Product Recommendations

Doubanjiang is made from first fermenting broad beans and then combining the fermented broad beans with for the most part chili, salt and rice wine for further fermentation. The resulting product is a lumpy, moist, grease-free paste maroon in color, spicy, salty and slightly sweet and sour in taste, and mildly alcoholic in smell. 

It is one of the three ingredients I call the soul of Sichuan food. It brings the vibrant color, perfectly balanced heat and a layer of umami that nothing compares.

I’ve used it in the Yuxiang Eggplant (Eggplant in Garlic Sauce) recipe and the Sichuan Glazed Chicken recipe if you wanna give it a try.

Sichuan peppercorns are the dried shells of the fruits from a family of flowering bushes local to the Northwest and Southwest regions in China. Dried mature Sichuan peppercorns have a reddish-brown color, sweet aroma, and will prompt a tingly, numbing sensation in the mouth when consumed. Green Sichuan peppercorns are dried shells from less mature fruits. They have a sweeter aroma and a less numbing punch.

Sichuan peppercorns, combined with local Sichuan chilies like erjingtiao chilies and facing heaven chilies, produce the typical Sichuan “mala” flavor profile. It is definitely what completes my Sichuan Cold Noodles recipe too.

Facing heaven chilies, or 朝天椒, refers to a family of chili peppers that has upward pointing fruits. Thai birds’ eye, Sichuan 子弹头 (zi dan tou | bullet tip) and this recommended product, Yunnan 小米辣 (xiao mi la | little rice chili), are all under this family. This family of chilies packs easily 50,000 Scoville heat units and makes great dried chilies. Most homes in the Sichuan/Chongqing area combine ground dried facing heaven chilies and ground dried er jing tiao chilies (I have yet to find a good one on Amazon) for an ideal heat/aroma ratio in homemade chili oil.

PS: My personal preference for aroma to heat ratio is 0:100.

Fermented mustard greens, or 梅菜 (mei cai) actually had a Hakka origin. The Sichuan folks loved it and developed their own “improved” version by fermenting the juicy stems of the plant at a younger stage of growth, resulting in juicy bits of savoriness, with just a hint of delightful fruity sweet.
We call it 芽菜 (ya cai).

Yacai works wonderfully in fried rice and noodles. My personal favorite application of ya cai is the Sichuan version of kau yuk (upside down steamed pork), which we call 烧白 (shao bai). Here’s my recipe if you wanna give it a try!

豆豉 (dou chi) is a traditional snack in China with some early documentation dating back to 500s AD (some would argue that even earlier records were discovered but we can find another time to brag about China’s long recorded history as a civilization). Douchi is made from fermenting processed black beans for a relatively short period of time before dried and served. The most popular douchi product in China is 老干妈 (lao gan ma) black bean chili oil, for its perfectly balanced recipe that both highlights douchi’s natural salty, umami flavor and smoothes out the punch so that it’s less of an acquired taste.

I use Sichuan peppercorn oil mostly for texture and better blended aroma in dishes, especially noodles and dipping sauces. It captures the sweet aroma and light tingli-ness of Sichuan peppercorn and spreads it out through the dish.

Depending on your preference, you can also choose to go with a milder option, Green Sichuan peppercorn oil.

And here is a recipe that I used Sichuan peppercorn oil in if you wanna give it a whirl: Sichuan Cold Noodles with Shredded Chicken.

Soy sauce actually began as a byproduct of soy bean paste before being discovered and mass-produced as a popular condiment across China. Light soy sauce is the direct byproduct from the process and the “original” soy sauce. I’m sure you are familiar with the thin, reddish-brown liquid and the savory flavor it brings out in ingredients.

Most of my savory recipes use a touch of soy sauce but I have to say my favorite application might be Shanghai Scallion Oil Noodles — I’ll include a link once it’s posted.

Dark soy sauce comes from condensing light soy sauce with added caramel. It’s thicker in texture and darker in color. The most common use for dark soy sauce is to colorize dishes — it’s the sole reason for the inviting shiny reddish-brown in 红烧肉 (hong shao rou | red braised pork). I’ll include a link once I post my recipe.

When it comes to Chinese cooking wine, I’d say replace with vodka unless the recipe calls specifically for Shaoxing wine. The complex yet perfectly blended sweet, sour and bitter combo with a hint of spice is an irreplaceable addition to braised meats especially pork and chicken.

I use it specifically for Shanghai red braised pork — it noticeably elevates the dish, that is already indescribably good even without it.

I’ll include a link once I post the recipe.

Chinese black vinegar refers to a group of vinegars produced from grains going through multiple fermentation processes before a long period of aging process to achieve ideal appearance, mouth feel and taste. And Chinkiang (city in Jiangsu, China) vinegar is one of the most popular and well-adopted black vinegars. The locals use glutenous rice, a specialty of Chinkiang/Zhenjiang, and a layered fermentation process that creates the rounded umami and sour taste and refreshing, light texture. Like whiskey, the more aged Chinkiang vinegar is, the better taste it gets — if you truly have a taste for Chinkiang vinegar, try this bottle that’s been aged for 6 years.

It’s great both for cooking and as a dipping sauce. Try it in my Sichuan Cold Noodles — it’s more a summer dish but I love it any day of the year.

Shanxi vinegar is another popular black vinegar.

Compared to Chinkiang vinegar, Shanxi vinegar is darker, thicker with a dulled yet deep, intense flavor. The sour hits a spot and leaves behind a wonderful, bright sweetness.

