Hey guys, a few notes: 1. Hope we didn't confuse you too much with this different method of making youlazi. There's a lot of different ways to skin that cat. 2. For the stock, we were actually using (what's more or less) a Cantonese superior stock there. Basically, in our house I generally don't bother with making maotang - I kinda feel like most things that can use maotang are fine with working around stock concentrate, so the Superior stock's generally what we have on hand in our freezer. 3. Like Dan Dan noodles, you *do* have a lot of flexibility with the noodles. Only have some dried spaghetti on hand? Go for it, just promise you don't tell anyone that we told you so. 4. For the Yacai, if you can't find it you could either (1) use Tianjin preserved vegetable (2) use Zhacai or (3) skip it. It is nice here though. 5. Just FYI, the sponsored message is probably going to be a one-time thing... sporadic at most. Just a confluence of factors that led it to be a good match - they're avid watchers of the channel, it's a product that a good chunk of people struggle sourcing, we think they make good products. Hope it wasn't overly intrusive. 6. Speaking of which though, the peppercorns they import ain't cheap - that variety of Sichuan peppercorn (good dahongpao) is a touch pricy even in China. Whether you use them or a different importer, here's my suggestion: use nice Sichuan peppercorns when you specifically want a numbing sensation, e.g. a dish like this. For stuff like seasoning poaching liquid, or making ginger-peppercorn water for lamb or dumplings... use the cheap guys.
I've heard that boiling spaghetti in water/baking soda gives you a better alkaline noodle than simply spaghetti on its own if you don't have any noodles.
Yeah I tried that trick with jianshui (kan sui) - if anything, it was almost like *overly* effective lol. Really fascinating and definitely worth a try for people
This link says ~1 tbsp per liter. www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/baking-soda-ramen-noodle-spaghetti-hack.html That might give you a rough taste though, so I'd personally recommend using a smaller amount (~1/2 tsp?) of baked baking soda or a splash of jianshui (i.e. kan sui) which's what I did.
Awesome video guys. This is one of my favorite dishes! Currently working on my own version for my next book. Have you tried using the western technique of using some pasta water in the sauce base? I find a little bit can help get the sauce to a real nice creamy consistency. Works well for Sichuan hot sesame noodles too.
Cheers! Always great to hear from you Kenji, really looking forward to the next book. So for the pasta water, we've never personally tried it ourselves in this sort of dish - obviously makes sense though. Another option for adding a bit creamier of a texture would be to add a touch of lard to the dish. Your approach undeniably makes a ton of sense when it comes to convenience factor though.
Wow! I am from Montreal, where Épice de Cru is based and I have been using their red imperial & green Sichuan peppercorn for a long time: it is by far the best I've got outside of China! Happy to see my favorite spice shop has been sponsoring your channel! Its definitely a bit more expensive than what you'd get in asian supermarkets but the difference in taste is really incredible!
Ah nice! Phillipe's son turned him on to the channel, and I think they also wanted to support the videos. I really like what they do, so it seemed like an obvious fit. Re price, I think if cost's an issue, totally use the cheaper ones for certain uses - e.g. flavoring poaching liquid. For something like this, it *really* helps. It adds a little less than a buck to the cost of a serving, which certainly isn't nothing, but it's one of those ingredients that quality can really make a difference - you could even use a combination of cheap/pricey ones (this is what many restaurants in Shenzhen do).
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Yes absolutely, I do use a mix of cheap and theirs for different purposes. As a side-note, do check out their Tellicherry black pepper (I use the grade 10 if I am not mistaken), It'll make you rediscover black pepper! I used to see black pepper as a somewhat bland one-size-fit-all spice, but I use the tellicherry almost in the same way I'd use Sichuan peppercorns, it is that tasteful! Amazing for caccio e Pepe pasta!
