Attempt the first at an ultimate Hunan dish was a (yummy) failure.
- The hot/sour balance tilted too far to the sour.
- The sweet/sour balance tilted too far to the sweet.
- It lacked the profound depth I want -- something that will be difficult to achieve without meat.
- The distinct Hunan fermented bean flavor was significantly lacking. I used a prepared Thai hot bean paste (which I know I'll take flack for after my prior rant :-) made from glutinous rice, hot pepper powder, corn syrup, soybean, salt, and water. Next time I have some salted black beans I'll try instead in my own preparation.
Still, it was very tasty, and the wife and I polished off the dish in short order with rice and some steamed bean-paste buns.
- Gently fry in a large wok:
- Toasted sesame oil: 1T.
- Dried hot peppers: 4.
- Ginger: 1T, grated. I use a microplane grater for preparing fresh ginger, as well as garlic, nutmeg, and many other suitable spices.
- Garlic: 4 cloves, grated. Obviously you could mince this instead if your knife skills are better than mine. I like the microplane.
- Prepared hot bean paste: 1T.
- Add ¼c roasted peanuts and fry them for about 5 minutes.
- Turn this into a sauce by adding:
- Sake: 2T.
- Soy sauce: ¼c.
- Rice wine vinegar: 1T.
- Brown sugar: 2T.
- Pepper, freshly ground: ½t.
- Add your vegetables and cook them until they are done. I sometimes add ingredients which cook differently separately, then remove and reserve them untilt he dish is ready for final assembly. This time I just added the carrots and water chestnuts first, followed by the bamboo, then zucchini, and finally the bean sprouts which cook almost instantly. Total vegetable cooking time was no more than 10 minutes. I used:
- Carrots: 2, peeled, diagonally sliced.
- Water chestnuts: ¼c, sliced.
- Bamboo shoots: ¼c, sliced.
- Zucchini: 2 medium, unpeeled, sliced in ½cm rounds.
- Bean sprouts: ¼c.
- Serve over rice.
I should have taken pictures so this post was actually interesting... When will I learn!
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