• DKennedy on August 03, 2015

  Molly Wizenberg (A Homemade Life) recommends Red Braised Beef with Tofu Bamboo, p. 108; Bok Choy with fresh Shiitake, p. 180 Sichuanese Send the Rice Down Chopped Celery with Ground Beef, p. 194 and Fish Fragrant Eggplant, p. 210

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Smacked cucumber in garlicky sauce (Suan ni pai huang gua)

  • Delys77 on March 05, 2013

    Pg. 34 Very interesting flavour with strong notes of chilli and soy. I would definitely repeat but I would pat some of the salt off the cucumber before dressing and skip the peppercorns. Very nice in small quantitities but doesn't keep well.

  • Breadcrumbs on March 06, 2013

    p. 34 I’ve been craving this since I first purchased the book and the recipe didn’t disappoint. I’ll note that I tasted the cucumber after draining and I did think it was a little too salty for my taste so I decided to rinse it given that the sauce has soy. I thought this was fresh and delicious. I didn’t make my own chili oil and will rectify that the next time around. It was a little too hot for mr bc as is. (I’d say “yay, more for me” but that’s not very nice, is it? Even if it was true!! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7937690

  • Barb_N on March 26, 2014

    Side dish for red braised pork and rice, eggplant and pork belly in the rice cooker (fan wu cai style). Firstly, it's great to take your aggressions out on a cucumber on a weeknight in the name of culinary excellence. And who would complain about a marinade of soy, chinese vinegar, chili paste (or oil) and minced garlic? I rinsed and squeezed the cucumber, adding to the distressed effect of smacking- it helped with the absorbtion of the sauce. Despite all the violence, this is an easy quick tasty recipe.

  • adrienneyoung on April 06, 2014

    Yum!

  • krista_jo on April 10, 2015

    This is an easy staple (if you have chilli oil on hand). We make it weekly. I always rinse off the salt and then drain the cucumber or pat it dry before dressing.

  • urmami on August 22, 2016

    Damn, is this good. We like it on the drier side so usually use just 1 T chili oil or add more cucumber, but the flavor is phenomenal and the dressing is a beloved staple in our home.

  • rionafaith on October 15, 2016

    Delicious. I had a pretty big cucumber so I doubled the sauce, and I'm glad -- it's a great combination of flavors and two of us easily split the double portion. (The BF loved and even drank the residual sauce after all the cucumbers were gone.) I omitted the optional sichuan pepper as I didn't have any, but there was still a great tingling spiciness from the homemade chili oil (made according to the recipe in the book). Will definitely make again, and I can't wait to try the other variations as well!

  • Yildiz100 on November 25, 2016

    This did not work for me. I used the online recipe, and I actually wonder if it contains an error. I thought it was way too sweet.

  • Dannausc on May 06, 2018

    I made a double recipe and used 1 T. Sesame chili oil and 2 T. Vegetable oil because I thought it would be too spicy with that much chili oil. It was really easy and good. Next time I might try it was the suggested amount of chili oil.

  • sosayi on February 15, 2020

    Love this recipe and make it often. The Szechuan peppercorns really take it over the top. Quick, Easy, and delicious.

  • ebalk02 on February 23, 2020

    So good and wouldn't change a thing. Note if your homemade or store bought chili oil already has sichuan pepper.

  • jenburkholder on September 09, 2020

    Good, simple, flavorful. Goes well with almost anything.

  • Bloominanglophile on September 11, 2020

    One of the best uses for a cucumber, and simple, too. My family loves this dish!

  • Agaillard on August 06, 2021

    So simple yet great flavours... You could drink the sauce by itself :) Did not have chili oil and no time to make some so just added some cayenne, but I did have use coarsely blended sichuan

  • snoozermoose on December 11, 2021

    A classic recipe very similar to the one my mom makes. Best eaten the day of, as the raw garlic really increases in potency as it sits.

  • lorloff on January 05, 2022

    This dish was a home run. Simple, spicy and delicious. I great example of how simple great ingredients make the dish. I used Persian cucumbers from the farmer’s market, Black Slate Chile oil, Okinawan sugar, and amazing Sichuan peppers from Mala Market that I pan roasted then pulverized in my spice blender. A couple of pinches and the dish really sang without being too hot. Light soy kept the cucumbers a beautiful looking color too. Will make again and again.

  • Lafro on March 26, 2022

    A nice refreshing side dish to go with the other recipes in the book. Simple and delicious.

  • Acarroll on April 03, 2022

    I halved the amount of chili oil. I thought the spice was perfect, my husband thought it was too spicy. We both thought it was a bit oily, even with half the amount of oil. Overall we enjoyed but wouldn't make again.

  • eileentien on November 13, 2022

    Easy and delicious. I only added 1 teaspoon of chili oil and it was spicy enough for us. This is my go-to Chinese vegetable side dish when I feel lazy.

  • Stephenn31 on July 15, 2023

    Always a favourite - with or without the chilli oil!

  • chawkins on July 16, 2023

    I liked this but husband did not, thought it was too vinegary. He preferred recipetin’s smashed cucumber which actually had more vinegar in it, may be black vinegar is more potent, also he really likes ginger. I only used a scant tablespoon of chili oil and it already bordered on too spicy and too oily.

  • Happykikkers on September 28, 2024

    Was I supposed to add the chilies from the chili oil? I don’t know, but it does satisfy our spice-kick! Will add a little more garlic next time to balance it out. Did not have Chinkiang vinegar on hand so used regular rice wine. Also had some left over sliced cucumber instead of smashing new ones. - ETA: upon looking at the other recipes, I should not have added the chilies.

  • tacoquokka on May 22, 2026

    Refreshing side dish. Similar to a family recipe for this, basic and easy to make.

• Smacked cucumber with sweet-and-sour sauce

  • pistachiopeas on May 25, 2015

    Love this sauce variation. A repeat for sure!

  • snoozermoose on December 11, 2021

    This is a great variation that I actually prefer more.

  • lorloff on January 15, 2023

    We like this variation too. Doubled the recipe and used 1 T of garlic, 1 T light soy sauce and added 1 T of toasted sesame oil per recipe.

  • Delys77 on February 06, 2023

    Of the many variations of smacked cucumber this might be our favourite. The little guy likes it without chilli so I usually separate out some for him and then add the chilli oil with a bit of sediment to ours. Nice balance of tang and sweetness, and with the added heat for the adults this is just right.

  • Stephenn31 on September 03, 2024

    Always a favourite. I like this variation, with more vinegar.

• Smacked cucumber with sesame and preserved mustard greens

  • KarinaFrancis on January 02, 2015

    Very delicious salad/side dish

  • sosayi on February 15, 2020

    Very good, savory crunchy side. Needs to be doubled, IMO, as the yield is tiny. Made this and the regular version. The lack of spice on this one was a welcome addition to a potluck for the small people.

  • lholtzman on October 30, 2025

    This was my favorite variation of this recipe. The preserved mustard provides a nice flavor.

  • Stephenn31 on November 24, 2025

    I really liked this for a change. A different version of the usual smacked cucumbers. The sesame was lovely

• Sichuanese spiced cucumber salad (Qiang huang gua)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 36 - A tasty, subtly flavoured dish. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked cucumber before so this was a first for me. This dish was simple to prepare and produced a very nice salad that I’ll definitely make again. mr bc was a big fan of this dish. The cucumbers retained their crunch but seemed to be infused somehow w the subtle flavours of chillis and the smoky Sichuan peppers that had sizzled in the oil. Delicious.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    This was pretty good, although I found myself wishing it had more flavor. It was very subtle and light.

  • lholtzman on February 08, 2025

    This was a bit bland, but my husband liked it. He found it spicier than I did and he loves spice. Very easy and simple. A nice side dish for something richer.

• Sichuanese broad bean salad (Liang ban hu dou)

  • lholtzman on May 23, 2026

    I found this a bit bland. I used frozen fava beans and they were pretty mushy. I recommend using fresh.

• Silken tofu with soy sauce (Xiao cong ban dou fu)

  • westminstr on September 19, 2013

    This dish is very similar to the silken tofu with avocado, and I think it's just as delicious. Silken tofu is sliced and fanned onto a plate, then sprinkled with chopped scallion greens. Sizzling oil is poured on top, followed by diluted soy sauce and a bit of sesame oil. A very simple dish, but very good.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    This was absolutely stunning--both in flavor and presentation. I've never had tofu like this before. It's simple but delightful, and I could have eaten the whole plate myself with a big bowl of rice.

  • bernalgirl on April 24, 2023

    This was absolutely lovely and so simple. I've made it as written and also added finely slivered red chile, and I enjoy it both ways, especially over steamed rice as a simple and quick lunch

  • DDPGirl001 on February 29, 2024

    Needed some hot sesame oil to give it some punch. Made a very nice and simple light lunch.

  • Pandan on June 11, 2024

    Although this recipe can’t be any easier I managed to fuck this up. I accidentally bought firm and not Silken tofu and only noticed it when I already started the recipe. I tried it anyway. Then my oil wasn’t hot enough although it smoked. And I was afraid my plastic plate would melt. But totally all my fault. :D next time: buy silken tofu, make sure the oil is really hot and don’t use my plastic banana leaf serving plates.

• Silken tofu with avocado (E'li dou fu)

  • westminstr on February 25, 2013

    Fabulous. I omitted the wasabi and it was still very good.

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2014

    Good, but not spectacular. Would have liked more textural variation.

  • Bloominanglophile on September 11, 2020

    I had never tried silken tofu until a friend of mine (to whom I gifted this cookbook) made this dish for me. Absolutely lovely! I think this dish is great for hot summers or light meals. My friend does sprinkle toasted sesame seeds over the top, which give a nice crunch and compliments the creamy tofu and avocado.

  • Jardimc on April 26, 2023

    Simple and elegant, especially with high quality tofu.

  • lholtzman on June 12, 2024

    Everyone loved this. Definitely best as part of a larger spread though. We were all a bit hungry still.

• Smoked tofu with celery and peanuts (Liang ban dou fu gan)

  • jenburkholder on August 27, 2020

    I very much like this as a ‘oh gosh there’s no vegetables’ meal. Celery, since it’s cheap and keeps for weeks, is almost always on hand, as is spiced tofu and peanuts. I’m not going to claim this is my favorite meal, it’s a bit too plain for that, but given its simplicity and practicality it earns solidly 4.5 stars from me.

  • bernalgirl on June 03, 2022

    As noted, this is a great pantry recipe since I usually have all these ingredients. I thought it needed an acid hit, so I squeezed some lime juice over it and it was perfect.

• Tofu 'bamboo' with spring onion-flavoured oil (Cong you fu zhu)

  • metacritic on March 08, 2022

    This is mellow and satisfying. My children squabbled over the last bites. Where the recipe calls for 4 pieces dried tofu at 60 grams, my tofu sticks came at roughly 20 for 60 grams. I went by weight and it worked perfectly.

• Cold chicken with a spicy Sichuanese sauce (Liang ban ji)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    P. 48 Delicious! I poached my chicken and reserved the broth for use elsewhere in the book. I used a prepared oil I’d purchased and had to pare back on the quantity given the excessive heat. This sauce reminded me somewhat of an Asian dipping sauce I make for dumplings as it has many of the same ingredients. I just loved the Chinkiang vinegar in this sauce and the nutty sesame oil really adds to the dish IMHO…we actually added a splash more right before plating. The toasted sesame seeds are a must as they add another layer of nuttiness and a nice little crunch. I think this would be good hot or cold to be honest. We served it atop steamed rice. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7962883

  • Bloominanglophile on October 09, 2014

    I made this to use up the meat from a roasted chicken. I served it over steamed rice, but you could also serve it over lightly dressed salad greens or shredded napa cabbage. No matter how you serve it, this is delicious and easy to prepare. As it is a cold chicken dish, it would be ideal for summertime!

  • rionafaith on September 04, 2017

    Very good flavors! Made with a large boneless skinless chicken breast hanging out in my fridge that had been previously cooked in the IP. I used 3T of homemade chili oil and 1/2t sichuan pepper, which was a good heat level (though could probably increase ever so slightly next time). I served over some raw baby spinach with some cucumbers as a salad, and the whole thing was thrown together in about 5 minutes with stuff I had in the pantry and fridge, making this a total winner for a lazy and hot summer night.

  • shoffmann on February 17, 2019

    Made this with a chicken poached according to the directions on the next page of the book. The chicken was well cooked, and the sauce had tons of flavor. I served with white rice and a couple of the vegetable dishes from the book.

  • KarinaFrancis on February 18, 2020

    Love, love, love this! The flavours are just what I expect from Ms Dunlop. I poached the chicken the day before and left it in its stock so it was juicy and super quick when I got home from work. Sadly my chilli oil was past its prime so I subbed with some chilli powder and Sichuan pepper oil, which means I didn’t get a gorgeous red colour but the flavour was still there.

  • metacritic on May 16, 2021

    I love this chicken and know no better way to transform cold chicken. The vinegar, chili oil, and Sichuan peppercorns are a familiar combo but a perfect one in this instance. I've made it twice and will surely be making this for years to come.

• Cold chicken with ginger and spring onion (You lin ji)

  • BlytheSpirit on June 25, 2014

    Cold Chicken with Ginger and Spring Onion, page 50. I have seen this recipe elsewhere - sometimes it is called white cut chicken. This recipe turned out very well. I poached a whole 2.5 lb chicken in water flavored with a few slices of ginger and leeks (or white parts of spring onions) - (simmered for 30 min only) then took it out of the broth to cool. I served this to someone who loves to order this in the restaurant where they do not remove the skin, so I did not. For other guests, or a more formal meal I would have or would have poached boneless thighs and pre-sliced the meat. I served this with steamed rice and greens sautéed with garlic. I particularly love the accompanying sauce. As this is served cold ( I actually served it room temp) it is a great starter or part of a warm-weather meal. Simple but very tasty.

• Vegetarian clay bowl 'chicken' (Bo bo fu zhu)

  • jenburkholder on August 16, 2020

    We really liked this - super quick, all pantry ingredients, and delicious. Made good leftovers the next day as well; the flavors had marinated pleasantly. Will definitely make again, probably often!

  • corylavell on May 10, 2021

    This is in our regular rotation and I love it - the tofu bamboo was new to me until this, and it’s a fabulous ingredient. This recipe makes a great store cupboard dinner with some rice and a vegetable. It is very spicy, so you need something to soften the edges!

• Clay bowl chicken (Bo bo ji)

  • Ro_ on June 14, 2023

    This was delicious but so spicy! I had a bigger quantity of chicken than stated and only used about two thirds of the quantity of sauce, but the chilli in it was so hot, and I usually love really spicy food. Next time I'd use no more than 2 tbsp of chilli oil/sediment. Other than that it was a pretty and tasty dish, and really quick and easy to do if you have cold chicken to use up. Perfect for a hot day, I served with a cold noodle salad.

  • bernalgirl on March 01, 2024

    This made an excellent lunch, even if I forgot the peanuts! I substituted slivered romaine for the bean sprouts, it would also be wonderful with slivered Napa cabbage. I used 3 healthy tablespoons of Lao Gan Ma chili crisp and it had the right heat for my husband and I.

• Beef with cumin (Zi ran niu rou)

  • bluegizmo on November 28, 2012

    Really nice quick, tasty and easy stir fry. Cumin went really well with other ingredients and nice to have a change from the usual Chinese spices.

  • westminstr on April 01, 2013

    We really liked this one! I doubled the recipe (but not the marinade or the chillies) to no ill effect. Kids loved it! On a revisit 3/17/2015 it wasn't too popular. I cut the chillies down a lot but E still didn't like it. The dish lacked salt but beyond that seemed to lack flavor. I think I need to give up on Dunlop at this stage of life and come back to it when the kids are older.

  • stockholm28 on December 15, 2013

    Very quick and tasty. I'd cut back a bit on the oil.

  • Delys77 on June 17, 2014

    We also cut back on the oil and the dish was still great, with the pungent heat of chilli and the lovely earthy tang of cumin. I would suggest cutting in slices as opposed to cubes as my beef definitely through off a bit of liquid and took a little too long in the work., as a result the dish was somewhat lacking in wok hai.

  • pistachiopeas on May 25, 2015

    Love this recipe. Absolutely delicious.

  • metacritic on May 16, 2021

    This was ... fine. Flavorsome for sure. It had good heat. But compared to lamb versions I've had in restaurants it was a bit lifeless. I missed the pungency of lamb fat and its gaminess. Beef was just too tame for my liking. I also felt that there was one or two missing notes to this, though I can't put my finger on what those notes should be.

  • Agaillard on March 30, 2020

    I found it a very standard seared beef recipe with classic soy sauce marinade, although the cumin does add an original note. All in all nothing too special in my opinion, just nice, and a good way to do what I chose the recipe for : finish off the steak and peppers from yesterday night.

  • TrishaCP on November 11, 2021

    Fast and tasty, but I agree with metacritic that something flavor-wise seemed to be lacking.

  • SebastianH on February 17, 2017

    I am not sure if the measurements are right in the recipe. Very dull for a Hunan dish. It clearly lacks salt and flavor. Next time I will increase the amount Shaoxing asked for from a teaspoon to a tablespoon. (fyi: the original recipe in the Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook also asks for a tablespoon and not a teaspoon)

  • Barb_N on April 24, 2017

    I did not use bell peppers (we don't eat them) and forgot the chili flakes so perhaps I shouldn't be reviewing this at all! I did add some chili sauce at the table after tasting, and increased the cumin to compensate for using blanched chopped greens as the vegetable. Despite loving cumin, I will not be repeating this dish.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    We really enjoyed this even if it didn't taste like the cumin beef preparations you get from restaurants. It was surprisingly flavorful with that in mind. To get it more restaurant-quality, I'm imagining the beef needs to be sliced, marinated in potato starch, somewhat fried, and then stir-fried with cumin seeds in addition to the ground cumin.

