Recipe: Sample Recipes from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop

SAMPLE RECIPES FROM:

Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop
Authentic recipes and fascinating tales from one of China's most vibrant culinary regions. Fuchsia Dunlop is the author of the much-loved and critically acclaimed Sichuanese cookbook Land of Plenty, which won the British Guild of Food Writers' Jeremy Round Award for best first book and which critic John Thorne called "a seminal exploration of one of China's great regional cuisines."

Spicy Steamed Pork Buns (Duo Jiao Xiao Bao)
In the south of Changsha, a small park surrounds Tianxinge, the tower on the last remaining section of the Ming dynasty city walls, which somehow survived the devastating fire of 1938. Early in the morning, people go there to dance or to practice tai qi, and the snack sellers congregate around the entrance. We walked up to an old-fashioned teahouse perched at the top of the hill, where a crowd of retired men and women were playing games over breakfast. There we drank mugs of green tea, and ate steamed buns stuffed with pork and salted chiles, and glutinous rice dumplings studded with cured meat and shrimp.

Most of the old teahouses of Changsha have been demolished with the modernization of the city, including the Deyuan, which was famous for the generous size and delicious flavor of its steamed bao zi buns. Founded in 1875 as a snack store, it later evolved into an elegant establishment that served not only stuffed buns and steamed breads, but also all kinds of banquet delicacies cooked in the grand mandarin style. It was best known, however, for its bao zi, stuffed with a variety of fillings, including pork and shiitake, candied rose petal, yellow lump sugar and salted greens, sesame paste, and char sin barbecued pork. Sadly, having survived revolutions, civil war, burning, and a communist makeover in the l950s, the Deyuan was finally bulldozed in the early 2000s. The following recipe is based on the buns that we ate in the Tianxinge park on that cool spring morning.

General Tso's Chicken (Taiwan Version) (Zuo Zong Tangji) (with photo)
This version of the dish is based on one I learned in the kitchen of the Peng Yuan restaurant in Taipei. It was invented by veteran chef Peng Chang-kuei, who still runs the restaurant with his son, Peng T iehcheng. The dish is hot and sour, and lacks the sweetness of the Americanized version, which follows. You can use chicken breast instead of thigh meat if you prefer.

SGeneral Tso's Chicken (Changsha Version) (Zuo Zong Tangji)
This version of General Tso's chicken is one I learned in the kitchens of the Yuloudong restaurant in the Hunanese capital, Changsha. It is not on the menu of the restaurant, but one of the chefs there had learned the recipe from someone connected indirectly with Peng Chang-kuei, and he very kindly showed me how to make it. Its sweetness makes it closer to the Americanized version of the dish than the previous Taiwan recipe. The dish is usually made with boned chicken leg meat, although you can use breast if you prefer. I ve suggested using boned thighs, which are widely available.

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