I love that this channel is brave enough to use MSG with all the misinformed bias against it. It's been proven to be less harmful than sugar, processed from natural sources just like sugar, and it's in all kinds of things we already eat anyway. It's extremely rare for someone to be actually allergic to it and if you are then there's a whole list of natural foods you wouldn't be able to eat either. I started adding it to my Cantonese dishes a couple years ago after avoiding it for years and it gave me the flavors I grew up with, it was like the missing link from my childhood. No health issues whatsoever.
Yeah it's something that I find sort of funny from otherwise great English-language sources like Kiam Lam Kho and Fuschia Dunlop: they'll have a little blurb about how MSG is completely safe, but how some chefs overuse it, and how they therefore don't use it at all. Never made sense to me. I think some restaurants in the USA overuse bacon, but that's no reason to "never cook with bacon ever". David Chang gets out there and preaches about how MSG isn't harmful, which is awesome and important, but have you ever seen a recipe where he uses it? Anyway, we get about one comment every day or so that goes "MSG? Yuck!" or "MSG is SO HARMFULL" or something similar. It's a little annoying but doesn't really bother us none.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified it's only a pinch or two for an entire dish anyway. The nitrates used in our preserved meats are far more harmful in the long run. Once people read into how less harmful MSG is compared to so many other things we over consume it's pretty silly. Hell, the salt in our American diet literally leads to heart disease. It's our leading cause of death here.
General Tip for buying dried chilies for novices: more often than not, online spice merchants tend to be pricey, so shop around. However, unless you already know in advance that a mail order company has really good quality in what you're looking for, your best bet is often to shop in person in a local gourmet foods market that caters to SE Asian and/or Indo-Pak shoppers, and has a good selection and turnover. Dried chilies are surprisingly perishable, and will lose their color and flavor complexity with prolonged exposure to air, so look for chilies that are still brightly colored, pliable (not brittle), and vaguely fruity (squeeze the bag and sniff ... most bags are not airtight). Gently squeeze the bag ... if chilies begin to crumble, and/or have faded somewhat from bright red to orange or reddish brown, shop elsewhere. If you find good one, then when you get them home vaccum seal most of them in cryovac to VASTLY improve their shelf life (10-fold), and then pack as much as will last you a few weeks in the smallest glass jar that will fit them, and store in a cool dark place. To make super fresh ground dried chilies, dehydrate in a food dehydrator, or scissor into small pieces and pan toast over lowest possible heat (or in a low oven) for a bit, then let cool ... after which they should be brittle enough to grind. Your other option, if you own a good dehydrator, is to dry them yourself. Thin walled chilies can often be dried whole, different varieties have different needs, so you may neen to cut the tops off. Fleshy chilies like red jalapenos are easiest to dry after deseeding them and cutting lenghwise into 1/8" thick strips. Hollow chillies like haberneros are best cut in half to greatly speed drying.
I am supposed to do work today and was saving this to watch later. Autoplay happened then I saw SpiceTrekkers. I am pretty sure that you nailed the demographic, as I normally (easily) have 100+ spices from all cuisines in my spice cupboard, 30 minutes on their website later and my children's college funds are now at risk.
Congratulations on the sponsorship! The type of sponsor you got and how you added it to the video made it not intrusive at all. If you can turn this channel into a career that would be amazing!
I live in Chongqing and this version of the dish actually looks better than most the versions I see around the streets. Most xiaomian around me is much soupier, and I prefer the type you've made where there's not so much left over at the end.