• Sour-and-hot silken tofu (Suan la dou hua)

  • PinchOfSalt on February 05, 2013

    A homey, soothing meal that is very quick and easy to throw together and only gently spicy. The chili oil used in this dish (recipe elsewhere in the same book) is quite mild despite its fiery color. Next time, more vinegar.

  • Agaillard on February 15, 2022

    Total success! I made this for my sister and she loved it! She was so surprised and claimed it was restaurant level silken tofu and one of the best she has had (and it was only my second attempt to even use silken tofu, so a bit proud here). It was super simple to make too which was nice ;) I liked it too, probably not as much as her (yet again, no experience with tofu as eater either), but I did enjoy it. I served with rice and omitted the two spoons of chicken stock (just put a little more soy sauce)

  • jenniebakes on March 18, 2019

    Delicious and so easy to make. I really prefer to have this with rice as the sauce is quite strongly flavored, though not too spicy.

  • metacritic on January 17, 2021

    This is a recipe that requires nothing more than stirring together ingredients and yields a dish that is sensationally sophisticated, interesting, and while quite hot is also balanced. it is truly wonderful. I will make often.

  • corylavell on May 10, 2021

    I make this regularly. It’s best with fresh tofu but high quality long life silken tofu makes this a fab storecupboard dish here, with some rice or noodles and a green vegetable.

  • Apollonia on September 13, 2023

    Perfect lunch. Bombay mix is an A+ addition.

• Pock-marked old woman's tofu [Vegetarian] (Ma po dou fu)

  • westminstr on February 25, 2013

    Made this recently and liked it. I used water for cooking liquid but I think stock would be better if available. I reduced the spicy sauce to 2 TB and omitted the chili entirely, plus only added sichuan pepper to adult portions, but it was still too spicy for the little ones. We liked the bear's claw tofu even better though.

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 76 – Just ok. I used freshly made firm tofu that I did not pre-soak. I also used the Chinese baby leeks and garnished w some chopped green onion as well. I used the optional crushed chilis and water vs stock. While I thought this version of the dish was ok, I didn’t love it. I found the tofu a bit too firm - totally my fault. The dish was also too salty, almost overwhelming. This is the same bean paste I opened at the beginning of the month so I’m ruling that out and wondering whether the 1 tbsp of well-rinsed fermented black beans could have been the culprit? This is the first time I’ve used a tinned version vs my usual vacuum-packed beans. Finally, I didn’t find this dish to be as saucy as I like it to be. Even before I stirred in the potato flour slurry to thicken things up, I didn’t feel the dish was very saucy. I served this atop steamed rice. It made for a nice lunch but definitely didn’t wow me. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7977000

  • Bloominanglophile on September 04, 2017

    This was good, but not among my favorite tofu preparations. I didn't soak the tofu, either, but may try it sometime to see what it does to the texture of firm tofu. Definitely didn't need to add all the potato starch/water mixture to the dish. All in all it was just fine for a weeknight meal (served with rice and a veg).

  • hyperbowler on August 02, 2016

    As Dunlop notes, green garlic, if available, elevates the dish to a higher level than scallions. She suggests that you add the potato flour/water mixture at the end, and I've tried cooking for longer and reducing instead--- the recipe works better with the potato flour/water mixture.

  • Apollonia on December 25, 2021

    One of our all time favorites. Note that the version of this dish in Dunlop's The Food Of Sichuan is mostly identical but calls for more sichuan chilies (up to twice as much) and more water--- both fine changes if you ask me. Yum.

  • TrishaCP on August 31, 2021

    I thought this was good, but it’s not my favorite version of this dish. My dish was quite salty as Breadcrumbs noted.

  • sometimes on November 09, 2020

    Great minimal mapo tofu recipe. I made with spring onions, the optional chili flakes, no extra salt, and minor subs: Sichuan fermented black beans instead of the usual dry kind, BTB chicken broth instead of veggie. Could be a little saucier for my liking. It is salty but that's what the rice is for (and the BTB chicken broth probably didn't help here). Will make repeatedly but probably use this as a base to add other stuff to (like mushrooms).

  • lholtzman on December 07, 2023

    I prefer stock over water as it gives the dish a bit more depth. I lol ve this recipe and have made it multiple times.

  • excurvatus on December 14, 2019

    I'm glad i heeded Fuchsia's direction to cook the doubanjiang at a gentle sizzle to develop flavour for the final sauce - I think that is a technique note and rather key! This was great. I hope I will allow it to become a weeknight staple for me.

  • metacritic on April 16, 2021

    Made this dish a second time with broth. Still delicious and still worth making. I used baby leeks this time, which had a little more body and depth.

  • mirsaidi007 on June 15, 2019

    This was delicious. So much flavor. I used soft tofu and it was a good decision. I followed all directions as written, including soaking the tofu, and it was fabulous.

  • helskitchenvt on August 08, 2016

    I actually like this dish best using the soft, silken tofu - it just melts into the sauce. It's about the only place I use it (outside of purees for dips) and it's so good.

  • metacritic on March 19, 2021

    Delicious and totally straightforward. I used water, not broth, and green onions rather than baby leeks. It was still delicious. I could eat this weekly rather happily. Like many Dunlop recipes, the assembly of ingredients and prep is the hardest task of the dish.

  • Idril on June 30, 2025

    This was disappointing unfortunately. I love salty food but it was searingly salty and I didn’t even use quite as much bean paste or black beans (and I rinsed the beans thoroughly). I balanced it out a bit with some sugar, threw in some blanched broccoli and a lot of unseasoned rice and it was okay but would not make again as written, sadly. Will look for other mapo tofu recipes.

  • jenburkholder on September 09, 2020

    This is a delicious, uncluttered version of ma po tofu. I might prefer vegetarian versions where the pork is replaced by mushrooms or other similar ingredients, but for one which is strictly pantry, this is the best. Have made several times.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    This is a really authentic mapo tofu recipe. Tasted very similar to what you would get from a good Szechuan restaurant. I do agree with others that it was pretty salty though. I used soft tofu for this and had a hard time keeping it together while gently stirring the ingredients in the wok. I'll prob try a firmer tofu next time.

• Spinach in ginger sauce (Jiang zhi bo cai)

  • Delys77 on March 05, 2013

    Pg. 64 Very strong flavours from the dressing, but the cold cooked spinach stands up to it well. Nothing to change here, nice little dish to serve as a cold side which keeps well and can be made in advance.

  • Joyceeong on August 02, 2017

    Nice cold veggie dish, with simple easy to mix dressing. We had this with rice and a braised meat dish, the slightly sour, salty, gingery taste is perfect to cut down on the richness of that meat dish.

  • metacritic on April 16, 2021

    Simple and phenomenally good. I'll make this regularly. I see that Sichaun cookery has a version with green beans.

  • sosayi on October 29, 2018

    Like others, we enjoyed this quick and easy side dish. The black vinegar added a nice note. Served with a richer Baked Pork Bun and Steamed Squash with Spicy Black Bean Sauce, this went well and was a good addition to the meal.

• Black bean chicken (Dou chi ji ding)

  • PinchOfSalt on March 07, 2013

    Made this with chicken breast and red bell pepper, 'cause that is what I had on hand. Omitted the ground red pepper. Very tasty. What was in my wok matched the photo in the cookbook! Note that the marinade really becomes very thick - more of a paste than a liquid. Next time, maybe cut back on the potato starch.

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 116 Wonderful! Another favourite from this book. I doubled the quantity of chicken but used the same amt of marinade specified in the book with no ill effects. I really think that final drizzle of sesame oil is brilliant as it somehow deepens all the flavours in the dish. I liked that this wasn’t overly saucy and all the flavour seemed to be clinging to the ingredients in the dish. Next time I make this I’d like to add some water chestnuts for a little crunch. Quick and easy, this is one we’ll undoubtedly make again and again. I should note that I chopped vs sliced my garlic and ginger. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7967788

  • Delys77 on March 27, 2013

    Pg. 116 We really liked this one. Doubled the chicken and the marinade, and went with the option of adding some red pepper. The dish is very well balanced if you leave all the other ingredients the same except for maybe pairing back the oil a touch and upping the green onions. Fabulous with a leafy green stir fry and some simple steamed jasmine rice.

  • westminstr on April 01, 2013

    Really liked this dish. Try doubling it next time, and do add the peppers even if out of season.

  • L.Nightshade on April 04, 2013

    Not much to add to all the commentary on this dish. It's the only recipe I've gotten around to in this book thus far. Followed the recipe, and was surprised at how very quick and easy it was. Loved the dish, and hope I get around to pursuing the book a bit more. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7998104

  • thecharlah on February 11, 2015

    One of my favorites - on regular rotation. Nice and spicy!

  • Joyceeong on March 07, 2017

    Used a mixture of chicken thigh and chicken breast. Delicious stir-fry, quick and easy, perfect for a weeknight dinner with fluffy white rice. I use cornflour instead of potato flour, and only used half the amount calls for. I love black bean, so I've increased the amount by another half tablespoon. The next time, I would use a generous amount of coarse chili flakes instead of ground chilies, for that added spicy kick.

  • TrishaCP on May 31, 2021

    We liked this. Something about this ate a tad bitter to me- I’m thinking it was green bell pepper. Will try again with red only.

  • Zosia on April 07, 2020

    Easy and delicious. I used chicken breasts which were tender and flavourful.

  • Jojobuch on March 06, 2019

    Very quick, simple and tasty. I've made this twice now, once I only had pork shoulder to hand, and it also turned out very well.

  • Ro_ on December 09, 2020

    Definitive black bean chicken recipe for me, so delicious with plain white rice. I used one large red pepper, and omitted the chilli flakes since we were having a spicy side dish with it. Cornflour also works fine instead of potato starch.

  • Stephenn31 on December 12, 2022

    Turned out well, but two chicken breasts was too much for dinner and leftovers for two. Very easy

• Silken tofu with pickled mustard greens (Suan cai dou ha)

  • Delys77 on March 14, 2013

    Pg 88. Comes together in the time it takes to cook rice. Good combo of flavours with creamy and tangy, as well as textures with crunch from the veggies and silkiness to the tofu. Overall a good weeknight winter meal served with steamed rice. I upped the broth a bit.

  • Jardimc on April 26, 2023

    Just perfect comfort food, when we were all so homesick. It made me reach out to my Gran to learn how to make pickled mustard greens which are now a staple in our household. Simplicity and delicious textures/flavours. A winner!

• Pipa tofu (Pi pa dou fu)

  • Delys77 on March 25, 2013

    Pg. 78 This was a little labour intensive but very very good. The tofu paste is very flavourful and the sauce is a great match with a light mushroom flavour. The deep frying takes a bit of time also but isn't too labour intensive except that I could only manage about 3 quenelles in my wok at a time. Great little dish, excellent use for tofu.

  • MelMM on February 01, 2019

    8-18-2017 Lovely delicate dish. I make this vegan using chia or psyllium instead of egg.

  • Jmcpartland on May 17, 2020

    Cooked this a few times now. Works best if the tofu is pressed to remove as much liquid as possible.

  • chawkins on September 11, 2020

    Very good tofu dish. I put off trying this recipe because I was intimidated by the idea of deep-frying tofu. I drained the tofu on couple changes of paper towel during the course of half an hour and there was no splatter at all during the frying process, I guessed the potato starch did a good job of sucking up all the excess liquid.

  • Jojobuch on April 10, 2019

    Very interesting dish - loved the tofu “quenelles”. I didn’t know what to expect for the tofu paste, it was a bit runnier than what would allow you to form shapes. That said, they fried up well, slipping right off the spoon, and nicely soaked up the stir-fry sauce.

• Tiger salad (Lao hu cai)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 66 A sweet and spicy pickle-like dish that’s the perfect accompaniment to many of the dishes in this book. I had to omit the coriander due to an allergy. This reminded me somewhat of a summer salad I make called fire & ice cucumbers. This is nice on its own, atop meat or fish and even mixed into steamed rice. A keeper! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7962870

  • sosayi on February 01, 2019

    Good as an add-on to a meal of brown rice and Twice-Cooked pork belly. Would repeat, for sure. My jalapeno was super mild, making me wish for a bit more heat. Maybe a serrano next time!

  • jenburkholder on September 09, 2020

    I didn't have a chili, so this was pretty mild and plain. Still decent.

• Bear's paw tofu (Xiong zhang dou fu)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 80 Outrageously good! I LOVED this dish. Without a doubt it is the best dish I’ve made from this book and, dare I say it, I may just prefer it to Ma Po Dou Fu as well! I used fresh firm tofu and I couldn’t find the baby leeks that are hiding in some dark corner of my fridge so I ended up using green onions instead. I loved everything about this. The chewy, crisp-edged tofu, the freshness of the green onions, the bite of the chillis and the saltiness from the soy. All in perfect balance. I’d eat this for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack. Amazing dish, alone worth the price of the book IMHO. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7960565

  • westminstr on April 01, 2013

    We just loved this dish. Used scallions instead of baby leeks and reduced the chilli bean paste a bit. Great dish! Shallow-fried the tofu and it was a bit of a mess -- deep frying may actually have been easier.

  • Delys77 on October 07, 2013

    Pg. 80 We also really liked this dish. I would even up the chili bean paste a touch and the soy as well. Not a huge amount, just enough to add a bit more bite and savouriness. Overall another tofu winner from this book.

  • stockholm28 on January 29, 2014

    Really delicious. I don't have a wok and made it in a cast iron skillet. I needed a bit more stock because of this.

  • Bloominanglophile on October 07, 2014

    I can't say that I ever crave tofu, but if Ms. Dunlop's other tofu recipes are as good as this one, I may be purchasing it more often! Since the picture in the cookbook looked like it had enough sauce to serve over rice, I steamed some to go with the meal. Unfortunately, mine didn't turn out quite as saucy. Next time I may double the stock, sugar, soy sauce and the potato flour slurry. Regardless, this was delicious--another winner from many found in this treasure of a cookbook!

  • Bloominanglophile on January 10, 2015

    Made this again and this time doubled the sauce ingredients. Didn't like it as much as the first time I made it! Won't mess with the recipe again even though I would have liked more sauce.

  • chawkins on February 19, 2022

    My box of tofu was only 14 oz, so I augmented with a few slices of bamboo shoot and I pan fried the tofu slices in an non-stick pan. I also used scallions, I have only seen baby leeks for sale here only once in an Amish market. Very good but a bit too spicy for us will cut down the chili bean paste next time.

  • jenburkholder on September 24, 2021

    Very tasty - I didn't want to bother with deep-frying, so I pan-fried the tofu and that worked fine. Quite easy with that modification; would repeat.

  • lholtzman on September 01, 2024

    Frying the tofu takes time, but is definitely worth the effort. It was spicy before adding the corn starch slurry, but the slurry tamps it down a bit. It’s still enjoyably spicy.

• Stir-fried beef with black bean and chilli (Jia chang niu rou)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 101 This was the hit of the evening; the recipe produces a wonderful, flavourful dish. I used beef tenderloin. FD suggests that you add salt to taste. I didn’t feel the dish needed any. As FD says in the book, everything “smells delicious” and honestly, it tastes even better. Cilantro can be added however I omitted due to an allergy. Now I do want to say, I didn’t have the Laoganma sauce at this point to I concocted my own version using fermented black beans that I chopped finely and added to the remaining ingredients in the original sauce as listed by a kind hound on the main thread! I now have the proper sauce and will make this again as mr bc thought it was one of the best Asian stir-frys he’d ever had! Needless to say, there were no leftovers! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7937727

  • westminstr on September 23, 2013

    I made this using leftover steak, which I sliced thinly, marinated, and added at the end (after peppers were mostly cooked). I didn't have the laoganma sauce and subbed finely chopped black beans mixed with a bit of sugar, a bit of sriracha, and a bit of peanut oil. This seemed to work pretty well.

  • Delys77 on June 04, 2014

    I made following the instruction except that I doubled the recipe which fed 3 fellows. The cilantro and a pinch of fleur de sel make the dish. Very flavourful and super easy.

  • StokeySue on December 01, 2023

    I didn’t appreciate until just before I made it that the black bean sauce required is not the standard Cantonese kind (I usually have the Lee Kum Kee brand, which is readily available locally) but the slightly less common Lao Gan Ma (the one with the face on the label) type. So I used LKK but added chilli as there’s a lot of it in LGM Worked well - would note that it is very much a meat dish, only a quarter of a sweet pepper per person by way of vegetable content, so I’d plan a vegetable dish as well as rice

• Red-braised beef with tofu 'bamboo' (Fu zhu shao niu rou)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 108 - It was the photo in the book that drew me to this dish. I just loved the look of the tofu bamboo tucked inside the pot of beef. I couldn’t wait to try it. I should say that once I read through the recipe, I had my doubts. I have absolutely never prepared meat in this manner. I didn’t have high hopes for this dish. Admittedly, is smelled heavenly but I simply couldn’t imagine the beef surviving its initial plunge into boiling water. Well, I was wrong! This was sensational. The meat was super-tender yet miraculously it held together. The tofu bamboo was wonderful. Somewhat similar in texture to mushrooms. This is the very first time mr bc actually enjoyed tofu!! He loved this dish. The meat was ridiculously flavourful. I could have poured that sauce into a glass and drank every last drop. Thankfully I didn’t because we’re having the leftovers tomorrow atop rice. I’d highly recommend this one. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7945960

  • westminstr on April 01, 2013

    Not my absolute favorite but I made a lot of changes to the recipe, so perhaps not fair to judge. On Monday night after work, I braised the beef. I subbed 1 tsp fermented black beans for the 11/2 tsp sweet fermented sauce and did not add sugar. I also didn't pre-boil the beef. I reduced the chilli bean sauce to 2 Tbsp and I thought the braising liquid was still quite spicy. After an hour of braising I added a huge carrot cut into beef-sized chunks. The next night, I got out the pot of braised beef and carrots heated it up and added tofu knots. I wasn't sure whether to skim the fat or not but in the end I decided to skim, which made the stew considerably less spicy.