It’s great for braised meats especially sweet and sour ribs, and certain cold dishes such as radish salad, wood ear salad and braised peanuts.

Star anise is very popular in Chinese cooking for its sweet, warm aroma that goes well with pretty much anything, especially meats. I love it in chicken and mushroom stew and use a lot of ground star anise in Taiwan Minced Pork.

If you’ve heard about and/or cooked with Chinese five spice, think of the 13 spice mix as the Storm Breaker to five spice’s Mjollnir (MCU reference alert). Both mixes are frequently used in Chinese cooking and in most cases can be substituted with each other, except that the 13 spice mix packs a more intense and complex flavor profile.

As a rule of thumb, use the five spice mix for veggies and tofu and 13 spice mix for braised and stewed meats, especially the gamier kinds. I love it in lamb and beef stews, and braised crawfish. If you want to dazzle your guests with you advanced Chinese cooking, definitely get this.

This is my secret ingredient for when I want extra umami-ness. I put it in noodles, stir-fries, dumpling stuffings and use it to substitute hoisin sauce regularly. It tastes very similar to hoisin sauce, only less sweet and packing an intensely umami flavor natural to seafoods.

My parents are both great cooks and hence pretty difficult to impress but they always loved my noodle sauce — and abalone sauce is definitely one of my secrets.

The Chinese cooking approach asks frequently “how do we make this non-meat dish taste more like meat”. And Chicken bouillon powder is one of the more common answers to that question. It adds a subtle rounded complexity to starchy veggies like eggplants, cauliflower, potato and broccoli, and works wonders with tofu.

They may have many names — banh pho, kuey teow, hor fun — but fundamentally they are flat rice noodles. I always stock these up for when I spontaneously want pho or chow fun. Just soak these in room temperature water for 20 min and they’ll be ready for all your delicious recipes. My favorite is Beef Chow Fun.

挂面 (gua mian) literally means hanging noodles, after the traditional method used to dry fresh noodles into these easy-to-store straight dry noodle sticks. They come in pretty handy for when your local Asian market is too much of a hustle to make a trip to.

These noodles are also super easy to prepare: just submerge in boiling water over high heat for 3-5 minutes depending on your preferred softness, and serve with sauce or broth.

Wood ear is a species of edible Auriculariales fungus growing on older trees. It’s rich in gelatin, vitamins, fibre and minerals.

I’m mostly including it here for the upcoming Twice Cooked Recipe I’m planning on sharing. So get these if you are interested.

One of the most underrated ingredient in Sichuan cooking is rapeseed oil. Rapeseed oil uses the seeds from the same plant that canola oil is made from. The traditional extraction process in China involves toasting the seeds first to remove moisture before tightly packing the seeds into a manpowered mechanism to be pressed and extracted. The resulting product is an amber liquid with a very high smoking point and an almost pungently earthy smell, which turns beautifully nutty when cooked.

This product that I found is very close to the cooked rapeseed oil I’m familiar with and can definitely transform your Sichuan chili oil game.

It’s no secret that I like spicy foods. Gochujang is my favorite addition to dishes featuring a fruity sweet and sour ingredient — think Orange Chicken and Bolognese.

I also made a spicy tomato basil stuffing to go with my rich, soft yogurt rolls if you are interested.

If you asked me and I had to answer, I probably base way too many purchasing decisions on convenience. Who doesn’t like a good kimchi pancake? I mean, who voluntarily misses out on the perfect balance of sweet, sour and spicy plus the doughy-in, crispy out pancake with the perfect amount of crunchy veggies and aromatics scattered all over? Having this pancake mix ready will not only save you time and get you to pancake faster but also guarantees an ideal pancake texture. I’ve test-kitchened many times and figured out my own preferred pancake mix recipe yet I still go back to this all the time — like I said, purchasing decisions, meet convenience.

If you’re making Asian food, invest in a wok. If you’re not making Asian food, invest in a wok. This is seriously one of the most versatile cooking tools out there, and they’re not expensive. A couple of reasons this one made the cut:

• Carbon steel is the standard — it conducts heat and holds up to repeated use
• High quality — it’s a little heavy, but I’ve had mine almost 10 years, and it’s still going strong

If your electric stovetop can generate a good amount of heat, get this. Carbon steel wok safely conducts high heat, which is essential to good stir-fry.

I always keep a nonstick wok around for starchier dishes like fried rice or shredded potato.

Bamboo steamers are better for foods with proofed/risen dough. The texture of bamboo allows excess steam/moisture to be absorbed so as to maintain the smooth surface of your mantou (steamed bun), baozi (stuffed bun), and huajuan (steamed rolls), etc.

I like this one for its durability and great capacity to hold tall bowls and a good amount of water. As you may have noticed, I used this steamer for the Upside Down Pork Belly, which required 2 hours of steaming over medium-high heat. I only had to refill water once thanks to this steaming pot.

These are pretty handy even when you have a steaming pot — they transform pretty much any pot into a steaming pot.

Pickled aromatics and veggies are essential to Sichuan cooking. Most Sichuan homes have at least one giant (by giant I mean over 3 gallons) pickle jar at home.

I recommend glass jars for newer and infrequent picklers, as it’s easier to keep an eye on things. Make sure to protect it from light, though.

Ceramic pickle jars are better for maintaining ideal fermentation environment and encouraging the survival and growth of desired microorganisms, especially if you are an enthusiastic fermentist with access to mature “mother liquor”.

I have more to add to the list, stay tuned!