Our cookbook of the week is The Food of Sichuan by Fuchsia Dunlop, a James Beard Award-winning specialist in Chinese cuisine. Over the next two days, we’ll feature another recipe from the book and an interview with the author.
To try another recipe from the book, check out: Mapo tofu .
Fish-fragrant flavour — a melding of pickled chilies, garlic, ginger and green onions — is one of the hallmarks of Sichuanese cooking, says Fuchsia Dunlop. So-named because it draws on the seasonings typically used in fish dishes, “when you eat a dish in a fish-fragrant sauce, whether it’s eggplants or whether it’s pork, you’re reminded of the taste of fish.”
In The Food of Sichuan , Dunlop highlights the complex flavour combination in recipes for fish-fragrant cold chicken and pork slivers as well as the following regional classic. One of her all-time favourites, it takes a “really ordinary, cheap ingredient — the eggplant” and transforms it “into this ambrosial delicacy by clever flavouring techniques.”
FISH-FRAGRANT EGGPLANTS
yuxiang qiezi
1 lb 5 oz (600 g) eggplants (1-2 large)
Cooking oil, for deep-frying
1 1/2 tbsp Sichuan chili bean paste
1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
10 tbsp (150 mL) hot stock or water
4 tsp superfine sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
3/4 tsp potato starch, mixed with 1 tbsp cold water
1 tbsp Chinkiang vinegar
6 tbsp thinly sliced scallion greens
Salt
Step 1
Cut the eggplants into batons about 3/4 inch (2 cm) thick and 2 3/4 inches (7 cm) long. Sprinkle with salt, mix well and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
Step 2
Rinse the eggplant, drain well and pat dry with paper towels. Heat the deep-frying oil to around 390°F (200°C) (hot enough to sizzle vigorously around a test piece of eggplant). Add the eggplant, in two or three batches, and deep-fry for about 3 minutes, until tender and a little golden. Drain well on paper towels and set aside.
Step 3
Carefully pour off all but 3 tbsp oil from the wok and return to medium heat. Add the chili bean paste and stir-fry until the oil is red and fragrant: take care not to burn the paste (move the wok away from the burner if you think it might be overheating). Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry until they smell delicious.
Step 4
Tip in the stock or water, sugar and soy sauce. Bring to a boil, then add the eggplant, nudging the batons gently into the sauce so they do not break apart. Simmer for a minute or so to allow the eggplant to absorb the flavours.
Step 5
Give the potato starch mixture a stir and add it gradually, in about three stages, adding just enough to thicken the sauce to a luxurious gravy (you probably won’t need it all). Tip in the vinegar and all but 1 tbsp of the scallion greens, then stir for a few seconds to fuse the flavours.
Step 6
Turn out onto a serving dish, scatter over the remaining scallion greens and serve.
Excerpted from The Food of Sichuan by Fuchsia Dunlop. Copyright © 2019 by Fuchsia Dunlop. Photographs copyright © 2019 by Yuki Sugiura. Reprinted with permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
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