  • ShayLRoss on April 12, 2026

    Made this to have with the buckwheat noodle dish. I did not have any tofu bamboo on hand, that will be a next time effort.

  • kitchen_chick on June 11, 2017

    One of my favorites dishes. I like using the tofu knots, and I always make extra so there's leftovers to use with a noodle soup.

  • metacritic on January 08, 2024

    An excellent and quite easy braise. I gladly will make it again. Dried tofu is always a delight and it gives lovely body and texture to this particular dish. I didn't have broth but had used short ribs, taking the meat off the bone. I threw in the bone so that as this cooked, it added depth to the dish that otherwise might be supplied by chicken broth/beef broth.

  • rionafaith on November 11, 2016

    p. 108 -- Pretty good... I LOVE the tofu bamboo and will have to find more ways to use it. This was a bit salty for my taste, and that's hard to control as I didn't add any salt and it was all in the fermented products. (For the record, I used Greenfood Pixian Broad Bean Paste in a red foil packet for the Sichuan chilli bean paste and Union Foods Brand Sweet Flour Sauce, which the internet has led me to believe is the same thing as sweet fermented sauce though I'm not 100% sure.) I would make sure and use low sodium chicken stock if I make it again; that could have contributed to the problem. Other than that, it had great flavor and the spice level was perfect -- a nice burn but not totally fiery.

• Kohlrabi salad with sour-and-hot dressing

  • JoanN on June 18, 2013

    It’s light and summery and crunchy and spicy and easy to prepare and, this version at least, has all the flavors of Sichuan in it. This is just perfect summer fare. I’m so glad I stumbled upon it. I’m so glad I decided to give it a try.

  • Pandan on July 15, 2024

    Fast and easy side dish. Served it with Malaysian Sambal tofu, stir fried lettuce and rice. I cut up my kohlrabi a bit too thinly with a mandoline, so it wasn’t that crunchy.

  • shoffmann on October 21, 2017

    I've made this a couple times now. The salad is crunchy, spicy, salty and a lovely orange color. I find the combination of flavors to be a bit addictive. I use a mandoline to quickly/easily cut the kohlrabi into match sticks. After tossing with the dressing ingredients, the salad is fine sitting out for a bit while the rest of the meal is prepped.

  • Apollonia on August 06, 2024

    Even my kohlrabi hating family loved this. Great summer salad!

• Spinach with sesame sauce (Ma jiang bo cai)

  • westminstr on July 19, 2013

    Spinach is blanched, then drained and chopped, then covered with a sauce consisting of sesame paste plus oil from the jar, sesame oil, salt and sugar. You are supposed to also sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top, but I didn't have any. This dish is all about the sauce, and I have to say it was more bitter and less smooth and toasty than expected. I preferred the leftovers, after the sauce flavors had mingled and I also preferred the spinach warm.

  • Bloominanglophile on September 04, 2017

    I rather liked this dish, but my daughter and husband didn't care for it. Must be the dark sesame paste that puts them off. Served it with the Pock-Marked Old Woman's Tofu and rice for a weeknight dinner.

• Spicy firm tofu with garlic stems (Suan tai chao xiang gan)

  • westminstr on July 19, 2013

    This is a very easy one! There is very little chopping. Garlic stems and firm tofu are stir fried with fermented black beans, Sichuan chili bean paste and a touch of sugar. (I also added a touch of salt). I used garlic scapes (not sure if they are the same as stems?) and a product called baked tofu purchased at my local natural foods store. There was a discussion around here in which Will explained that the "firm tofu" used in this recipe is not regular firm tofu but pressed tofu which is often spiced, and he endorsed the baked tofu as an adequate sub. I like it because it doesn't have MSG or other additives. My scapes were sonewhat fibrous and didn't have a lot of garlic flavor so I wasn't thrilled with that part of the recipe. However, the tofu itself was delicious with the sauce. In the head notes, FD mentions substituting red and green peppers for the scapes, and I think this would be wonderful, and I am making a note to try that version of the dish when pepper season arrives.

  • westminstr on September 19, 2013

    Made this again with red peppers instead of garlic scapes. Liked it much better. To avoid burning, pre-cook the red peppers before adding tofu and spices, and consider adding a bit of chopped garlic to the dish as well.

  • TrishaCP on June 20, 2024

    We really liked this stir fry. I added two heads of baby bok choy along with the scapes to temper the flavor down somewhat and I was happy with that choice. I was surprised that the scapes were rather sweet, and was glad to try them cooked this way. I couldn’t find the right tofu so used a miso flavored tofu that worked ok.

• Red-braised pork (Hong shao rou)

  • TrishaCP on February 14, 2014

    Really flavorful result for my first time cooking pork belly, but it is really rich and a little goes a long way. I doubled the ginger, and out of necessity subbed vermouth (it was the closest sub I had on hand) for Shaoxing wine. I did go for about a 3 hour cook time (the meat was skinless) and it was the right amount. I seared the meat slightly before serving to crisp up more of the fat, and served with scallions on top and bok choy stir-fried in garlic.

  • Barb_N on March 26, 2014

    I served this with eggplant and a bit of pork belly steamed with rice in the rice cooker. This smelled and tasted divine- I too let it simmer for over 2 hours to achieve tenderness. More ginger would have been good- as would some thickening of the sauce which remained broth-like though aromatic from the cinnamon stick and star anise. Certainly a great trade off in flavor out vs effort in; a sometimes treat due to the richness.

  • KarinaFrancis on April 12, 2014

    Delicious! Not much work up front, the braising does the work. Lots of sauce but not one drop remained. I used pork shoulder and cooked it for 2 hours.

  • bernalgirl on February 02, 2022

    The most bland version Of this dish, very disappointing. And an odd miss for this cookbook.

  • joneshayley on January 03, 2018

    Very nice- I have made this repeatedly and always simmer as instructed for 2 hours and then reduce the sauce for an hour. This results in a flavourful and sticky sauce that I find preferable

  • WaterPenny on April 09, 2025

    I was disappointed by this recipe and I have loved many other recipes in this book. The sauce never really cooked down and the flavour was missing. I added extra ginger as other comments suggested and cooked it 2+ hours but I felt it missed the mark. Regardless, the family ate it up but I don't think I will repeat this one.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    At the end of the cooking time, I still had a lot of liquid left over, and despite reducing it an extra half hour, there was still a lot. I ended up fishing the pork out to eat without the sauce but it was really missing that thick, almost glaze-like sauce that you need with a good red-braised pork.

• Twice-cooked pork (Hui guo rou)

  • Delys77 on February 24, 2014

    Pg. 96 I went with a triple recipe as my piece of pork belly was quite large and I wanted to use it all up. I am glad I did as the triple recipe fed about 4 hungry diners along with steamed rice and sauteed greens. The flavour of this dish is excellent, I just love the combination of black beans and the chilli bean paste. Also, the twice cooked pork was very nice, however I crowded my pan a bit so it didn't all brown as much as I would have liked. Next time I will cook the pork in batches. Delicious dish.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    This was quite good but I actually prefer the other twice-cooked pork recipe in this book to this one. This just felt like it was missing something to get it to the level of a Szechuan restaurant-quality dish. I did use onions and red bell pepper in place of the baby leeks because my local Asian store was out so maybe that had something to do with it.

  • Stephenn31 on September 03, 2024

    A good quick, basic version of this dish. As some of the other said, it missed something that I'd have had in a little Sichuan restaurant.

  • Bessp on November 05, 2025

    Delicious! I added cabbage, onions, and more red bell pepper to make it a complete meal, served with rice. I loved this. Aside from precooking the pork, it was a super fast recipe.

  • metacritic on January 01, 2021

    Terrific dish with depth, complexity, a hint of heat, and loads of umami. With rice and a couple of large leaks, this could be a complete (and fabulous) meal. I didn't add any salt as the black beans have plenty already. I also removed quite a bit of the rendered fat, which was pooling in the wok.

  • sosayi on February 01, 2019

    Really quick and easy recipe, as I had some pre-cooked and sliced pork belly waiting in my freezer. I subbed a bunch of green onions for the baby leeks and added a whole red pepper, but otherwise followed the recipe. Turned out deliciously. Served with the Tiger Salad from the same book and brown rice.

  • Ro_ on December 04, 2019

    Very nice recipe and quick to put together. I used "poitrine de porc demi sel" which worked well. Balance of sweet/salty/spicy flavours very nice, with the leeks giving a crunch and a mild oniony taste. I couldn't get baby leeks so used two regular, smallish leeks. I have another quantity of the boiled (but not yet stir fried) pork which I put in the freezer, I think I'll use it to make the similar-but-not-identical recipe "Back in the pot pork" from Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cooking, to compare the two.

• Spinach with chilli and fermented tofu (Jiao si fu ru chao bo cai)

  • krista_jo on June 13, 2016

    I don't care for red fermented tofu (oddly sweet) but white fermented tofu is delicious! Blue cheese is the best description but it is quite different. A very easy way to add a savoury, tangy, umami flavour to otherwise plain greens. Recommended!

  • BlytheSpirit on March 01, 2014

    I am not going to rate this recipe because I heartily disliked the fermented tofu, which I found to be fetid and acrid in the extreme. It was as if the spinach was smothered in rotten milk. Am unfamiliar with this ingredient so not sure if this was just not a good fermented tofu - or if this is just a personal preference.

• Sichuanese 'send-the-rice-down' chopped celery with minced beef (Jia chang rou mo qin cai)

  • westminstr on October 15, 2014

    I made this with double the beef, which gives a better amount of food for a main dish and also helped to "send the celery down." (mine was from the farm and strongly flavored, very similar to chinese celery) I liked the dish but my family was not in love. I made in two batches, one regular for adults and one very mild with less celery for the kids. Used 1/2 tbsp chili bean paste and my son still complained it was too spicy, I should have cut back on the ginger as well I think.

  • Apollonia on January 22, 2023

    Another banger from this book. Like Patioweather below, I made it with a higher proportion of vegan meat (Beyond Beef ground, to be precise), and while normally we aren't the sort of vegetarians to just down a big pack of this stuff, it was superb here. Served with twice-cooked chard--- will defo make again.

  • seherhussain on April 06, 2026

    I also doubled the beef and this was super tasty! Will toss the leftovers through noodles and think will work just as well as rice

  • Bloominanglophile on September 11, 2020

    My husband loved this dish and wants to have it again in the future. I don't mind making this again--it was a great, quick meal for a weekday. It is also quite economical, with only 4oz of ground beef serving two people. In fact, I'm thinking of assembling a meal "kit" to take to my daughter in college (in her first apartment) with the ingredients for this recipe so she can whip this up whenever the urge strikes!

  • corylavell on May 10, 2021

    We make this pretty regularly. You do have to love celery, but that’s not hard here. I love how the dish stretches a small amount of meat into a whole meal - a great way to help us eat a bit more sustainably without compromising on flavour or cutting meat altogether.

  • KarinaFrancis on April 10, 2025

    This was better than I was expecting, super simple to make but really flavourful.

  • Delys77 on June 17, 2013

    Pg. 194 Made this with the chinese celery and it definitely gives it a fragrant aromatic edge. Overall quite good but much better as a supporting dish than as a main. Would work well as a multi course meal as it is very easy to make.

  • helskitchenvt on August 08, 2016

    Unlike the other commenters, I couldn't find Chinese celery or a local strongly flavored celery, so I actually upped the celery, spiced a little more strongly (made it quite spicy, actually) and added fermented black beans (I also didn't have kids eating it, which helps). Worked really well and used up a lot of celery while at the same time no one complained about not having enough meat. I served it as part of a largely vegetarian dinner.

  • sosayi on April 17, 2017

    I probably make this dish once a month, which is shockingly regular for me. It's a quick, easy and simple dish that pretty much uses pantry staples (minus the meat). We generally double the recipe, which tends to use a whole, large head of regular celery and is perfect as a whole meal for two (with leftovers for my lunch!). We also sub in pork for the beef, as suggested as a possibility in the head note. I also cut down (maybe half?) on the doubanjiang, as I'm a wimp, but even that's pretty spicy. Served with brown rice, this is a great healthy dinner and I seriously love this dish!

  • jdjd99 on June 04, 2020

    I didn't have enough celery, so I supplemented with fresh green peas, and used a 2:1 veg to beef ratio. Everything else the same as the recipe. Delicious and we'll definitely reprise this frequently. Super easy and inexpensive.

  • jenburkholder on August 16, 2022

    Surprisingly good. Used fresh celery from the farmer’s market - would definitely advise searching some of that, or Chinese celery, out for additional flavor. Subbed Impossible for beef and that worked well.

  • Jardimc on March 02, 2024

    I’ve made this countless times now - with pork, with beef - and served it with rice, and once with Indo Mie Mi Goreng instant noodles. It’s that bloody good. Every single time.

  • snoozermoose on December 14, 2021

    This was a little too gingery and salty for my husband and me, though we did appreciate the bold flavors.

  • tillathehungry on November 04, 2025

    Excellent and i can’t add more praise than already listed in these notes. But i did try making it with wallaby mince. It worked very well, despite being on the lean side of the meat spectrum. A wonderful more ‘sustainable’ meat option for those of us down under.

  • Pandan on May 13, 2024

    This was super easy to make on a weekday. I doubled the amount of ground meet to 400g to use up all I had defrosted. Next time I won’t use the soy sauce as it was a bit too salty.

  • patioweather on September 12, 2021

    Neither my partner not I particularly care for celery but we both devoured this. I used fake beef, and greatly increased the meat to celery ratio because I wanted to use the entire package. I had two broad bean pastes in my fridge, one labeled "spicy" and one not, so I used half and half.

  • excurvatus on March 18, 2020

    I've enjoyed having this in the fridge for the past couple of days. with a ratio of 3:1 (celery:beef), it is a very meat-light relish to help you eat your rice!

• Stir-fried oyster mushrooms with chicken (Ping gu ji pian)

  • westminstr on February 25, 2013

    I made this recipe using half oysters and half shiitakes and leftover roast chicken. It was simple yet very flavorful. If doing again like this, I would start the shiitakes a bit before the oysters as they take a bit longer to cook, and I would just stir the chicken in at the end. The precooked chicken stuck to the bottom of my pan, so it would have been better added with more liquid in the pan.

  • TrishaCP on September 25, 2022

    We didn’t find this bland, but very subtle and comforting.

  • Astrid5555 on March 01, 2019

    We found this rather bland so I added some soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and cilantro and everybody happily ate this dish in the end.

  • LittlePanFriedBun on February 03, 2026

    I loved this recipe, but took away one star because I think this works much better with boneless-skinless chicken thigh. The fat from the chicken adds a lot of flavor to the mushrooms. Changes I made: - choose chicken thigh instead of chicken breast - Added more shaoxing wine (1 tsp) - Reduced the oil to 1 tsp (since there is some fat from the chicken thigh) - Used scallion oil to give extra flavor I served this over rice and added enough white pepper to kill a man. With the chicken thigh, I give this 5/5 stars.

• Stir-fried broccoli with chilli and Sichuan pepper (Qiang xi nan hua cai)

  • westminstr on February 25, 2013

    Very simple and quite good.

  • Delys77 on March 11, 2013

    Be very careful not to burn the chillies as this results in an off taste. Overall very simple and pretty good, but make sure to salt at the end or it will be a little bland.

  • HarlanH on December 14, 2013

    Simple but good. You can microwave the broccoli in a wide dish, covered with plastic wrap, for about 2 minutes, instead of boiling water for the blanching step.

  • LouiseQuasiChef on December 16, 2018

    Not being content with choosing garlic OR hot peppers, I went with a combo, which was very delicious! Blanched broccoli with oil as directed, and then quick sauté of sliced garlic and birds eye peppers reconstituted in hot water, and then broccoli. Served over steamed (reheated brown rice) with salt. Yum! Cheap and delicious. I am gonna get me some szechuan peppercorns!

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    Even after salting this quite a bit, I found this to be a little too subtle for me. Maybe I just don't love blanched broccoli.

• Blanched choy sum with sizzling oil (You lin cai xin)

  • westminstr on April 01, 2013

    Easy and delicious preparation.

  • Delys77 on March 05, 2013

    Pg. 168 Perfect cantonese style greens. We used Yu Choi instead of choi sum and it was perfect. The ginger and green onions are just cooked by the hot oil treatment and they perfume the whole dish, very easy and very tasty.

  • Bloominanglophile on August 29, 2014

    Of the three dishes that I made from this cookbook for dinner (including Gong Bao Chicken and the Stir-Fried Oyster and Shittake Mushrooms), my husband and daughter thought this dish was the best. Can't beat those Asian greens! Leftovers can also be utilized in several other recipes from this book, so you might consider making a bit more than originally planned.

  • rionafaith on August 24, 2017

    Simple but delicious. Perfect easy side to accompany any Chinese dish.

  • SylvanMoon on February 06, 2026

    This was very tasty and I served it with rice and it made a lovely contrast to the fish fragrant aubergine that was also in the meal. I used pak choi which I split in half lengthwise. I also added some gluten puffs, which I softened by adding to the blanching water with the greens. At first I thought it was too oily, but that was because I forgot to add the soy water. Once I'd done that, it was perfect. I'll definitely make this again.

  • luke_i8msqc on May 05, 2026

    The toppings really elevate this. Very simple.

• Smothered rainbow chard with garlic (Men cai hong cai)

  • westminstr on April 01, 2013

    I made this with yu choi. My default method of cooking greens, it works well and would work in any style of menu, just use a different type of oil.

  • luke_i8msqc on May 02, 2026

    An ok way to cook chard but not particularly exciting. Also doesn’t feel very Chinese.

