Saturday, April 29, 2006

Fuling pickles


The city of Fuling where Anslee was born is famous for zhacai, or the Fuling pickled vegetable. When they are selling it raw, it looks like kale. (Some recipe books refer to it as Sichuan Hot Pickle.)

This is from The Soup Bible (a very big book of soup recipes) compiled by Debra Mayhew. Make sure you use a spicey hot packet of Fuling vegetables, so you can get that great tangy taste the recipe is going after:

Fuling Pickle Soup
Ingredients:
Serves 4
1 quart chicken stock
12 ounces egg noodles1 tablespoon dried shrimp, soaked in water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups finely shredded pork
1 tablespoon yellow bean paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 ounces Sichuan Hot Pickle (zhacai), rinsed, drained, and shreddeda pinch of sugar
2 scallions, finally chopped, to garnish

1. Bring the stock to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the dried shrimp and noodles and cook until almost tender. Drain the noodles and reserve the stock. Lower the heat and simmer for 2 minutes longer; keep hot.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok. Add the pork and stir-fry over high heat for 3 minutes.
3. Add the bean paste and soy sauce to the pork and stir-fry for one minute. Add the hot pickle (zhacai) with a pinch of sugar and stir-fry for 1 minute longer.
4. Divide the noodles and soup between individual bowls. Spoon the pork mixture on top and sprinkle with scallions. Serve at once.

Fuling Pickled Vegetables and Pork
Ingredients:
cooking oil
1 packet of Fuling picled vegtables (zhacai)
2 tsps soy sauce
1 tsp cooking wine (red or white)
1 and 1/2 tsp corn starch
1 spring onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. fresh ginger, minced
1/3 pound or 150 grams lean pork, finely sliced
dash of sugar
1 tsp. sesame oil

DIRECTIONS
In a bowl, mix sliced pork with soy sauce, cooking wine, and corn starch. Set aside.Chop green onion, separating white part from green. Mince ginger. Heat cooking oil in wok or fry pan until you can feel the heat with palm of your hand about six inches above the pan. Put in ginger and the white part of the green onion, stirring rapidly until you can smell them cooking. Add pork, stirring until it is about 80% cooked.Put in one bag of pickled vegetables (zhacai). Stir. Add sugar and continue to stir.When you can smell that the pickled vegetables and pork are cooked, turn off the heat and stir in the green portion of the spring onion and the sesame oil. Serve on rice or noodles.

Here is a local company's website:
http://www.flzc.com/english/index.asp

1 comment:

prentice said...

Hey, T, how do you know if you've got a spicy-hot package of fuling pickles? My Mandarin Chineese is just a tad rusty.