I love mala everything. Mala Yu and ma pa dofu are favorites. My wife was from Chengdu, and we had a major Asian market area on Buford Highway in Atlanta for the special spices and tricked out vinegars. I ordered ma po dofu in the states and my wife tasted it and demanded to see the chef. She admonished him, and taught him how to make it. She threatened him with her returning to see if he was doing it right. Cuisine riots are next! LOL
Scrummy as usual! This looks so darn good. These easy, quick, stupendously uncomplicated recipes with the "Oh, this?! Why, it took hours! Thank you for noticing" look and complex flavours are just perfection. I'll certainly check out the spice sellers as well. Thanks for consistently showing how easy Chinese cuisine is for the most part. It's really fresh, great tasting ingredients, prepared with as little processing as possible, that makes any dish delicious. Jenn 💖 in Canada 🍁
Haha I think sometimes we manage to make things *more* complicated for people ;) But yeah, Phillipe and Ethne over at Epices de Cru are super nice, real interesting people... they've got like an encyclopedic knowledge of spices, are cookbook authors, travel the world... would love to figure out how to cooperate with them in different ways in the future
One of my favourite dishes, me and my wife eat this few times per week and everyone I served that noodles to, simply loved it. Just one change - ovet time, I started to add a bit more vinegar (up to 3/4 tbs), because we prefer it more sour and it ended up great. Youlazi is quite easy to make, but I tend to double or tripple the amount of ingredients and make a batch in advance, saves some time later. I do the same with peanuts and peppercorn (toast and ground it in advance and keep in a container for later use, works just fine for me)
Ahhhhhhh! The Spice Trekkers are Canucks! YAY! Francophones to be exact (well Mr is, lol) I'm just chuffed that I can order from Montreal~about a 3 hour drive from Kingston! Been there a few times. And no exorbitant shipping fees etc. I think I'm in love. 😍 I'm not surprized you like them. We Canucks are quite likeable ☺ Jenn 💖
Tried this out tonight, got some good mileage out of my spice kit! :D Thanks again.. this turned out really well. I used a little too much peppercorn - we weren't expecting how, well, numbing it would be - I've definitely done more of your Cantonese recipes! Also cheated a little and used my Dan Dan oil since I already had some... but we really enjoyed it. Added some extra fried leeks too, and bok choy, which was really awesome.
Totally - this's definitely seriously numbing... for my personal tastes I actually like a little less. My order outside is usually "medium spicy, little numbing" - unless I suspect they're hesitant to give me the real taste out of fear a foreigner wouldn't like it, then the magic words are "te ma te la" ('especially numbing, especially spicy') :)
Cheers man, will probably be either a one time or sporadic thing, but they were just sort of a perfect fit. If you look up the two people that run Epices de Cru they're just... awesome. Really appreciate everyone being so cool about the plug, I was definitely a little nervous about it.
Those noodles look so good... Just found your channel and I really like how quick and simple your videos are, but also that you go into detail when needed on some of the ingredients that can be harder to find.
My first experience with mala dishes was a Pork in Hot Chili Oil meal at a local Szechuan restaurant. They used black fungus in the recipe and it was incredible. Highly recommend black fungus for added texture and flavor experience ❤
Really liked your dan dan recipe, going to try this next! But I find the intermixing of measures confusing--sometimes it's grams, sometimes it's spoons. And grams are wrong for liquid, it should be milliliters. Is 100g of stock the same as 100ml (about 1/2 cup US)? Should be close, but not always. I assume you're using them interchangeably. Most confusing, though, is the amount of sichuan peppercorn. The amount being toasted is supposed to be 4g, which is about 1 tsp. But to finish the bowls you need a full tablespoon of ground. Can you get a tablespoon of ground from 1 tsp of whole? It defies the laws of physics! Plus, it looks like more than 1 tsp being toasted. So maybe that's just a typo... should be 15g? I don't mean to sound critical, we love your videos! Just trying to get things straight...
Awesome video! I was actually just about to ask that you show us how to make this dish so thank you! Note: I believe Tahini is untoasted sesame paste whereas the Chinese version is from toasted sesame seeds. Cheers guys.