• Stir-fried oyster and shiitake mushrooms with garlic (Su chao shuang gu)

  • westminstr on April 01, 2013

    Really loved this dish. A very versatile preparation that would work with a variety of cuisines, just change the cooking fat if making it as part of a non-Ssian dinner.

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 232 - So few ingredients, so much flavour. This was a hit with my friends, we loved it! I used King Oyster mushrooms and shiitake for this dish and it was truly scrumptious. I made my own stock because I’d seen a few chicken recipes at the front of the book that called for cooked chicken. I added a star anise to the pot of water w my chx and we loved the flavour it brought. I thought the combination of mushrooms w spring onions was brilliant and something I’d never thought to do before. It was a surprisingly rich and hearty dish for pure veggies…especially w those meaty King Oysters. I could eat this morning noon and night. Tonight I added some of my leftovers to the red braised beef and it was sensational. Highly recommend this one! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892280#7947978

  • britt on April 22, 2013

    I agree this is very good. And simple. For stock I used a tiny bit of light soy sauce and toasted sesame oil in water as Dunlop suggests on the vegetarian stock page. Worked great.

  • Bloominanglophile on August 29, 2014

    I'm afraid my husband and daughter didn't love this dish--it was the slippery texture of the oyster mushrooms that kind of put them off. The texture didn't bother me, but the fact that I forgot to season the dish sure did. Happens sometimes when you're juggling several Chinese dishes and trying to time everything just right! Oh well, next time!

  • Stephenn31 on November 24, 2025

    Really delicious mushroom dish. Cut off the harder part of the base or cook a bit longer. Don’t use dried shiitake. I’ll make this one again

  • lholtzman on September 03, 2025

    A delicious umami bomb. I used vegetable stock to make vegetarian.

  • dc151 on September 11, 2021

    My beloved produce market is closing, so on my last visit, I tried to buy things I don't normally see at the local supermarket. Oyster mushrooms in hand, I browsed EYB until I saw this was just the recipe. Super simple, super fast and it convinced even non-mushroom lovers! Very impressed. Now I just have to find another source for oyster mushrooms to make it again.

  • jenburkholder on September 09, 2020

    We really liked these, but using chicken stock, the predominant flavor is chicken, not mushroom, so have your expectations set accordingly. Good use of mushrooms and would probably be friendly even to the mushroom-indifferent.

  • excurvatus on March 18, 2020

    I'm not always a mushroom lover, but I am a lover of this dish! I used leftover bacon fat to make it. I used oysters and shiitakes as Fuchsia suggests. I personally would put the oyster stalks in first, since they were a bit tough, but I am so glad i made it and will make it again.

• Stir-fried greens with dried shrimps (Bao xin cai chao xia pi)

  • westminstr on September 19, 2013

    Made with 1 pound slivered baby bok choy and 4T shrimp powder (leftover from Burma). It was good but very shrimpy - maybe use a bit less next time.

  • Snopes on May 21, 2016

    I cut the shrimp to 1 tablespoon from 6 and thought it was plenty "shrimpy."

  • Stephenn31 on November 24, 2025

    I didn’t have dried shrimp so I used a bit of leftover bacon. And Napa cabbage very good and would make again. Without the shrimp I should have used a splash of fish sauce

  • ebalk02 on February 20, 2020

    Very quick and simple to make. Next time will use quite a bit less dried shrimp - K and I thought it was a bit too shrimpy.

  • Mtetpon on February 16, 2019

    I used Napa cabbage and loved this dish.

• Stir-fried Chinese chives with pork slivers (Jiu cai rou si)

  • westminstr on January 28, 2014

    I had made this dish back in May with greenmarket chives and pork and liked it pretty well. I recently made it again with chinese chives and the same pork but this time found it a bit disappointing/flat. I didn't have potato/corn starch so the sauce was thin, but I'm not sure that was it. I think I just wanted a more vibrant flavor.

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 200 - Delicious! - STIR-FRIED CHINESE CHIVES (FLOWERING CHIVES) WITH PORK (BEEF) SLIVERS – p. 200 This was an absolutely lovely, simple dish that does a beautiful job of letting each of the key ingredients shine. I made FD’s “Variation” as I managed to find some incredibly aromatic flowering chives. I also picked up some slivered sirloin so beef it was. The fresh flavours of the garlicky chives really accented the deep earthy flavours of the meat. The slivers of meat literally melted in our mouths and somehow the flavour reminded us of grilled steak. Not sure if the marinade may have played a role in this. In any event, this was a delicious and light dish. We served it along w some steamed brown rice and some sautéed bok choy. We have another hit on our hands folks! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892280#7967820

  • stockholm28 on March 16, 2014

    This was surprising as it was better than I expected based on the small number of ingredients. It was super easy ... less than 10 minutes of prep and a quick stir fry. It is a good, simple dish.

  • metacritic on January 01, 2021

    This is a dish that is fragrant and light and incredibly easy, taking no more than 20 mins from prep to finish. It is becoming a staple when I turn to Chinese dishes and with good reason.

• Stir-fried eggs with tomatoes (Fan qie chao dan)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 128 - Tasty, quick and satisfying, this dish ticks all the boxes. This is a good recipe to have in your arsenal for those times when you’re “hungry now” and don’t want to be fussing in the kitchen. Growing up w British parents, fried tomatoes and fried eggs are by no means new to me. What’s different here is that the two are combined to produce a dish that is far greater than the sum of its parts. I served this w plain bruschetta which we used to mop up the lovely sauce. I used grape tomatoes cut in half since they’re what’s most flavourful at this time of year. They’re also very sweet so I skipped adding the sugar. We loved this, it’s a dish you could eat every day without tiring of it IMHO. I should add that my wok is fairly non-stick so I only used about 1.5 tbsp of oil (I used evoo). FD calls for 4tbsp which would have made this too oily for our tastes. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7948796

  • milgwimper on June 09, 2014

    I followed this recipe as written the first time and enjoyed it but it was a little sweet. I think it had to do with the tomatoes we used. We eat it for breakfast with rice as is it quick and delicious. In later renditions we omitted the sugar, and sometimes add ginger, garlic, green onions, all three or only one of the extra added ingredients. It is quite delicious.

  • Joyceeong on June 05, 2017

    A simple and delicious egg dish. I added a handful of chopped cilantro at the end of cooking time, and it was delicious. Really quick and easy. I like the addition of the potato flour mixture stirred in at the end, as it makes the dish moist and a little silky. Already cook this dish a few times, my son's favourite!

  • lizbot2000 on May 24, 2017

    This is one of my all-time favorite meals. So easy to make and fast. Throw it on some rice and you've got breakfast or dinner. I eat it multiple times per week. I usually mix roma or similar sized tomatoes with cherry tomatoes for a good mix of goop to ooze out and make the sauce balanced with sweet tomatoey taste.

  • Lepa on June 21, 2021

    Like other posters, I really enjoyed this dish and anticipate it will become my go-to breakfast. I used less oil (and a non-stick skillet)- 3 tbsp, which was probably too much. I look forward to the variations suggested by other posters. I don't have a lot to add but am posting this to encourage others to try this delicious dish!

  • Zosia on September 18, 2018

    Quick to make and quite delicious served with brown basmati rice. I doubled the recipe, used only 2 tbsp oil and omitted the sugar, which really wasn't needed with garden fresh tomatoes. I did make the slurry that transformed the juices into a silky sauce that coated everything.

  • Agaillard on December 12, 2023

    Nice and simple, yet, comforting. I used the sugar and also added garlic, and I completely forgot the potato flour. A Chinese version of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, which is (I just learnt) a classic of the cuisine. I enjoyed it and might make again. Would probably be nice with chives or scallions.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    Every Chinese person can whip this up without a recipe, but this is a pretty good one. It comes out tasting very similar to my mom's, except my mom doesn't use sugar in hers and adds sliced garlic, which is important for me. The quality of the tomatoes is important as is seasoning it well.

  • excurvatus on July 29, 2019

    This was just OK. I used pretty tough, not super ripe tomatoes so I'm willing to give it another go. If the tomatoes are mediocre, I'd say this is just OK. for those for whom this is the definition of comfort food, they'd probably enjoy it more than I did.

  • Pandan on June 11, 2024

    Super simple dish with ingredients I mostly always have on hand. Only takes a few minutes. Will definitely make again!

• Pak choy with fresh shiitake (Xiang gu xiao bai cai)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 180 - We enjoyed it very much. I used baby pak choy and fresh shitake. Since my time was tight this evening, I quick steamed the pak choy in the microwave while I stir-fried the mushrooms (which I didn’t pre-cook at all), garlic and ginger. This is full of fresh flavours and once again, the potato flour slurry makes for a satiny sauce. I did drizzle w a very light touch of soy over the plated dish. This was a nice accompaniment to our roasted salmon and the egg-fried rice from this book. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892280#7950238

  • Joyceeong on June 28, 2017

    A simple and really nice veggie dish. I microwave the pak choy for 2 minutes instead of blanching them. Did not blanch the fresh shiitake either. Stir fry the shiitake with the ginger and garlic for 2 minutes, then add in the pak choy.

  • Dannausc on May 06, 2018

    Good and easy.

  • Delys77 on March 21, 2013

    Very simple dish that relies a lot on the umami of the mushrooms to give it a lift. SO was not a big fan as he doesn't like the textures of fresh or dried Shiitake.

  • PinchOfSalt on March 19, 2024

    One liter or quart of boiling water was way too little in which to blanch the bok choy and mushrooms. I used 12 ounces of baby shanghai bok choy and 8 lovely fat fresh shiitakes, the kind with tops that look like mosaics (not smooth). Yes, slightly more veggies but not enough to need more like 2 quarts of water - and that still did not cover the mushrooms, which I had placed on top. The results? The bok choy were perfectly cooked; the mushrooms could have used a bit more time in that boiling water. Overall the dish was somewhat short on salt. Next time I think I will try adding a glug of oyster sauce to the final cook, just before adding the potato starch mixture.

  • corylavell on May 10, 2021

    Boiling mushrooms was conceptually weird, but it means they stay beautifully moist and rich. I loved this simple and delicious preparation, particularly alongside spicy dishes from elsewhere in this beautiful book.

  • Stephenn31 on September 03, 2024

    Made with a mix of fresh local mushrooms, which was a nice way to use them. Fairly simple. I added a bit of soy sauce at the end.

  • lholtzman on June 12, 2024

    Good. I found the seasoning a bit lacking, but salted to where I wanted. This does use more pots and pans than I would have preferred.

  • CheesyKranskyLove on October 03, 2022

    Cooked as directed and it was very delicious for how simple it was. Also looked great on the plate.

• Chinese broccoli in ginger sauce (Jiang zhi jie lan)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 182 - We really enjoyed this and mr bc even had seconds…unheard of when it comes to leafy greens! It’s amazing how a little bit of sugar can go such a long way in lifting the flavours of the greens. The leaves had all been kissed w a hint of sweetness and the punch of the ginger really enhanced the fresh flavours. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892280#7945949

  • Bloominanglophile on January 05, 2022

    I love Chinese greens, and this recipe was no exception. This was the first time I have cooked Chinese broccoli, which is supposed to be on the bitter side. I lucked out, and the jie lan I bought wasn't overly bitter. With the ginger sauce, it made a nice side-dish to the dan dan noodles from this same cookbook.

  • Delys77 on March 25, 2013

    This might be very good with Choi sum as I liked the ginger sauce, but the gai lan are bit to bitter for my taste.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    This was pretty good. Not my favorite way to prepare greens but it was bright and looked beautiful on the plate.

• Egg-fried rice (Dan chao fan)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 257 - This makes for a quick and tasty fried rice. Prep is simple, especially if you already have cooked rice on hand, which we did. Oil is placed in a hot wok and beaten eggs are swirled in to cover the bottom of the pan. When the bottom of the eggs has cooked and the tops are still runny, rice is added and incorporated. Once the rice is piping hot, light soy and or salt are added to taste. Sliced spring onion and a tsp of sesame oil are added just prior to plating. As it happened, I had a handful of the mushroom dish left over from another meal so I tossed those in here as well. Rice is nice!! - with a nod to my Godson whose face used to light up whenever I made him rice for dinner. His Mom never cooked it so the first time I served it to him, I said “mmmm, rice is nice” - he agreed and to this day, he’ll still say that if I make rice w dinner! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892281#7950255

  • Delys77 on June 29, 2020

    Pg. 257 Not a bad little side but I would up the seasoning personally. I served this with some grilled fish and stir fried cabbage and I found that it needed a bit of jazzing up as the rest of the dishes were fairly subtle of flavour. I think if this is a basic side no worries, but if it is going to be taking a bit more pride of place go heavier on the seasonings as she says. Also, make sure they egg is mostly cooked as I found I added my rice a little too early and I ended up having to cook the rice longer than I would normally have to make sure the egg coated rice cooked sufficiently.

  • Frogcake on December 29, 2019

    I agree with breadcrumb’s note! Quick and tasty! We served this with BBQ’d tuna. A beautiful, satisfying meal! I would suggest that there was no need to season the rice with salt as the soy sauce was salty enough.

  • Happykikkers on October 22, 2024

    Used spinach instead of spring onion bc that’s what I had. Easy and quick! Ate on its own as a quick lunch.

  • helena.h on April 08, 2026

    Used less spring onion, and added some cherry tomatoes to the side. Nice and quick dinner.

• Chicken livers with Chinese chives (Jiu cai chao ji gan)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 08, 2013

    p. 126 There’s no way I could have enticed mr bc to eat chicken livers but I had some Chinese chives so I decided to make this w boneless skinless chicken thighs instead. This produced a subtly seasoned dish that allowed the garlicky flavour of the chives to shine. I can imagine how the earthiness of the livers would enhance the dish. FD suggests you can serve this w additional ground chili though we just passed soya sauce at the table. This is a delicately flavoured, comforting dish. We quite enjoyed it. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892279#7940810

  • Astrid5555 on January 05, 2017

    So simple, yet so flavorful. Had to substitute scallions for Chinese chives and added the optional chillil flakes, delicious! Husband just could not get enough of it. Kids happily declined and ate rice with soy sauce.

• Baby pak choy in superior stock (Shang tang bai cai miao)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 08, 2013

    p. 176 - Beautiful dish! I was delighted to find pea shoots (a suggested substitute for pak choy) at our local Asian market and in looking through the book, I selected this recipe because it seemed like the other flavours in the dish would work well w the delicate flavour of pea shoots. I made some chicken stock the same day and I’d added a couple of star anise to the pot so the broth has some lovely anis undertones that seemed to scream “springtime” when combined w the fresh flavour of peas. This is the first occasion I’ve had to use pea shoots and I’ll now be seeking them out at every opportunity, as I loved their flavour and hearty texture. We served this as a side dish along w the Beef w Black Beans and Chili and it was a nice contrast of flavours and textures along w our steamed brown jasmine rice. This dish will only be as good as the stock you use. Yummy! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892280#7940834

  • Delys77 on October 07, 2013

    Pg. 176 Wasn't sure if I should make a note as I didn't follow the recipe as much as I used it for inspiration. I had some lovely baby shanghai bok choy which I lightly blanched and then I made a broth from some regular chicken stock which was augmented by chicken bones, a little piece of prosciutto which stood in for the pork ribs, star anise, goji berries, chinese red dates, ginger, and lots of green onion. The result was a delicious broth which turned the bok choy into a light pre dinner soup. Lovely!

• Sea bream in fish-fragrant sauce (Ji li jia xiang yu)

  • JoanN on June 18, 2013

    Used sauce from this recipe with fish-frying marinade from Sweet-and-Sour Fish ‘Tiles.' This was outstanding. Maybe too much stock. I boiled it down heavily for quite a while and still didn’t quite achieve what I would have described as the “thick, luxurious gravy” Dunlop calls for. Didn’t matter. The sauce was super. I hadn’t made rice since I figured the fried fish had sufficient calories for the day. Big mistake. Saved the leftover sauce and will probably have it for lunch over rice. But that’s tomorrow’s calories.

• Sweet-and-sour fish 'tiles' (Tang cu wa kuai yu)

  • JoanN on July 04, 2013

    Fish-Fragrant Fish 'Tiles' is a variation on the original recipe using Sichuanese flavors. I used frozen mahi-mahi fillets from Costco and Better Than Bouillon. This was outstanding. Maybe too much stock. I boiled it down heavily for quite a while and still didn’t quite achieve what I would have described as the “thick, luxurious gravy” Dunlop calls for. Didn’t matter. The sauce was super. I hadn’t made rice since I figured the fried fish had sufficient calories for the day. Big mistake. Make rice to sop up the sauce.

  • urmami on August 22, 2016

    3.5 stars: 5 stars for sauce, 1 star for faulty batter instructions. Good news first: the sauce is OUTSTANDING - caramelized sugar and Chinkiang vinegar are a complex, heady match made in sweet-and-sour heaven, all the better for being dead easy. I was using really good fish, which the sauce elevated without overpowering. Amazing stuff, that sauce. Since luscious, super-fresh summer flounder fillets deserve gentler treatment than chopping up and deep-frying, I decided instead to lightly batter and pan-fry the fillets. This is how I discovered that the batter recipe/instructions need some serious tweaking: 4 tablespoons of potato flour is WAY too much for one egg! It must be a typo or a Brit-to-American conversion error, because Fuschia would never play us like that. Start with, like, 2 teaspoons and then work your way up or you will end up with a gummy wad of Play-Doh hermetically sealed to your whisk. Lovely.

  • shoffmann on April 30, 2017

    I will try the variations in the book before repeating. The fish was great, but I found the sauce to be too sweet. My husband (who has more of a sweet tooth) really enjoyed this one.

