send photos of entire Sichuan spreads, they did send some delicious-looking dishes: (clockwise from top left) yuxiang pork by Mark Stricklan; a dry pot creation of their own design using our Dry Pot Sauce by Juli Aulik and Troye Shanks; gongbao lotus root by Josh Chopak; dandan noodles by Jason Stickler; and hot and spicy beef by Spike Fullerton.

I don’t know about you, but I am truly impressed by all of the readers here and all of the others who have written me over the past three years sharing their stories, photos and love of Sichuan food and cooking. Fongchong and I sincerely thank you and look forward to many more “shared” meals with you.

About Taylor Holliday

The Mala Market all began when Taylor, a former journalist, created this blog as a place to document her adventures learning to cook Sichuan food for Fongchong, her recently adopted 11-year-old daughter. They discovered through the years that the secret to making food that tastes like it would in China is using the same ingredients that are used in China. The mother-daughter team eventually began visiting Sichuan’s factories and farms together and, in 2016, opened The Mala Market, America’s source for Sichuan heritage brands and Chinese pantry essentials.

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14 Comments

  1. Congrats on three years! Amazing accomplishment and absolutely the best resource on Sichuan cooking in English on the web!

    1. Thank you, Xianhang! And thanks for sticking around. I know you know your Sichuan food!

  2. Happy anniversary! Loving all the photos — just sorry I haven’t taken more over the years. Have made Zajiang miana few times recently, always a big hit!

    1. Take some this year! Maybe I’ll make it an annual tradition.

      Thanks for your support, Joan.

  3. Congratulations. I love your site for making Sichuan cooking so real and possible! And so much fun! Keep up the good work! Happy Three Years!

  4. Wow! congrats on three years. I always love the stories and the recipes, haha!

    Please keep them coming. I really enjoy them.

  5. Congratulations! I was (and am) so excited to have happened upon your wonderful blog and recipes, even if I can’t always find all of the ingredients in my local stores or availabile online sources.

    I’m still hoping for shipping to Canada at some point : )

    1. Thanks so much, Brook! I hope to someday be able to ship to all my great readers in Canada. You guys get it!

  6. Wow, this blog post finally motivated me to make the cauliflower, snap pea, bacon dry pot and it was a huge success at home. I already had doubian jang, chilis, and had made your chili oil recipes so all of those went in (I topped the dish with some chili oil once I found that I was out of Szechuan peppercorns). My husband, who is much more skeptical about “exotic” flavors, has to eat low carb for diabetes and favors cauliflower dishes – he liked this so much that he snagged all leftovers for his lunch tomorrow. I already make your Mapo Dofu but dry pot will be a weeknight staple now too! And the more involved one on a weekend as well. So delicious!

    1. Hi Marla. I love to hear this, and I especially love your timing, because I am traveling in Sichuan right now, where dry pot is absolutely everywhere. The cauliflower and pork belly dry pot I had here was unbelievably good—as only a restaurant can do it—but I like to think this recipe gets somewhat close. I’m glad it was a hit in your part of the world too!

  7. I had some left over Sous Vide Beef Brisket. It was very tender after cooking 72 hours in the water bath. I thin sliced the brisket and used your cumin lamb recipe to make a Cumin Beef Brisket. It was fantastic.