So I'm totally willing to admit that Wikipedia might be wrong - hell, for the 'Mala sauce' convo above it definitely was! But yeah, Wiki does say that Tahini's also roasted: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahini Someone on Reddit was saying that they believed that Chinese sesame paste was unhulled, but then Baidu Baike described the hulling process as like the first step of making sesame paste. Soi what's the difference? Certainly there's a difference in color and texture - my personal guess is that Chinese sesame paste's roasted for longer. And if that's the only difference, then it's definitely a decent sub at least, especially in a dish like this :)
Omg. Did you guys finally find a recipe for Mala???????? That’s the sauce!!!!! That’s the one!! This local Chinese place sells dumplings with mala sauce and they numb and are spicy and sweet
So here's the interesting thing about Mala sauce: we've never really encountered such a thing! The English language wikipedia entry for "Mala Sauce" obviously describes the process for creating hotpot base - i.e. 火锅底料. Interestingly, there's no Chinese language equivalent for that page, although they do give a Chinese term '麻辣酱" (i.e. malajiang, literally 'mala sauce') on the side. Malajiang, meanwhile appears to be a wholly different thing if you search in Chinese, basically a minor sauce with a bunch of variations. You local place's mala sauce with dumplings is likely a dipping sauce - if you have a pic we might be able to help you reverse engineer it.
Glad that I live in san Gabriel we have access to 99 ranch market. Also there is a new spicy paste out on market Sichuan Chili Crisp. The peppercorn is sourced from Chengdu a must try!
Cai Zi You (菜子油 or more commonly 菜籽油) is basically rapeseed/colza oil. It is largely unavailable outside of China because it’s considered unsafe for human consumption. The profile is otherwise largely similar to canola oil (produced from genetically altered rapeseed), use it if you can get some. I’d suggest people in China to avoid Cai Zi You as well.
Do you do anything with the leek you pull out or is it spent? I feel like I'd taste it and perhaps if it werent spent, add it to the sauce, thinly sliced, OR before i add it to the oil, thinly slice it, crisp it and then readd it to the sauce. I know its not traditional, but I'm just thinking of using everything. What do you think? I'm about to use this technique to make another dish that involves beef and maybe the noodles that are hand made, that is if i can find the ingredients. I'm in an asian part of my city, so shouldnt be so hard...maybe.
Oh that's right, it is vegetarian! Easy to lose track of in Chinese cooking sometimes haha. Totally forgot to tag it as such. Hope the sponsored message wasn't overly intrusive :)
I have tried to do this tahini for zhmajiang substitution; it does not work. Never fear though... you can make chinese style sesame paste with toasted seasame seeds, an immersion blender, neutral oil, and love... It works way better than tahini and there are a reasonable number of recipes on the internet. These are the things you learn when you watch this channel religiously but are also stuck in rural Newfoundland.
Hello, thanks for this wonderful video :) Are these noodles similar to Luo Si Fen? Please make a video on making Luo Si Fen at home, what sauce and spices to use in it, please, Thanks!
What if I use the red chili oil used for the dan dan noodles here? I've prepared that because I thought it was required for mala noodles as well. I followed your recipe but I added onions and green onions, so I guess it's not so different.
this is amazing! as China's influence grows bigger, the whole world's gonna start incorporating this kind of stuff into their regular diet as once happened with burgers. Here in South Spain there are already local farmers growing "bok choy" or youcai. I'm glad there's a new wave of discoveries.
Totally, there's really like a whole continent of cuisine here. There's *so* many ingredients and techniques that can be borrowed, twisted, adapted, and localized. I think what we'll see with Chinese cuisine in the upcoming century's sort of akin to the influence West African music's had on the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. It's not like other places don't have their own awesome traditions, they do - but there's something special in the water there. In my mind's eye, I imagine it like a flare, a fusee, burning so brightly that it's impossible to ignore. Think about the most popular genres of music - Jazz, Rock, Rap - they can all trace their origins back to West Africa. I think - I hope - we'll see a similar spread of ideas and techniques with Chinese cuisine. There's just so much good that's here. Anyway, I'm rambling and being a bit overly purple here haha. Point being - take some ideas, localize it to what you got available in south Spain... because the space in between's really quite fascinating :)
Chinese Cooking Demystified absolutely, our kids generation is gonna eat noodles soup and jiaozi all the time and “almost” be unaware of where did all that come from.