• Salt and pepper squid (Jiao yan you yu)

  • IvyManning on November 25, 2014

    This recipe sucks. The potato flour doesn't stick to squid, instead it just gets gummy and falls off once in the oil. I think the translation from Brit English to American is what is throwing it. Potato flour and potato starch are NOT the same thing. She calls for potato flour, but I think she actually means potato starch. In her pantry notes she says cornstarch works in a pinch, so she must be using potato starch. Ruined $10 worth of squid and made an utter wreck of the kitchen. I've found a number of her recipes to be less than precise. I'm going back to Nigella's salt and pepper squid recipe. Works much better.

  • Delys77 on October 07, 2013

    Pg. 144 I will definitely make this again as it went over quite well with my guests. That said I would definitely be very careful in my execution as my first try, while promising, was a ways off from what I have had in restaurants. I believe it is just because my oil was too hot at first, and then too cool for the second batch. Plus I crowded my squid. Lastly I dumped in a bit of potato flour with the last batch and it made for a very unappealing texture to some of the squid which got caked up. Lastly I think about 75% of the salt would be right.

  • BlytheSpirit on June 28, 2014

    I loved the flavors of this - very, very tasty. I reduced the salt a bit - making the salt/Sichuan pepper mixture a 50/50 ratio. Used corn starch because that is what I had on hand, but I don't think I dried the squid off enough before dredging them - the coating did not adhere as well for my second batch. Also think I had the oil too hot for the first batch and they were a bit rubbery. Will use a thermometer next time. I believe the problems I had were due to user error - This is one of two recipes I made with a gift of frozen squid and am very new to working with this ingredient.

  • Rinshin on October 16, 2019

    Yes IvyManning is right. Not potato flour but potato starch in the US. It is called katakuriko in Japan and its use is somewhat similar to cornstarch. Katakuriko or potato starch in the US can be used to make coating for deep fried foods such as chicken karaage, fried squid, fried tofu etc.

• Gong bao chicken with peanuts (Gong bao ji ding)

  • ellabee on February 21, 2015

    Easy, delicious, and warming for a snowy night. Made with about 3 chiles (all I had) and some very ancient Sichuan peppercorns, but still good heat and zing (added a couple of drops of chile sesame oil to make up for the chiles). Also added a half bell pepper, cubed just smaller than chicken, at the same time as the ginger, garlic, and scallions. Cut peanuts down to 1/2 cup, would go to 1/3 next time and break peanuts into halves before adding.

  • Jojobuch on October 07, 2019

    Great quick recipe for weeknight dinner - it wasn’t very spicy at all (I used the full amount of dried chiles but was diligent about shaking out dried seeds - will likely be less diligent next time to increase spice).

  • emiliang on September 24, 2022

    Love this recipe for its vibrant and balanced flavors. If you want it to look more similar to what you would get in a Chinese American restaurant, add some green bell pepper and celery, and use only half the amount of peanuts.

  • Rutabaga on January 21, 2020

    Excellent! This had great flavor and was a snap to make. I doubled the recipe, and my eight-year-old had three helpings; he's starting to get into spicier foods, which is exciting for me. And for the four year old, I cooked and reserved some of the simply marinated chicken before making the main dish with the peppers. I used whole chile de arbor peppers without seeding them. They added a pleasant amount of moderate heat, which the Sichuan peppercorns definitely added a numbing quality to the dish, which I love.

  • TrishaCP on March 12, 2021

    We really liked this. We used five Thai chiles and that was the perfect heat level for us.

  • Dannausc on May 06, 2018

    It was good; different from what I’m used to. This Sichuan pepper gave it another dimension.

  • bernalgirl on September 12, 2025

    As delicious as reported, and easy, too. I used pre-roasted peanuts, cut the sugar in half, and used 2/3 of the chiles. Will definitely make again.

  • wcassity on May 14, 2018

    Not our favorite. And smoked up the house for hours!

  • jenmacgregor18 on October 03, 2020

    I used full amount of de arbol chiles. i didn't have any sichuan peppers, added a bit of korean peppers. & it was plenty spicy for me. subbed cornstarch for potato flour. I thought it was simple, quick and really very good. I also had a problem with inhaling chile oil/smoke & couldn't stop coughing for some time. It did also really smoke up the apartment. If I make again, I'll try to open up the screen door, have the fans all on & try not to breathe over the skillet. :)

  • corylavell on May 10, 2021

    I personally reduce the sugar a little in this dish because I prefer a more savoury flavour, but it is beautiful as written too. Not crazy spicy, and just great fun to eat.

  • Astrid5555 on February 28, 2014

    Excellent! Made without chilli. Loved how the peanuts added some texture.

  • Bloominanglophile on August 29, 2014

    This was a delicious introduction to my first of Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbooks. I did scale back the chiles to 5 instead of 10, and it was plenty spicy for my family. I think I had read on a Chowhound thread where some people thought the amount of peanuts was excessive-- I thought the amount in this recipe was just fine.

  • thekitchenchronicles on November 10, 2014

    Love this recipe, but like Bloominanglophile said, 10 chiles is a LOT (and I like spicy food)- I was coughing from inhaling chile smoke for an hour after I made this! Full review here: http://www.thekitchenchronicles.com/2014/11/10/gong-bao-chicken-with-peanuts/

  • Stephenn31 on November 24, 2025

    I used chile de arbol without seeds. Really good version. Make sure to cut the chicken in small bits the size of big peanuts to cook quickly. Excellent sauce

  • Anea25 on February 27, 2024

    quick, easy and really flavourful. Perfect for a fast dinner when craving Chinese food

  • Jardimc on October 27, 2020

    Yummy, sweet, sour, salt, spicey. Use max 3/4 of the potato starch indicated for a less gooey sauce.

  • ashallen on July 20, 2021

    Loaded with wonderful, intense flavors - loved it and will definitely make it again! I don't handle chili-heat very well, so I used 3 chili de arbol (seeds removed, but not ribs) versus the handful of dried chilies specified in the recipe. Despite that cutback and my not-super-fresh Sichuan peppercorns, the dish was still at the edge of being too hot for me! Still very delicious, though, and the sugar in the sauce helps balance the heat.

  • Agaillard on April 07, 2026

    I made for my parents and I cannot believe it but I forgot the peanuts (!!). I also used only one pepper. I found the recipe less extraordinary that I remembered, but well that might just be the peanuts.

  • Agaillard on May 20, 2018

    I absolutely love this recipe, this is the first one I made from Fushia Dunlop, and still my favourite. Easy to make, ingrédients not too hard to find, delicious! I do reduce the chiles from 10 to 2 (low spicy tolerance..) For the peanuts, I wouldn't know about the smell, because I cheat and buy pre-roasted peanuts :/ I love the flavours of this dish though, the sauce, the Sichuan Pepper, and the peanuts is what sets it apart (in my opinion).

  • metacritic on February 28, 2021

    Every bit as good as others say. It has delicate notes (rice wine), fruity notes (from the Facing Heaven Chilies), numbing elements (Sichuan peppers), while also spiked with garlic and ginger. Prep took surprisingly long and the cooking just minutes. I reduced chillies to seven for the sake of children and somewhat wish I hadn't. It wasn't as spicy as I think it ought to be. I doubled the dish, which seemed to work, though with wok cooking I'm never wholly sure of how I've affected the cooking by increasing yield. I see a debate about whether there are too many peanuts in this version. I wouldn't reduce them, personally. I love what they add to both the flavor and texture of the dish.

  • Kduncan on February 01, 2019

    Halved the peanuts, subbed regular peppers for sichuan pepper, and added a few more chiles, as we like our food spicy. Didn't have the smoke problem at all. Overall the SO like this dish a lot more than I did. I found it a bit one-dimensional compared to other quick stir-fry type recipes I've made from Fushia Dunlop recipes.

• Stir-fried broccoli with garlic

  • smtucker on February 04, 2015

    Used this basic and simple recipe as the inspiration for last night's dinner. Used a head of napa cabbage instead of the broccoli. Added some salt and pepper to the cabbage to "brine" while it sat in a bowl waiting to be cooked. Also added some onion and shallots with the garlic. Strangely, this was one of the best cabbage recipes ever.

  • Zosia on October 11, 2014

    An easy and delicious side. I didn't blanch my vegetables before stir-frying them until I cooked from this book and now wouldn't do it any other way; they always turn out perfectly.

  • excurvatus on December 14, 2019

    Simple, just what was needed. Follow Fuchsia's advice about not blanching the broccoli for too long!

• Steamed sea bass with ginger and spring onion (Qing zheng lu yu)

  • smtucker on May 23, 2014

    Made with 2 local sea bass. 700 g total. Steamed in a bamboo steamer over the "old" wok. Very subtle, and delicious. Next time, substitute a bit of fresh lime juice for a bit of the soy sauce in the finishing sauce and use more than a pinch salt in the marinade. Served with rice, sweet and sour cabbage from Breath of a Wok, and some Wang dumplings.

  • joneshayley on November 15, 2018

    Agree with previous review that this is lovely, but could be improved with a touch of fish sauce or lime juice.

  • kitchen_chick on November 29, 2020

    I disagree with adding lime. This dish as-is tastes just like I’ve had in Chinese restaurants. It is a subtle dish, and I think lime would be too sharp a flavor for it. Get a high quality soy sauce or one meant to be used with seafood. Or as a touch sugar to the soy sauce. I might add a bit of sesame oil, which would go better with these flavors.

• Stir-fried potato slivers with vinegar

  • mcvl on August 19, 2013

    Look, I wish I had gone to cooking school in China and learned fabulous knife skills, but my life went in a different direction, so I cut the potatoes with the finest slicing blade in my Cuisinart and never cut them any smaller. The texture is different, of course, but still scrumptious.

• Stir-fried cucumber with wood ear (Huang gua mu'er)

  • RosieB on August 30, 2015

    Fantastic dish. Easy to prep and even quicker to cook. Made this as part of a banquet. Everyone loved it.

  • Agaillard on August 07, 2021

    Great dish and great way to use cucumber! Very easy too... I used Paris mushrooms (it is pouring torrential rain outside at the minute so not the time to go to the Asian market)... Nice anyway :) Will make again :)

  • metacritic on February 06, 2024

    A surprisingly lovely dish. Balanced flavor and texture that is more interesting than the ingredients might suggest. It is especially good for offsetting dishes with huge flavor, such as those cooked with preserved black beans. This will become a staple.

  • lholtzman on February 06, 2026

    I love this recipe. It is texturally interesting and very satisfying. I did add a signicant amount more light soy sauce, otherwise it was a bit bland. I substituted corn starch for potato flour and used a small fresh red Fresno pepper.

• Braised trout in chilli bean sauce (Dou ban yu)

  • RosieB on June 21, 2015

    This was delicious. I would make double quantity of sauce next time so that there is lots to soak into rice to serve. Relatively easy except dealing with the whole fish in the wok.

  • wcassity on December 16, 2013

    Very tasty. Lots of flavor, but not overwhelming heat for my young children. Easy to prepare.

  • Ro_ on August 31, 2021

    Really nice. I'd be tempted to make with salmon or trout fillets next time to avoid having to get it off the bone afterwards which I am not very good at.

  • CheesyKranskyLove on October 03, 2022

    It was my first time frying fish in a wok so I messed up somewhat. The fish skin did not stay intact and I undercooked it very slightly. This is definitely down to my cook ability though. Very tasty dish otherwise.

• Sichuanese numbing-and-hot beef (Ma la niu rou)

  • Ro_ on June 21, 2023

    It was interesting to use a cut of beef that I associated really with stews and hot, wintry dishes, in a cold summer dish. The meat itself was nice, but overall the flavours were not as special as I was hoping for, it was all a bit overwhelmed by the vast quantities of chilli oil.

• Sweet-and-sour spare ribs (Tang cu pai gu)

  • sarahcooks on January 15, 2018

    This was so delicious, really really tasty! The whole family enjoyed them. I had full ribs, not pieces, and I shallow fried them because I didn't have enough oil for deep frying, but it turned out great. It is a pain to deep fry, but I know I'm going to have to make these again.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    I am Chinese and have had this exact same dish in restaurants in China. This is as close as I've ever gotten to the real thing. Delightful recipe.

  • pengdonna on February 14, 2024

    Need to cook the ribs differently such that the meat is less chewey and hard/fiber-y

• Slippery wood ear salad with coriander (Xiang cai mu er)

  • Jardimc on March 03, 2023

    I was able to find fresh (not dried) wood ear mushrooms and enjoyed this refreshing salad. I had pickled chilis on hand which added a lovely kick to the salad. Next time, I will stir together the garlic, chilis, salt and rice vinegar first, to allow the salt to dissolve. Then stir in the sesame oil, and add to the wood ear mushrooms and cilantro and let it sit for a bit before serving. Will definitely make again.

  • lholtzman on April 15, 2025

    This is a refreshing salad with a nice texture. I used long sweet red peppers to get the color but no spice. I liked it better the next day.

  • metacritic on September 19, 2020

    felt imbalanced. I added a fair amount of vinegar (probably 4x what was called for).

• Kohlrabi salad with sesame oil (Xiang you pie lan)

  • Agaillard on January 05, 2025

    Extremely simple to make, although I did find it lacked flavour, and I made more sauce. I also used turnip instead of kohlrabi, which is supposed to have a stronger taste, but well, not mine :), and I think my batons were too large. I still would make again, this time probably grating the turnip/kohlrabi for a quick salad, or might try the variations.

  • shoffmann on November 12, 2018

    This was quick and good, but I definitely prefer the sour-and-hot variation of the salad.

  • lholtzman on June 25, 2021

    8/31/24 - This is OK. I added more sugar and vinegar than called for as I found this a bit too salty.

  • Boffcat on May 24, 2019

    We loved this - I was actually planning to just use the recipe as a 'stepping stone' before adding the remaining ingredients to make the hot and sour variation, but on tasting it I found it addictive. An excellent use for kohlrabi.

  • Anea25 on November 26, 2023

    thought it was okay but lacked a bit of flavour

  • tslgirl on June 21, 2025

    Love this recipe. I slice my kohlrabi with a mandolin to make sure I get a small, even cut. One of my favorite ways to use kohlrabi these days; I don’t change the recipe at all.

• Asian white radish with sesame oil

  • Nkrieda78 on August 21, 2019

    This is one of those recipes that is greater than the sum of it’s parts! A great way to use some nice radishes from the garden.

• Smoky aubergines with garlic (Huo shao qie zi)

  • shoffmann on April 22, 2017

    Initially I was less that thrilled by this recipe, but some time in the fridge really improved the flavor of the leftovers.

  • Barb_N on April 24, 2017

    My SO loved this, I was less enthused. I cooked the eggplant in the oven avoiding too much char in order to not set off the smoke alarm. I would have preferred less liquid and felt the flavors disappeared into a void.

• Radishes in chilli oil sauce (Qiang luo bo)

  • hyperbowler on August 02, 2016

    As an alternative way of serving, I thickly sliced the radishes, mixed enough mayo to thicken the sauce, and served the sauce as a dip.

  • bernalgirl on May 15, 2024

    I love the idea of smashed radishes and was surprised at how much liquid the salted radishes gave off. While we liked this we all agreed the radishes needed to marinate in the soy-chile sauce and next time we’d make it first and refrigerate while preparing the rest of dinner.

  • sosayi on June 05, 2018

    I second shoffmann's comments. Such a quick and easy additional side, that adds loads of interest to the plate. I was a bit short on radishes, so added some chopped carrot, and that actually worked, too.

  • Nkrieda78 on July 25, 2020

    Amazing quick side with huge flavor payoff!!

  • Ro_ on December 06, 2020

    Loved this dish, I think smacking the radishes and salting/draining them makes a big difference. I started with radishes that weren't the best quality (kind of bitter) but after this treatment, and the delicious spicy dressing, they were transformed. I will definitely make this again, especially if I end up with not-so-great radishes.

  • lholtzman on September 24, 2020

    I had trouble cracking them open so I cut in quarters. This worked better for me and still delicious.

  • shoffmann on June 06, 2017

    Spicy, salty and good texture. This was a great spring side dish.

  • Pandan on June 11, 2024

    Super fast and easy way to use up radishes which I always forget in my fridge. Tasted quite nice, although not super exciting.

• Delectable lotus root salad (Mei wei ou pian)

  • lholtzman on April 10, 2024

    This was okay. I love all the textures in this salad. The taste was a bit bland because the lotus root doesn’t really absorb the sauce.

• Green soy beans served in the pod (Mao dou)

  • Bloominanglophile on May 02, 2015

    I'm afraid these were underwhelming, though the fault may lie with my Sichuan peppercorns (might be time to buy some new). Not much transfer of flavor to the soybeans/pods. I would be tempted to play with this recipe and either just sprinkle the drained but still hot soybeans with Sichuan pepper salt, or something along the lines of edamame we had at Yo Sushi in London (tossed in a scallion oil and sprinkled with togarashi), but heat the ginger and Sichuan pepper in oil? Just a thought!

• Suzhou breakfast tofu (Su zhou dou ha)

  • Jardimc on April 26, 2023

    Dead easy, and very tasty. An easy, low effort dish to add variety to a small feast.

• Stir-fried tofu with black bean and chilli (Xiang la dou fu gan)

  • corylavell on May 10, 2021

    I love this simple stir fry - made as written it comes out a little too oily, I cut back on the frying oil and bloom the aromatics in the chilli oil itself. You need to be extra careful not to burn the garlic, but it’s worth the final result. Regular rotation.

  • jenburkholder on October 31, 2020

    This is good, but regular. Lao gan ma is a household favorite, and this wasn’t the best stir fry I’ve had featuring it. Bump up the quantities of the aromatics and black bean sauce, and don’t bother with the smoked/spiced tofu - use regular, it won’t make much of a difference. I had it with some gai lan and shiitake mushrooms and pickles (and rice, ofc). Satisfying meal but would tweak.

  • lholtzman on October 30, 2025

    We enjoyed this mildly spicy stir-fry. I doubled the recipe to serve a family of 4.

