sichuan
i first tried sichuan food about five years ago, but this is the first time that I have obtained the sichuan peppercorns.

here is a simple soup, from Periplus Mini Cookbooks: Spicy Sichuan Cooking:

bring to boil

1 litre chicken or vegetable stock or water

add

10 sichuan peppercorns
4 slices ginger
2 spring onions, cut into large sections
1 turnip or large potato, cut into bite size cubes
a mixture of (2t salt, 1t sugar, .5t ground black pepper 2t rice wine, 2t sesame oil)

boil gently 12 minutes

add 300g bacon, sliced into small pieces

boil 3 minutes.

i made this one with a vegetable stock. the peppercorns give it a heat that warms your body and makes your tongue slightly numb. light but quite satisfying. good use of bacon.

what else to do with these peppercorns?
- posted by Jesse @ 7:08 PM 0 comments

 
Squid Salad that its Totally OK to Consider Making Love To

I'm not going to use quantities for this recipe, because I assume the discerning nomadfood reader has their own well-tuned sense for relative proportions in their ideal salad.

The first stage is ideally done the day before eating, but can be squeezed into an overnight / 3 hour deal if necessary.

Steam squid rings or pieces for a couple of minutes - err on the side of undercooking, because you're basically going to pickle these little sweethearts in the coming 24 hours anyhow, and nothing is worse than overcooked squid. 2-3 minutes should be plenty to have them turn bright white but stay soft and tender.

Squeeze a whole bunch of lemons and limes, enough to make maybe 1/2 a cup of juice, or enough to cover the squid, into a marinating dish. Add some seeded, chopped birdseye chillies (2 for a mild bite, 3-5 for the chilli lover), a hearty splash of Thai fish sauce (nam pla), a splash of rice vinegar, and a few torn mint leaves.

Add the cooked squid and one or two cucumbers, sliced into thin, wide strips. At this point (when putting it all in to marinade) you can also add some wakame, a kind of Japanese flaked seaweed. I also added nori, another seaweed, that typically comes in square sheets sold as "sushi wrappers." For the nori sheets, hold them over a gas flame for a couple of seconds to let them crinkle up and char, then just crumble them into the salad.

Leave that all in the fridge for a day to let it build its inner powers.

To finish it off, add snow peas / sugar snap peas / whatever you crazy people call them, some halved cherry tomatoes, a red pepper sliced into thin strips, and whatever fragrant leaves you consider kinky and appropriate. If you like fish sauce, give it another splash. Toss it all up, making sure to take advantage of the abundant dressing / marinade liquid, which needs to infiltrate all possible nooks of the salad.

The nice thing about this salad, other than it being mad delicious and totally gorgeous to look at, is that it will keep getting better in the fridge for a few days. Power to the people.
- posted by Tom Gara @ 3:01 PM 2 comments

 
being busy and being virtuous


if you cannot go out to get fresh produce every day, then you will consider pickling. put a bit of pickled vegetables on the side of each meal then you are eating vegetables like they are junk food. pictured: bean sprouts, pig's ears, radish and carrots, cucumbers. pig's ears are anju, the rest side banchan.
- posted by Jesse @ 6:56 PM 0 comments