Last time I was en Chengdu, I was always a bit confused when it came to ordering DanDan Noodles. I would ask for MALA since that's what someone told me means "Hot and numbing". Did i get DanDan Noodles or did i get this? There's never pork in Mala Xian?
Would more expensive sichuan pepper corns have less pits? Sometimes the bags I buy have way more pits than others, and I'm not sure if it's a false correlation, but they usually aren't as good. Also, I recently discovered I have a friend who knows someone with a sichuan peppercorn tree. I tried some last years and they blew my mind (and tongue) away. She also said the leaves are edible. Are there any specific dishes you recommend using the fresh peppercorns and/or leaves?
Yes, sort of. Whether the Sichuan peppercorn has pits or not depends primarily how the peppercorns were dried. Improperly dried ones will contain many more pits than properly dried ones, but the latter will *still* have pits. Generally, the pits just... aren't a variable. I know some people in the States complain about it adding a 'gritty' texture - never experienced that myself, my only guess is that theirs were *real* garbage ones where like every peppercorn contains a pit. So really, what I'd say is that you can't really tell whether there's a difference in quality depending on the pit - like, if one bag has 5% of the peppercorns with pits and another has 10%, you couldn't really glean much there. But if you're looking at something where there's a significant quantity of pits... if they aren't drying the peppercorns right then there's probably a *lot* of other corners they're cutting. As for the fresh ones, they're awesome! Toss a couple stems in some Sichuan hotpot, or make Sichuan peppercorn-infused oil. I'll try to bug Steph on the subject when she wakes up too :)
I think I gained some weight since I subscribed! 😂 Good job though! Tried making some of your dishes and well... I gained weight from all the trying. ❤❤❤
Ni hao, any idea where I can purchase crude rapeseed oil (Tsai zio) online ? I have done a lot's of research but I am limited because I don't speak Chinese. Many thanks
Pretty sure it's impossible. The only report I've heard of being able to find it's at one specific supermarket in Flushing. It's technically banned, just like Indian mustard seed oil, due to its high erucic acid content. Indian supermarkets get around the ban by labeling the mustard seed oil as 'for topical use only'. We keep the recommendation because the oil's as fundamental to Sichuan cuisine as olive oil is to Italian cuisine. It's a variable to consider when trying to recreate Sichuan flavors - worst comes to worst you can still get by with peanut.
Any suggestions for how I can tell a good quality peppercorn supplier from a sub-par one? Specifically when buying online. Wishing I'd asked this question *before* I ordered the cheapest per ounce on Amazon
I think it’s zha cai (榨菜). It’s basically spicy pickled mustard root. Edit: My bad! Its actually Ya cai (芽菜). Which is made from pickled mustard greens. The stems, that is.
Woah! 😲 This could become my new favourite dish! Will try it as soon as possible. Guess I'll serve it with cucumber salad as a fire extinguisher. 😅 I also appreciate that it's vegan friendly, so everyone can enjoy!👍
So if I remember the vegetarian version of Mapo Tofu is Mala Tofu so this is it only with noodles???..I'm a Indian cook so this is slightly out of my comfort zone...1 thing if you're using Indian mustard oil, which comes from the north of India, you must heat it up to smoking point first, if you don't it can be very acrid and unpalatable, and then let it cool. Sichuan cooking is my fav of all of the Chinese districts well it would be as I lived in Goa home of HOT and pork..Just sub'd :-)
So it's not the same as Mapo Tofu, but there interestingly is a dish that uses the same sort of Mapo Tofu technique with noodles! It uses douhua, that sort of very soft pudding-like tofu, cooks it with the same sort of mapo tofu sauce, and serves over thin rice noodles :) Definitely noted on the mustard seed oil front. Here we *did* get it up to smoke point (~220C) so I didn't bother explaining. But sometimes we offer it as a general sub, so I think I should definitely note that point if I'm doing so.
gutter oil incident happened quite a few years ago. There are very strict laws in place in China nowadays on the prohibition of gutter oil usage by street vendors and restaurants. So you are mostly fine, try to avoid unlicensed mobile street food vendors if u are really particular, sometimes they cut corners to keep cost low. You do find some really nice food from them tho sometimes, so decide for yourself.