  • Joyceeong on May 24, 2017

    We love this dish! If you can get Laoganma black bean sauce, try this dish. This sauce is what makes the dish! This tofu dish will be a regular rotation in my dinner menu! The recipe uses dried chillies, which are snipped to half to remove the seeds as much as possible. I think the next time I will use coarse pepper flakes, for added spiciness. Go easy on the whole Sichuan pepper, which can be very pungent to the taste. I use only 1/4 tsp and it was just right for us. Delicious dish!

• Twice-cooked pork with black bean and chilli

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    This was really delicious. I liked this more than the actual twice cooked pork recipe in the book. It also wasn't too difficult once you got past the slicing of the pork. Will definitely make again.

  • Stephenn31 on April 27, 2025

    Really comes together quickly and easily adaptable. I made it with onion and bell pepper. Delicious. Will make this again

• Salt-fried pork with garlic stems (Yan jian rou)

  • Joyceeong on July 23, 2017

    We love garlic stems and we love this dish. A simple dish with just minimal ingredients, yet so delicious. We love the flavour of the chilli bean paste and the fermented black beans. The garlic stems are sweet, with some crunchiness bite to them. Pork belly makes everything tastier! We had this dish for dinner with rice, as part of a meal along with other dishes. There's no leftovers.

  • PinchOfSalt on June 27, 2022

    So quick to prep and absolutely delicious! A wonderful way to use up the bounty of garlic scapes that my veggie CSA provides every spring.

  • wcassity on June 26, 2022

    Delicious! Best use for spring garlic scapes. Also threw in snow peas and beet green stems.

• Braised pork with potatoes (Tu dou shao rou)

  • Joyceeong on August 08, 2017

    Like the author says, this is a heart-warming stew. With very few and simple ingredients, yet makes such a tasty dish. Sichuan chilli bean paste gives a wonderful flavour to the stew. I've used potatoes as per the recipe, but the author has suggested of using carrots or other root veggies of our choice. I will use daikons the next time I make this dish, as I love daikons in stews.

  • metacritic on January 17, 2021

    I like this a lot. It holds some heat but also is heart-warming, with ginger and chili bean paste giving depth to the potatoes and pork. The idea of using daikons as suggested below is rather inspired.

  • mlonigan on June 13, 2025

    Very tasty for how little effort and how few ingredients it takes. It tastes fairly similar to Menudo.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    This is the epitome of authentic Chinese home cooking. It's easy, but comforting and delicious. My husband loved it.

• Steamed chicken with Chinese sausage and shiitake mushrooms (He ye zheng ji)

  • chawkins on December 14, 2020

    We enjoyed this very much, the chicken pieces were so tender. I cut them in cubes rather than strips. The lotus leaf was very easy to manipulate once rehydrated. Very simple and yet quite impressive in the presentation.

  • HarlanH on June 24, 2017

    I used parchment paper instead of lotus leaves to make three little flat "en papillote" burritos, which worked very well. Fresh shiitakes are an OK substitute for dried ones.

• Everyday stir-fried chicken (Xiao jian ji)

  • Astrid5555 on January 08, 2017

    We did not care much for this recipe, it was quite bland. I usually love chicken thigh meat but I did not like it in this stir-fry. The vegetables were ok, but I will not make it again.

  • Delys77 on November 28, 2013

    I tripled this recipe to serve 4. I used the celery but skipped the cucumber and used haricots verts instead. On the whole the dish was easy and tasty enough, but it didn't wow me. You need to be heavy handed with the spice and the soy.

  • Ro_ on May 05, 2023

    This was what it says it is - an "everyday" sort of recipe that is nice but not especially the best of its type.

• Braised chicken with dried shiitake mushrooms (Xiang gu shao ji)

  • Delys77 on March 05, 2013

    Pg. 121 This is very good, super homey dish that is perfect for a cold winter evening. Takes about 1 hour so is quick enough for any evening and yields a very nice umami laced meal with rice and a sauteed greens. I would cut the mushroom back a touch next time and cut the chicken bigger so that it doesn't dry out.

  • Astrid5555 on February 09, 2014

    Absolutely delicious and weeknight friendly. Cut the chicken bigger as per the other reviewer's suggestion. Will make again!

  • ashallen on September 12, 2022

    This had a very nice, flavorful sauce that's a bit on the sweet side and tender chunks of chicken and mushrooms. I cut larger ginger slices since my guess from reading the recipe was that they were meant to infuse the sauce with flavor versus being eaten directly. I really liked their flavor in this dish, though, so next time I'll cut them more finely so they can be easily eaten with everything else. Leftovers kept well to the next day.

  • snoozermoose on December 13, 2021

    My mom made this dish all the time for me growing up. Her version is very similar to this except she used chicken wings and did not use sesame oil. I've made Fuschia's version with and without the sesame oil and prefer it without. Either way, it is wonderful and always reminds me of my childhood.

• General Tso's chicken (Zuo zong tang)

  • aberne on December 08, 2020

    This is so good. I added a touch of honey to smooth out the sour notes a bit and it was great. Came together quickly too. Simple side of paprika and snow peas with ginger and a big bowl of rice.

  • Delys77 on January 04, 2022

    I thought this was quite good but a bit too much tomato flavour for our taste.

  • ebalk02 on May 10, 2021

    Tasty, but will probably not make this again. In spite of the deep frying, my chicken wasn't very crunchy and like aberne, added a bit of honey.

  • Ro_ on April 10, 2023

    This was delicious. Like another commenter, I thought it could do with a little sweet note so I added a touch of sugar and I think it was all the better for it. This recipe is very similar to the one in Revolutionary Chinese cookbook, with only very small differences. From memory I preferred the way this one came out but it be from the off-recipe sugar that made the difference.

  • metacritic on January 10, 2021

    This is marvelous. I don't deep fry often but am glad I made an exception. The dish came together pretty quickly, as her recipes do, needing no tweaks. I served with dan dan noodles and some roast duck I picked up from the Chinese grocery store. It has echoes of what you get in a decent restaurant but the sesame oil adds depth, it is lighter than what I've had in restaurants, and not cloyingly sweet. Highly recommend.

• Braised chicken with chestnuts (Ban li shao ji)

  • Joyceeong on May 24, 2017

    We really like this dish. I browned the chicken in a wok, then transfer everything to a claypot to braise. Used vacuum-packed ready to eat chestnuts. Can be cooked advance, simply reheat just before serving. Great with fluffy white rice and a green veggie stir-fry

• Steamed eggs (Zheng shui dan)

  • sberes on February 26, 2019

    Excellent this will be a go to for work nights ! Works great in an instant pot !

  • Jardimc on October 27, 2020

    To die for, flavorful comfort food, and yet so charmingly simple to prepare.

  • Agaillard on February 22, 2020

    This is very odd but actually nice :) Kind of a flan texture, maybe softer, but hot and savoury. The spring onions and soy sauce in the end add a nice touch. A surprising new way to eat eggs (for me!). I replaced the Shaoxing wine by Mirin, because I had a bottle of Mirin to use up, but I think the end result would have been pretty similar. I am curious now to find a Chinese restaurant that serve those to see how the "real" version is :)

• Dry-braised fish with black bean and chilli (Dou la gan shao yu)

  • BlytheSpirit on March 01, 2014

    I have made this twice now and both times it has been a bit salty for my taste. I think the culprit is the Sichuan chili bean paste. I used a much less salty brand the second go-round but the salt was still a bit much. The flavors of this dish are otherwise SO tasty. I will definitely try this one more time and substitute fresh chili for the chili paste or else cut the portion of chili paste by at least half.

  • Ro_ on May 22, 2023

    I really enjoyed the flavours of this dish, and the whole trout looked very prety with teh sauce and spring onions on the top. I never cook whole fish, and wasn't sure how long to give it - I probably fried it for about 2 mins on each side (at which point some of the skin came off) and then poached it for about 8 minutes, maybe. I think it would also work with a fillet of fish, maybe you'd need to skip the frying if no skin. My partner isn't a fan of dealing with the bones in fish, although we both liked the overall dish, so I'd probably make it with trout fillets next time.

• Sichuanese 'dry-fried' green beans [Vegetarian version] (Gan ban si ji dou [Su])

  • jenmacgregor18 on October 03, 2020

    This one ended up being waaay too spicy for me. And I like some spice. It was hard to tell if we even would enjoy the flavor with all the heat. What I could taste, didn't really didn't do too much for me. If I make again, I'll cut it at least in half, maybe 1/3.

  • Apollonia on July 19, 2021

    Big fans of this dish in our house. We usually make it with the ya cai option and serve with other Sichuan vegetables.

  • Delys77 on December 07, 2023

    We tried this without the optional ya cai and it was a bit bland. Won’t repeat

  • jenburkholder on February 01, 2022

    This was good, but really mild in flavor. Without the ya cai I can’t imagine it would have tasted like much at all. With, it was a pleasant side dish, if not one I’m rushing to make again.

  • patioweather on August 15, 2021

    I steamed the green beans first in the microwave (4 mins) then messed up by accidentally pouring the steam water into the wok with the beans. I cooked it longer until most of the water boiled off. My beans were softer than expected but still delicious.

• Stir-fried peas with chilli and Sichuan pepper (Qiang qing wan dou)

  • Bloominanglophile on January 10, 2015

    This was rather disappointing. Didn't use the full amount of chilis, used frozen peas, and my Sichuan peppercorns could be fresher--which probably contributed to some of the disappointment. Regardless, I don't think I would be satisfied with this under the best of circumstances/ingredients. The first recipe from this book that I haven't loved!

  • Ro_ on December 09, 2020

    Simple and delicious. I did vary from the recipe slightly, as I used ground sichuan pepper and I snipped my dried chillies up rather than leaving them whole (having read the recipe too quickly) but to be honest I'd do both these things again! I made a half quantity, which was good for two-three people as a little side dish accompanying a main and rice.

• Runner beans with black bean and chilli (Jia chang dao dou)

  • PinchOfSalt on January 27, 2013

    Quick, easy, and delicious. Made this with green beans (ends snipped, left whole), substituted a couple of re-hydrated dried chilies for the fresh chili called for in the recipe, and used a teaspoon each of chopped garlic and ginger (and no whole garlic clove). An instant favorite! (Note that in the US edition the English title of this recipe is Green or Romano beans with black bean and chilli.)

  • Delys77 on February 17, 2014

    Pg. 154 I love black beans so this was a big hit for me. I used some chilli flakes instead of the crushed dried chilli (same result so why not just use the flakes). With the green beans this came together very quickly and very easily and had a lovely heat, and smooth umami flavour from the black beans. I would double the recipe next time.

  • Joyceeong on July 13, 2017

    Delicious stir-fry dish. I've used more garlic and ginger, minced them instead of sliced. Microwave the sliced beans for two minutes instead of boiling them. This dish goes into my list of "everyday rotation dishes".

  • sosayi on January 25, 2018

    Quick, easy and delicious. I cut back on dried chile to make it toddler friendly and it was devoured. I also just used trimmed green beans. I'd definitely repeat.

  • bernalgirl on September 13, 2021

    A delicious and easy summer side dish

  • eeeve on September 01, 2025

    I had a glut of French beans, so I made this recipe despite not having any fermented black beans. Googling substitutions came up with miso paste and a bit of soy sauce. This was actually rather good as a light meal served with jasmine rice.

• Mangetout with Chinese wind-dried sausage (Xiang chang chao he lan dou)

  • Delys77 on March 11, 2013

    Pg. 156 Very different than many of the other recipes in this book as it doesn't call for blackbean or chilli of any sort. Nice as a side or a lunch with rice since the sausage gives it some substance. The lap cheong are slightly sweet and pair very well with the shaoxing and sugar dressing. Also the ginger adds a nice little bite.

• Hangzhou broad beans with ham (Huo tui can dou)

  • bernalgirl on May 22, 2025

    This is a very mild dish, one where the ham does most of the work to flavor the favas and it’s a wonderful spring dish, especially with leftover ham. I added soft tofu as I had it to use and served it with the garlicky smashed cucumber salad from the same book.

• Broad beans with preserved mustard greens (Ya cai chao can dou)

  • krista_jo on August 20, 2018

    I used frozen broad beans, which have less flavour than fresh but are all I can get this time of year. The frozen beans are precooked so I skipped the blanching step. The combination of the salty, umami-flavoured ya cai with a smidge 'too much' oil surprisingly created a bacon-y taste. This was delicious!

• Stir-fried choy sum with ginger and garlic (Chao cai xin)

  • Rutabaga on January 21, 2020

    Simple and straightforward, I made this with baby bok choy in place of the chow sum. It's super fast to put together. The ginger and garlic were mellow, so perhaps I should have added more ginger or added a little ginger juice, but as is it was a good accompaniment to more strongly flavored dishes.

  • rionafaith on September 03, 2018

    p. 177 -- The most basic way to cook simple Chinese stir-fried greens, but delicious and a bright, crisp accompaniment to any dish. I am not sure the tiny amount of sugar adds anything?

  • excurvatus on November 16, 2019

    This is good! Like rionafaith said it's a very basic way to cook greens but very effective. Totally pleasing.

  • jenburkholder on September 09, 2020

    As everyone else says, basic, but very satisfying and goes with everything. I've done this with bok choy, choy sum, and gai lan, and it always works well.

• Stir-fried chopped choy sum (Bo bo cai xin)

  • Delys77 on November 12, 2013

    Pretty good little recipe. Makes it much easier to get the right texture on the greens. Good balance of ginger and garlic plus chilli

  • Zosia on February 08, 2014

    Nicely flavoured single vegetable stir fry recipe that uses an interesting dry-frying method to ensure proper cooking of the blanched vegetable. Would work with bok choy etc.

  • Joyceeong on March 11, 2017

    I'm intrigued with the method of stir-frying this veggie. The choy sum is first blanched, chopped, then stir-fry briefly in a dry wok to release its moisture. And it is then ready to be stir-fried with ginger and garlic. Simple and tasty, great as part of a meal with rice and some other main dish.

  • sometimes on November 09, 2020

    Quite tasty. I used caiziyou for the cooking oil and add the optional (home made) chili oil. Both come through clearly here and added a lot to the dish; I 'd be concerned about it being a bit bland with a neutral cooking oil and sans the chili oil.

  • Stephenn31 on March 23, 2026

    Decent flavour. I would add more chili next time. But a different way to do Chinese greens.

  • excurvatus on March 18, 2020

    I would make this again. the method is not intuitive to me, but made for a nice mild, relish for rice to off set the flavours of other more strongly flavoured dishes.

• Chinese cabbage with vinegar (Cu liu bai cai)

  • Bloominanglophile on October 09, 2014

    This is a very simple cabbage preparation, but I enjoyed it's mild flavor. I didn't blanch the cabbage, but put the thicker-stemmed pieces in the wok to cook a little longer than the rest.

  • Delys77 on March 01, 2013

    Pg. 189 Very simple dish with a relatively simply flavour. Not bad per se, just not special. I think the thickening is unnecessary since there is very little sauce to speak of already.

  • snoozermoose on December 14, 2021

    This is a classic Chinese stir-fry. I didn't blanch the cabbage or thicken it at the end, and it was still quite good, though indeed pretty sour.

  • Anea25 on February 27, 2024

    a lot better than what I expected, nice and easy. Good side to add some veggies to a meal

• Stir-fried romaine lettuce (Qing chao sheng cai)

  • Joyceeong on May 24, 2017

    Really a simple stir-fry, I thought this dish does not really need a recipe! Added two cloves chopped garlic, saute till fragrant, then stir in the veggies. A good accompaniment to a Chinese meal. Had this with rice and another dish from this book, Braised Chicken with Chestnuts.

• Twice-cooked Swiss chard (Hui guo niu pi cai)

  • Delys77 on February 11, 2014

    Pg. 186 Overall I thought this dish had too much ginger and a was a bit too saucy. It wasn't bad per se, just needed to have a thicker sauce and perhaps less ginger. Wouldn't necessarily repeat.

  • bernalgirl on December 20, 2021

    I don’t love the nearly raw celery and I’d reduce the ginger but I’m definitely making this again, a great way to prepare chard.

  • Apollonia on October 01, 2022

    Absolutely loved this dish. Like others, I could not believe chard could taste so good! I was nervous about the celery, as I wasn't sure we'd like it, but I chopped it fine, and the subtle crunch ended up really nice. So happy to have made this and look forward to making it again!

  • Stephenn31 on December 12, 2022

    Made with a mix of chard and kale, as that’s what was left from the farmers market box. Worked out well

  • DayOwl on January 17, 2021

    Didn't have sauce issues mentioned in other notes. Seasoning will depend on salt content and quality of chili bean paste and black beans, so adjust accordingly. I added the ginger before garlic and cooked it 30 seconds longer to cook out some of the raw ginger flavor.

  • jenburkholder on September 09, 2020

    This was very good. The chard was tender and juicy, and the dish had excellent depth of flavor. Plus, it wasn't too hard to put together.

  • excurvatus on April 05, 2020

    This is so good! I felt like it was criminal that chard could taste this good. I agree with @Delys77 that perhaps the sauce could cling to the chard a bit more. I haven't always had the best luck making twice-cooked pork but this has me motivated to try again!

  • patioweather on March 28, 2024

    This was fantastic. We are on the fence about chard, but we gobbled this down.

  • metacritic on May 16, 2021

    This is fantastic. Much easier than twice cooked pork (reasonably easy in itself) and every bit as good. The best dish of five I made from this book tonight. It's one of my favorite from the book altogether and lifts chard in unexpected ways. I just loved it.

• Stir-fried celery with lily bulb and macadamia nuts (Xian bai he chao su)

  • HarlanH on June 24, 2017

    Chinese celery (vs usual supermarket celery) is outstanding in this dish, and it's great even without the lily bulbs. Note that instead of blanching the celery, microwaving it for a few minutes in a covered dish works well too and is easier and faster.

• Stir-fried yellow chives with venison slivers (Jiu huang lu rou si)

  • Delys77 on March 08, 2013

    Pg. 202 This comes together with about 10 minutes of prep and about 5 minutes of cooking. Very quick, simple and relatively flavourful. Not necessarily her most complex dish but nice for lunch or a meal for two with some steamed rice and maybe a sauteed vegetable. I used beef instead of venison and it was good. Not company worthy but good for a simple dinner at home.

• Fish-fragrant aubergines (Yu xiang qie zi)

  • Lu1950s on April 20, 2018

    This did NOT work for us. I roasted the eggplant according to her alternative directions. The eggplant skin was tough and kept separating from the flesh. The flesh was mushy (maybe we just don't like eggplant...I'm not sure). I won't make this again.

  • PinchOfSalt on January 30, 2013

    Made this vegetarian by using water instead of chicken broth. Yum! There's a minimum of preparation needed for this recipe, especially if you have jars of chopped ginger and garlic in the fridge. A great choice for a weeknight meal.

  • Bloominanglophile on November 13, 2016

    This is so delicious that I would be happy with this and a scoop of rice for a meal. My eggplant avoiding husband and daughter both enjoyed it, also!

  • marry_bellows on July 27, 2014

    Simple and delicious... even though a bit greasy.

  • KarinaFrancis on September 13, 2020

    Absolutely delicious! I added pork mince as suggested in the head notes but enjoy it just as much without pork, the eggplant and sauce are the stars. This is almost identical to the recipe in Sichuan cookery.

  • corylavell on May 10, 2021

    I make this whenever there are enough aubergines around. I confess I bake the aubergines rather than deep frying them - it just makes more sense for me at home and I like that I can do that a bit hands off and in advance (a must if you have small child bedtime to manage!). It’s a very beautiful dish, and I totally get why the author regards it as one of her very favourite dishes. Highly recommended.

  • TrishaCP on August 31, 2021

    I love this recipe. I used the alternative roasting method to good result.

  • Agaillard on April 07, 2026

    I made for my parents so they could taste Chinese cooking, so I just put one tablespoon of chilli bean paste and nothing else fiery. That was palatable even to their elderly palates. This version is much more fiery than that of the Sichuan book by the way, but I found the instructions clearer, which in the end we didn't follow and used the air fryer.

  • metacritic on September 30, 2021

    I made 4 FD recipes, all of them terrific. This was the best of them by a good deal. The combination of frying eggplant to both soften it and give it remarkable depth of flavor + braising it in broth and chili black bean sauce spiked with garlic, ginger, and vinegar is irresistible. One of her truly great recipes. (Apologies for the double posting but I used this book, not Sichuan Cookery)

  • Ro_ on September 29, 2019

    This is quite simply one of my all-time favourite recipes. In the top 10 things I'd want to eat as a last meal, and I'm not even vegetarian. Silky, melt-in-your-mouth aubergine with a perfectly balanced sweet-spicy-salty-sour sauce. It's quite rich and oily, so a small portion + plain white rice is a perfect meal.

  • alinutzamica on July 08, 2025

    Looking at the ingredients, I didn't thinks this dish will be that great, but I was wrong. It's very good! The eggplants are silky and the sauce is delicious. I used Japanese aubergines and I shallow fried them in a few batches, which smoked my kitchen badly. This is the only reason why I wouldn't make the recipe again.The shallow frying works well but the smoke is bad. I didn't add that much salt to the aubergines initially and I'm glad I didn't as the sauce is salty enough. The chilli bean paste is the key ingredient in this recipe.

  • annettle on February 17, 2021

    Best eggplant I've ever had, the sweet and spicy sauce is delectable. I did shallow fry the batons (in 2 Tbsp of oil for a 2/3 scaled recipe with 400g of eggplant, and no additional oil added to the pan afterwards) and mine did not turn out greasy - or dry! - so perhaps try that if the stated method is too oily for you. I didn't add pork mince either, and used a vegetable stock so it was actually vegan in the end.

• Hangzhou aubergines (Rou mo qie zi)

  • chawkins on September 06, 2024

    Quite tasty but mine was not as photogenic as the others shown here, mine was very dark, may be I put in too much of the sweet fermented sauce, so no photo.

  • bernalgirl on September 12, 2025

    This is very good, but it’s hard to beat Fish Flavored Eggplant from the same book, or if I want ground pork and eggplant, I am more likely to turn to the recipe in Ottolenghi Simple.

  • Joyceeong on June 10, 2017

    Delicious dish. I use the minimal of oil to fry the aubergines. Just a layer of oil in the wok, just enough to fry on one side of the aubergines, then turn them over to fry the other side. I added a little more of the sweet fermented sauce, and soy sauce. Taste as you cook, to your liking. Will definitely be cooking this again!

  • LizzieLozza on May 03, 2018

    Easy to turn this into a ten minute supper if you buy Waitrose's frozen chargrilled aubergine slices

  • Ro_ on May 07, 2023

    Really nice, and even my partner who doesn't particularly like aubergines found it acceptable because of the minced pork (which I bumped up a bit). I'm not sure how different this is from a lot of the other aubergine recipes in Dunlop's other books: need to do some cross referencing.

• Stir-fried green pepper with pork slivers (Qing jiao rou si)

  • Delys77 on March 27, 2013

    Pg. 215 The dish is ok but you have to really love green peppers as it is the dominant flavour. Perhaps with a bit of chilli as well as red pepper mixed in.

  • mlonigan on May 01, 2026

    I really liked this, but I made it with poblano and red bell pepper so I had more sweetness and spice than if I had only used green bell pepper.

  • excurvatus on March 18, 2020

    This was ok - I think my note for myself for next time would be to ensure we cut the pork across the grain!

• Stir-fried green pepper with tofu

  • dtremit on August 07, 2018

    One of our fallback dishes. Very good as written, but excellent with some variations. Smoked tofu is wonderful, and poblano peppers (while not authentic) are our favorite. Also an excellent dish to showcase whole or halved shishito peppers.

• Sweet and sour courgettes (Tang cu yi da li gua)

  • Bloominanglophile on October 07, 2014

    This recipe tastes a lot like Madhur Jaffrey's "Zucchini Stir-Fried w/Garlic" from her World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking, which I have been making for years. Mrs. Jaffrey slices her zucchini into batons and uses dry sherry instead of vinegar. Both versions result in a simple but satisfying side dish for a quick Chinese meal.

  • shoffmann on August 18, 2017

    This was good and simple, nothing special, but this might have been my fault. After salting the zucchini for 30 minutes, I tried squeezing out liquid, but I wasn't able to drain much. The final dish ended up being quite watery. In hindsight, I think I would drain some of the liquid from the pan before seasoning with the vinegar and sugar.

  • lholtzman on June 30, 2025

    I’ve made this twice and while I like the dish a lot, the sweet and sour taste doesn’t come across.

• Stir-fried potato slivers with chilli and Sichuan pepper (Qiang tu dou si)

  • dtremit on August 07, 2018

    This style of "al dente" potato is a bit surprising at first, but it really has grown on us. Take care not to burn the chilies and oil at the beginning. A good counterpoint to saucy dishes.

• Vegetarian 'gong bao chicken' (Gong bao di jing [Su])

  • shoffmann on April 02, 2017

    We really enjoyed this. I don't like peanuts so I subbed cashews, and I used dried chiles I had on hand instead of the Sichuan chiles, but otherwise followed the recipe as written. It was sticky, sweet and a bit spicy.

  • jenburkholder on February 21, 2021

    I really liked this. The mushrooms came out of the fryer a bit weird - very sticky and in one clump - but once they were stir-fried it wasn't an issue. Excellent flavor. Makes a relatively small amount, needs lots of accompaniments.

  • excurvatus on March 18, 2020

    Not a winner for me but I'd like to try again. I don't think the deep-frying process went the way it should have, given my results.

• Sour and hot mushroom soup (Suan la shan zhen tang)

  • Baxter850 on February 08, 2018

    Salty perfect goodness.

  • Delys77 on January 22, 2015

    For me this was not a successful dish. I'm not sure what I was thinking because I don't particularly like mushrooms that aren't well browned. This recipe calls for you to sauté a large number of mushrooms until partially cooked and then put them in the soup. The result is a large bowl of spongy mushrooms, that even if they were browned would have turned to mush in the soup.

  • Frogcake on January 20, 2020

    We loved this soup, which came together quickly. A perfect balance of flavours. Even better the next day.

  • metacritic on May 16, 2021

    This is terrific and dead easy. I sautéed the mushrooms until browned, used grilled tofu instead of "plain" as that is what I had on hand, and the whole family enjoyed the soup. Will repeat.

• Broad bean and snow vegetable soup (Dou ban xue cai tang)

  • Delys77 on March 23, 2022

    The photo of this dish has always intrigued me as it looks so wholesome, but snow vegetable and broadens aren't always easy to find. Recently I was at a new Asian market and they had both so off I went. I made as prepared except that I used about half the oil. Very nice little soup. You need a good homemade stock as we are really only talking a broad beans, stock, and snow vegetable here, so the stock must be good. Very easy to put together and the result is a lovely briny soup with a bit of tang and umami from the pickled vegetables and a the nice skinned broad beans to round it out. A winner for us.

• Soup with vegetables and meatballs (Yuan zi tang)

  • Delys77 on June 22, 2025

    First time using winter melon and we quite liked it. It is mild in flavour but with a lovely broth and nice little meatballs it’s a winner. I would say season the meatballs well and consider adding a touch more mushroom. I also think more green onion is a good idea.

  • mikeminyi on December 17, 2023

    I used sliced carrots and cabbage as easy ingredients to substitute the winter melon. My family loved it.

  • Zosia on January 31, 2014

    Easy and delicious. The meatballs were simple but flavourful even made with extra lean pork. I may one day be ambitious enough to try to shape them in the traditional manner but a small cookie scoop dipped in cold water worked perfectly. I made this with bok choy and enoki mushrooms.

  • jenburkholder on August 20, 2020

    This was enjoyable but not our favorite. It was our first time using winter melon and we weren’t all sold on the texture - soft and mealy, almost potato-esque. The soup itself was mild, and the meatballs were tasty, though we’d make them smaller if we repeated.

• Plain white rice (Bai mi fan)

  • joeljkp on February 16, 2026

    Is there an error in the recipe? My copy says "Place in a saucepan with 4½ oz (1.1 liters) of water..." 1.1 liters is about 37 oz of water.

  • Happykikkers on October 21, 2024

    Good technique for cooking rice in a pan. I like the visual cues she gives in the recipe!

• Plain brown rice (Cao mi fan)

  • Zosia on June 26, 2014

    This method of first boiling, then steaming pre-soaked rice produced a (huge) pot of perfectly cooked rice (which in my home would easily feed 10 people!). I used vegetable stock instead of water for extra flavour.

  • excurvatus on March 18, 2020

    This is *the* method for chopstickable rice.

• Green fried rice

  • Tiganna on August 20, 2017

    Very simple, almost not a recipe, but effective and tasty. My eggs went from zero to almost done very quickly - so keep the rice close so it can be added almost immediately. I added some more vegetables to turn into a full meal (spinach and green beans) which worked well.

  • lholtzman on August 31, 2024

    This came together in a flash. I used 6 oz. of frozen chopped spinach. I ate the entire thing. I think you could reduce the amount of cooking oil to 1 tbsp.

• Yangzhou fried rice (Yang zhou chao fan)

  • Delys77 on April 24, 2019

    We loved fried rice but for some reason I have never made this one. My usual method doesn't involve the broth step but I quite liked the results. I did season fairly well, but I would say I was tempted to add just a a dash of soy. That said, the overall flavour profile was very nice. I used Chinese sausage for both the ham and the pork, and increased the chicken a touch. I also skipped the bamboo as I'm not a big fan, but did add one very finely minced carrots for a bit of texture. Overall very tasty!

  • Rachaelsb on October 30, 2022

    I thought this was perfect, delicious comfort food. I added more protein than recipe as well as some Bok choy. I was so happy with texture and flavor. My husband thought a bit bland as many others have mentioned, so he added sone soy and was a happy guy.

  • Zosia on July 26, 2019

    Interesting method and great flavour. I substituted cooked chicken for all of the proteins and used leftover brown rice.

  • Frogcake on April 30, 2019

    Great fried rice! I omitted the meat completely because I served it with Chinese marinated chicken breasts. We thought the flavour was perfect otherwise! Will make this again soon!

  • emma_clare on October 31, 2020

    Really love this recipe. Have made it many times, varying the ingredients according to what I've got. It always goes down well, especially with the kids. I like a really good helping of chilli oil served on top.

  • stephen_kna028 on January 25, 2026

    The process of stir frying the ingredients, then adding stock and then separately cooking egg then rice then adding back the stock works very well.

  • metacritic on January 25, 2022

    Satisfying and simple. I used some leftover char siu pork, extra shrimp, a little pancetta, and omitted the chicken. It was good -- my son declared it the best fried rice ever -- even if to my mind other recipes have more wow factor. I wonder if a little more salt or some soy sauce would have lifted the dish to greater heights, though I'm not sure that's the goal of this recipe.

  • jhallen on January 23, 2021

    Good but a bit bland.

  • Ro_ on March 02, 2020

    I took the author at her word when she said not to worry if you didn't have the exact ingredients! I made this with chicken, ham, cut up french beans and button mushrooms (omitting the prawns, pork and peas). I think it would have benefited from a more diverse mix of flavours, as it was a tiny bit bland though was pepped up a lot from a good dose of soy sauce. The texture, with the stock, was very nice though.

• Soupy rice with pork and beans (Shang hai pao fan)

  • Bloominanglophile on May 02, 2015

    The name of this recipe should be Soupy Rice with Pork and Greens, not Pork and Beans! Anyway, this is a great simple soup to prepare when you're feeling under the weather. And quick--should take no more than about 45 minutes tops! I think we got 4 servings from this recipe (I did add some leftover chicken).

• Rice-cooked vegetables and rice-cooked pork (Fan wu cai)

  • Barb_N on March 25, 2015

    I have made this a couple times- the rice absorbs the pork flavor, and the eggplant becomes very soft. I served it with a highly seasoned stir fry so it didn't need any additional sauce. So tasty and easy- layer everything in the rice cooker and walk away.

• Spicy buckwheat noodles (Suan la qiao mian)

  • Delys77 on January 08, 2014

    Quick and easy recipe that would be equally good cold or hot. Make sure to rinse your noodles before tossing as I didn't rinse mine and they were a touch gummy. You definitely need the chilli oil to balance the sweetness. My oil is quite tame so I went with the full amount, plus I sauteed a little cabbage and added it to the dish.

  • Joyceeong on June 13, 2017

    We love this noodle for its simplicity, yet very tasty. I've made the Chilli Oil, also from this book. Fabulous! There's a request from my family to make this noodle again.

  • Zosia on April 07, 2020

    I substituted whole wheat spaghettini for the buckwheat noodles but the dish was still very tasty.

  • Ro_ on November 19, 2019

    These were nice but I didn't get the balance of flavours quite right: a bit too much chilli oil and not enough saltiness. I wanted to serve them warm so didn't rinse them after cooking, but agree with other commenter who said this makes them a little gummy.

  • katiesue28 on April 23, 2020

    Made this last night with the Marinated Tofu from The Greens Cookbooks. I used the leftover marinade sauce from the recipe and added chile oil. Very simple and easy meal.

  • snoozermoose on December 18, 2021

    This was really tasty and easy. I used 1 tsp of minced garlic, cut the chili oil by half, and added a few more pinches of sugar to get it to the right level of sweet and sour that I like (I have a sweet tooth). With some leftover roast chicken breast on top, this made the perfect dinner for two.

• Mrs Yu's sweet and spicy cold noodles (Yu lao shi lang mian)

  • helskitchenvt on August 08, 2016

    Really delicious. I didn't have the same problem with tahini paste as the other commenter (I think maybe it's different with different brands) and I did dry the noodles as instructed - I have no idea if it made a difference. One thing that matters is finding the correct Chinese noodles, I subbed spaghetti once and regretted it (it was fine, but not nearly as good). I also find that tea-smoked fish works well with these for a fancy lunch http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/11/tea-smoked-fish-recipe.html

  • Bloominanglophile on August 27, 2015

    This was a delicious bowl of noodles, even if it didn't look all that attractive (due to the sesame paste). The paste resisted mixing, just like natural peanut butter and tahini. However, it was really grainy, hence the dish's lack of charm. Didn't affect the flavor, though. Hoisin pork was subbed for the chicken, with good results (getting creative with leftovers). I didn't dry my noodles or coat them with oil, as I was trying to hurry and get this made for lunch. Maybe some day when I can plan ahead of time!

• Zhajiang noodles (Zha jiang mian)

  • Delys77 on March 21, 2013

    Pg. 276 this was very tasty if a little fiddly with all the blanching of the veggies. Comes together very easily otherwise and has a great flavour with a sweetness from the tian mian jiang and a spicy note from the anise and peppercorn oil. Lots of veggies make this a very hearty and healthy meal.

• Xie laoban's dan dan noodles (Niu rou dan dan mian)

  • Barb_N on February 27, 2021

    I liked this version of dan dan noodles. I made it with ground turkey because that’s what I had. I liked the addition of tahini in the sauce, turkey is otherwise bland. I used home pickled mustard greens (from Bryant Terry’s Vegetable Kingdom). Served with blanched spinach.

  • Apollonia on December 25, 2021

    Have made the vegetarian version of this more times than I can count, and it's just heavenly. I increase the sichuan chili and use 3 or 4 dried mushrooms instead of one, and I think that's perfect.

  • Delys77 on January 19, 2015

    This one isn't for us. I felt the sesame and soy were just too much, and the only other component was burning heat.

  • Snopes on November 29, 2015

    Interestingly, this recipe, which is supposed to be the recreation of the dan dan noodles in a favorite restaurant in Chengdu, is far heavier on sesame paste and spice than the exact same recipe in Dunlop's earlier "Land of Plenty" cookbook. I prefer the lighter version in "Land of Plenty."

  • metacritic on March 10, 2022

    Agree with the reviewer below: the version in Food of Sichuan is lighter, more delightful, and far more appealing. I wasn't a fan of this version (EGOR) but love it in Food of Sichuan. That's unusual: I haven't found many recipes in Every Grain of Rice that I would change in any manner.

• Vegetarian dan dan noodles

  • shoffmann on April 20, 2017

    We really enjoyed this vegetarian variation on the dan dan noodles. I got everything else prepped, and started heating the water for the noodles while the shiitake mushroom soaked which made the dish came together quickly. The noodles were quite salty -- not too salty, but definitely near my limit.

  • excurvatus on March 18, 2020

    As satisfying as meat-laden dan dan noodles - I would in the future soak the mushrooms for more than half an hour, and maybe remember to cover them so they steam. They were still a bit tough for me. but otherwise - awesome.

  • alysekstokes on April 23, 2026

    An all time favorite! I soak the mushrooms a bit longer and also tend to use 4 medium shiitakes instead of just one large. I also like to add some of the mushroom soaking liquid to the sauce base to loosen it for easier mixing with noodles and to take the saltiness down a touch.

• Classic dan dan noodles (Dan dan mian)

  • shoffmann on November 18, 2018

    Noodles were a bit oily - would cut back the cooking oil a bit if I make again.

  • Barb_N on April 02, 2014

    I made this with Cantonese egg noodles shaped as single serving nests- they did not stay that way when cooked. Made the sauce as written though I cut way down on the chile- 1/2 tsp per person- could have been spicier; next time I will use less soy sauce and more noodle water to decrease the saltiness.

  • Bloominanglophile on August 29, 2014

    I have prepared this dish at least 4 times to date--I just love it. With leftover greens it is a quick, delicious meal in a bowl. I did cut back the cooking oil to 1 Tbsp, and the chili oil WAY back to 1/2 TBSP as mine is so EXTREMELY spicy!!!

• Chef Chen Dailu's spicy sesame noodles (Hong you su mian)

  • Delys77 on November 12, 2013

    Agree with breadcrumbs that this is a bit dry but was very tasty. Used rice noodles but I think buckwheat would have a much better texture and would compliment the sesame better. Overall however this was a very good dish.

  • adrienneyoung on April 06, 2014

    Promising, but a bit of a one-note wonder: Chili heat, and not much else can get through. Hold back on the chili oil to begin with, and up the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, maybe sesame paste.

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 282 - Yum! Unlike many noodle dishes, I’d describe this as a dry noodle dish in that it’s not saucy. That said, don’t let the lack of sauce fool you because what these lack in wet, they more than make up for in flavour. There aren’t many ingredients in this sauce but each on brings more than its worth to the party and in the end, this recipe produces a super-delicious dish. I sprinkled some toasted sesame seeds atop and mr bc had some chicken w his. I think they’d be great w a runny fried egg too. Dee-lish! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892281#7948048

  • Ro_ on December 06, 2020

    Agree with other comments - this dish is nice enough, but quite one-note, and I didn't love the dryness - I think it was screaming out for more oil/liquid.

  • patioweather on September 08, 2020

    These were fine, but they are my least favorite of the many quick noodle recipes in this book. After reading the comments from other reviewers, I mixed the sauce with 1/3rd cup of the noodle water.

• Buckwheat noodles with red-braised beef (Niu tou qiao mian)

  • Breadcrumbs on March 25, 2013

    p. 286 - I made the Red Braised Beef earlier this month then reserved and froze enough to make this dish. I had the buckwheat noodles required and they cook in 5 mins. While the noodles cooked I warmed some stock. Warmed stock is placed in a bowl along w light soy sauce and some chili oil. Cooked noodles are placed atop. Note that Fuchsia suggests you rinse the noodles. I did not and also didn’t notice any issue w skipping this step. The warmed red braised beef is then plated atop the noodles and the dish is garnished w chopped Chinese celery. We loved this dish. The nutty flavoured noodles were slippery and slurpy. The combination of the broth and the red braised beef sauce was wonderfully fragrant and flavourful, and the Chinese celery was a delightful surprise. We’ve never had this celery before and we loved its fresh, bright flavours. This was a perfectly balanced delicious dish. Photo here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/892281#7964961

  • Agaillard on January 18, 2025

    I tried to make this yesterday as I had some flank steak I wanted to use. I subbed tamari sauce and Chinese celery. It was nice, but not "oh wow amazing". That being said, I was so hungry, it served its purpose very well.

  • ShayLRoss on April 14, 2026

    Made it again today, it's delicious!

• Fuchsia's emergency midnight noodles (Fu xia fang bian mian)

  • Delys77 on February 10, 2022

    Made as directed except we omitted the olive vegetable as we had none. Overall very easy and quite tasty. I think it needs the runny egg personally as it makes it all very luscious, but I also went a bit lighter on the oil, not for heat but mostly for oiliness. I think given the few ingredients here, quality is also quite important as all the ingredients stand out.

  • Bloominanglophile on August 29, 2014

    I just made this for my lunch with the optional fried egg and olive vegetable. All the flavors complemented each other beautifully--so glad I tried this! I also like how you can, if needed, mix each person's sauce to their taste in separate bowls. My daughter can't tolerate much spice, but this recipe makes that easy to deal with.

  • corylavell on May 10, 2021

    This is so very simple, but such a lovely back pocket cupboard-is-bare recipe with some of my favourite flavours. I’ve made it with buckwheat noodles and fresh and dried ramen noodles, and it’s always great. Some greens on the side make it a meal. The olive vegetable really makes it and is totally worth finding if you can - but I bet other green coloured pickles would be delicious if you’re not lucky enough to live close to a well stocked Asian grocery. Think chopped gherkins or pickled mustard greens.

  • Zosia on February 08, 2014

    Served with stir-fried choy sum (page 178) and topped with a fried egg, these flavourful noodles made a quick and delicious supper that was a nice change from my usual Italian-inspired pasta dishes.

  • Rinshin on August 23, 2016

    This simple noodle dish may be appropriate for those who love searing, hot, spicy, mind-blowing food. I reduced the amount of my own homemade chili oil with bits to half called for and it was way, way too spicy for me. Dunlop's taste must run towards very spicy foods and I'll remember next time to even notch down further on her recipes. Besides the searing heat, there really wasn't much going on with the taste because all I tasted was heat. I topped it with a fried egg as suggested and Japanese seaweed condiment (black) and takanazuke which is pickled mustard leaves since I did not have black olive vegetable shown on this photo.

  • bbbtravels on September 21, 2025

    I've made this many times with both noodles and leftover rice, and often crack in an egg or two either right after adding the sauces for more of a Pad Thai-ish egg situation. I rarely have chili oil on hand so instead slowly heat up some oil with crushed chili flakes while the noodles cook. Easy, quick, and tasty.

  • excurvatus on July 28, 2019

    This satisfied a noodle craving! Made with homemade chili oil, without scallions or olive vegetable (didn't have either) it was totally satisfying. I might do 150g noodles per person instead, would use up the extra sauce and be a bit more filling.

• Sichuanese wontons in chilli oil sauce (Hong you chao shou)

  • Delys77 on March 05, 2013

    Pg. 292 The dumplings were a bit hard to put together, but that is because I'm all thumbs. I ended up going with her suggestion of just doing a ravioli style triangle and it was perfect. Filling is very nice, cooking technique is fun, and the sauce is a perfect match. Put it all together and these are delicious.

  • Ro_ on May 07, 2023

    The list of ingredients in my book is different - no star anise, Sichuan peppercorns or fennel seeds. These came out really nicely, the dumplings were comforting and the spicy sauce was a lovely complement.

  • raybun on October 02, 2016

    I doubled the recipe for 2 adults and a hungry 9 yr old, served as a main meal. From start to finish they took me less than 45 to make and shape, quicker than delivery where I live and the flavour is so superior. You can easily adapt the filling with other spices and herbs. I used a little dumpling press thing I got on Amazon for a couple of bucks that made the job even easier. 5* *just noticed the ingredient list on EYB and the ingredients in the online recipe link are not the same!

  • rionafaith on October 16, 2016

    p. 292 -- My grocery store was out of ground pork so I used ground chicken, and I doubled the recipe because I wasn't about to deal with this half an egg nonsense (really?), but otherwise made as written. Definitely take the time to make the sweet aromatic soy, it totally made the sauce. Assembling the wontons is not that hard -- even my BF got the hang of it after a few tries, and he is really not very good at that kind of thing, so if he can do it you can too. Possible error: the actual recipe states to put 1 tsp of filling in each wonton wrapper, but on the next page with the photos illustrating the technique the text says 1 TBSP... I put somewhere in between, a full tbsp was overflowing and hard to wrap but a tsp didn't really seem like enough. Whatever! The boiling method is a bit odd, she has you keep adding cold water to the pot and then bringing back to a boil, which I thought was weird, but it worked fine. We totally devoured these.

  • dmdmdmmm on February 18, 2026

    I had these with some soy sauce and black vinegar instead bc I cant handle spice. All in all still was very tasty!!!!

  • Happykikkers on October 09, 2024

    Loved these. Were super easy to come together. Doubled the recipe but somehow still needed the original amount of wrappers. My only complaint is that my filling was very wet. I made sure the filling going into the wonton was not super wet and it worked out nicely.

• Hangzhou wontons in soup

  • joneshayley on February 04, 2019

    A soothing bowl of soup, that comforts and nourishes on a cold winter's night. I added some extra vegetables (shaved carrots and mangetout) to make it more of a “complete” meal. The whole family enjoyed it.

• Chilli oil

  • Joyceeong on June 13, 2017

    I really love this Chilli Oil. I've used Korean red chilli flakes, the type that is used for making kimchi. They are not overly spicy, with just the right amount of heat, and they give a beautiful red hue to the oil. I like the toasty fragrant aroma from the chilli and the sesame seeds. I'm looking forward to try the various recipes that uses this oil.

  • Bloominanglophile on August 29, 2014

    I made this with Japones that I bought from the Savory Spice Shop. WOW!!! We had to open windows while it was cooking--just a warning. The resulting oil is so hot that I have to cut back the amount used to at least 1/4 of that suggested.

  • ebalk02 on February 23, 2020

    Made this with half gochugaru and half heaven facing chillies (it was a pain in the butt to deseed). I think I'll need to play around with the temperature next time. The powder didn't sizzle that much when I added the oil and the oil is slightly bitter. Could be from overheating spices in it earlier.

  • rionafaith on October 15, 2016

    Made this from what I THINK were dried "facing heaven" chilies (in a packet marked "Fishwell" brand). Though I practically needed a gas mask when toasting and grinding them (I pulsed in a spice grinder/mini food processor), the resulting oil is delicious and I'm excited to use it in so many of the recipes in this book. Mine isn't quite as beautiful of a red color as in the photo, it's more amber-y, but maybe it will deepen with time?

• Stir-fried beansprouts with Chinese chives (Jiu cai yin ya)

  • sometimes on November 10, 2020

    Tasty vegetable dish to serve along rice, protein, and maybe some greens. A few minor deviations from the written recipe for me; I used flower chives instead of regular Chinese chives, a red romano pepper instead of a red bell (also no heat but tastier and less watery!), and knocked in a 1/4 tsp MSG. Definitely recommend the thin pepper slices not just for color but also flavor in this one, but I really like stir fried peppers, so yummv.

• Beansprouts with chilli and Sichuan pepper

  • excurvatus on March 19, 2020

    This is such a fun combination - really not a spice combination I expect with my bean sprouts. Would like to think about how to really dry out the bean sprouts - maybe in a salad spinner.

  • Agaillard on October 20, 2021

    I just tried a mix of this with chives (so a mix of the two recipes on the same page) as an accompaniment to a quiche as I had some beansprouts to use (odd, I know, but really why not)... This recipe is deceptively simple, yet somehow I wouldn't have thought of it but, and it works! Like the previous commenter I would like to dry my beansprouts better to achieve a griddled state... Will try next time

• Purple amaranth with garlic

  • lholtzman on July 14, 2025

    I got amaranth at the farmers market and this was the perfect recipe to use it on. Amaranth tastes a lot like chard, so you could definitely substitute.

• Chinese chives with smoked tofu (Jiu cai chao xiang gan)

  • sosayi on June 05, 2018

    A quick and easy weeknight meal. I used a mix of scallions and Chinese/garlic chives (to use up what I had on hand and not deplete my entire chive plant), doubled the smoked tofu, and added some celery (based on some comments in her recipe headnote). Instead of just adding salt, I added some light soy, as well, for a bit of flavor boost. Nice, simple, savory flavor that went well with the Radishes in Chili-Oil Sauce.

• Stir-fried garlic stems with bacon (La rou chao suan tai)

  • metacritic on June 30, 2025

    Very easy. Quite good.

• Shanghai home-style aubergines (Jia chiang qie zi)

  • mlonigan on June 19, 2025

    Not a quick dish because of the salting and frying in batches, but it's mild and comforting.

  • ShayLRoss on February 28, 2026

    It's a good dish, althought it can be very salty if you're not mindful of your light and dark soy sauce additions. Pairs well with plain rice and/or other vegetables. It does take some time with the salting and frying in batches, so plan a little ahead.

• Rustic steamed squash with spicy black bean sauce (Xiang cun nan gua)

  • cuaileanruadh on January 10, 2023

    This was delicious, really tasty sauce and I enjoyed the texture of the butternut squash when steamed. I cooked it in the pressure cooker so it took less than 10 minutes to cook.

  • metacritic on February 06, 2024

    Remarkable flavor and easy to assemble from beginning to end.

  • sosayi on October 29, 2018

    This dish was really delicious: lots of complex flavor, but quite easy to prepare. I followed the recipe exactly, except for needing to steam the squash for more time than called for in the recipe. I probably added at least 10 minutes. That could be on me (not cutting squash quite thin enough or not using a shallow/wide enough bowl), but something to note.

• Stir-fried potato slivers with spring onions

  • mlonigan on June 19, 2025

    I was worried this would taste too breakfasty, but the unfamiliar (but pleasant!) texture of the potatoes made it feel sufficiently dinnery.

• Spicy buckwheat noodles with chicken (Suan la qiao mian)

  • snoozermoose on February 18, 2022

    Simple but delicious. I do add more sugar than it calls for because I'm pretty sensitive to sour foods and will throw in leftover rotisserie chicken. This is an easy quick recipe to throw together on a weeknight.

• Ho fun rice noodles with beef

  • metacritic on January 27, 2022

    Just ok but not nearly as good as, say, Pad See Ew, made with the same noodles. I found this dish one of the flattest Dunlop noodle recipes I"ve tried.

  • Agaillard on April 28, 2020

    Not bad. I replaced beansprouts by spinach leaves (I know, this was the closest) and spring onions by onions (which is what I had and under lockdown rules this does really warrant a trip to the store). Made with excellent melt-in-the-mouth beef from the butcher across the street but just OK noodles (i.e. found somewhere in the cupboard of my rental apartment, a bit old). All in all the meal was satisfying without being extraordinary in any kind of way. Not sure if I will make again, maybe just so as to follow the original recipe and ingredients and see what happens.

• Shanghai noodles with dried shrimp and spring onion oil (Kai yang cong you mian)

  • LMK on June 08, 2019

    This is really delicious, more than the sum of its (few) parts. And so easy! I see this going into regular rotation.

  • Dannausc on May 06, 2018

    Really easy and good.

• Hangzhou breakfast noodles (Cong you ban mian)

  • lholtzman on December 02, 2024

    Good recipe to have on hand when you’re craving carbs, but don’t have many ingredients or energy to cook. I used udon noodles.

  • excurvatus on January 14, 2020

    Far greater than the sum of its parts. The sizzling oil is the move, I think.

  • hlange on July 22, 2023

    This is delectable and I've made it countless times. The sizzling oil combined with the soy sauce creates a glaze for the noodles. Highly recommend using the Alkaline Wheat Noodles from Mala Market for this. So simple yet so good.

• Northern-style boiled dumplings (Shui jiao)

  • Anea25 on March 17, 2024

    I played with the shape and cooking methods. All were delicious but my favorite was steamed shumai.

  • Ro_ on June 28, 2023

    Rolling out the dumpling dough was tricky at first but I got the knack after a while: then the issue became that I had stacked the wrappers and they were sticking together so muchI basically had to reroll them all one by one anyway! The method overall was solid and not that hard, but I felt the filling needed a good whack of seasoning and/or more soy sauce. Perhaps because I couldn't get 100g of Chinese chives and used a mix of regular chives + garlic + spring onion, this didn't help. But would try again with some tweaks.

• Xi'an pot-sticker dumplings (Xi'an guo tie)

  • Ro_ on June 25, 2023

    I think the dumplings needed more salt/soy sauce. As it was, I added some soy to the dipping sauce, which worked. Also: 50g of chives is a LOT! I used about 20g and added extra spring onions. The method for the potstickers was good, but I was surprised they weren't entirely enclosed and left open at the ends?

• Everyday stock (Xian tang)

  • ebalk02 on February 23, 2020

    Very simple to make - I did this with the only chicken variation. Next time may try it with the pork.

• Sweet aromatic soy sauce

  • rionafaith on October 16, 2016

    p. 322 -- Delicious dipping sauce, absolutely essential for serving with the wontons with chili oil on p. 292, and I'd like to try it with other dumplings as well. Sweet, salty, and herbacious/medicinal all at the same time. Takes about half an hour to make, but almost all of that is just letting the sauce simmer on the stove... it's really dead simple.

• Boston Globe by T. Susan Chang

  ...a workhorse of a book for everyday Chinese cooking...And with a few exceptions (dan dan noodles, for example)...there’s very little overlap with her previous publications.

  Full review

• Epicurious

  Q&A with author, Fuchsia Dunlop.

  Full review