To echo Colorful Banana, it's not really a thing these days. The city we live - Shenzhen - used to be gutter oil ground zero. If it makes you feel any better, a number of years back I actually purposely sought out and ate street food made with the stuff (I was... not smart as a young man)... it has a *very* obvious burnt garbage smell. You'd know if you're eating it. I've heard the government actually executed people for distributing gutter oil, but I dunno if that's just a rumor. If there's anything oil-related here that'll give you a tummy ache, it's the same issue as in the West - some restaurants really pushing the limits for how long they can use their frying oil (though sans stuff like ServSafe, that's a bit more common here, granted). In the end though, if you go to Sichuan, the chilis'll do more of a number on your system than the oil. A lot of travelers seem to mistake food poisoning for a condition I lovingly call 'spicy butt'. Right after you land, pick up a bottle of Zheng Lu Wan, i.e. this stuff: livedoor.blogimg.jp/xiexie_china/imgs/4/e/4e950668.jpg If you're feeling some pain/grumbling, take that. If it doesn't go away, *then* you know you've got a bug, but Zhen Lu Wan'll solve 99% of all 'issues'.
Sichuan food after all! Balances the heat from the chilis. Wouldn't be the same without it. A couple weeks back I went back to the USA for Christmas, and my brother took me to his favorite Chinese restaurant in the city, a Sichuan restaurant (Han Dynasty). Everything was surprisingly quite solid, but there were two things missing, I feel: (1) caiziyou, that rapeseed oil and (2) MSG.
Hmm... best way I could describe it, even though there's a bunch of exceptions: hongyou is an ingredient, youlazi is a condiment. Hongyou is very particular - you get the flakes finer, the oil's added in stages, and the flakes are soaked in the oil (at least) overnight. Sometimes (but not always) with Hongyou you'll see a mix of spices added in, and at times an herb like zicao to give it a deeper color.
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. Hope we didn't confuse you too much with this different method of making youlazi. There's a lot of different ways to skin that cat.
2. For the stock, we were actually using (what's more or less) a Cantonese superior stock there. Basically, in our house I generally don't bother with making maotang - I kinda feel like most things that can use maotang are fine with working around stock concentrate, so the Superior stock's generally what we have on hand in our freezer.
3. Like Dan Dan noodles, you *do* have a lot of flexibility with the noodles. Only have some dried spaghetti on hand? Go for it, just promise you don't tell anyone that we told you so.
4. For the Yacai, if you can't find it you could either (1) use Tianjin preserved vegetable (2) use Zhacai or (3) skip it. It is nice here though.
5. Just FYI, the sponsored message is probably going to be a one-time thing... sporadic at most. Just a confluence of factors that led it to be a good match - they're avid watchers of the channel, it's a product that a good chunk of people struggle sourcing, we think they make good products. Hope it wasn't overly intrusive.
6. Speaking of which though, the peppercorns they import ain't cheap - that variety of Sichuan peppercorn (good dahongpao) is a touch pricy even in China. Whether you use them or a different importer, here's my suggestion: use nice Sichuan peppercorns when you specifically want a numbing sensation, e.g. a dish like this. For stuff like seasoning poaching liquid, or making ginger-peppercorn water for lamb or dumplings... use the cheap guys.
I've heard that boiling spaghetti in water/baking soda gives you a better alkaline noodle than simply spaghetti on its own if you don't have any noodles.
Yeah I tried that trick with jianshui (kan sui) - if anything, it was almost like *overly* effective lol. Really fascinating and definitely worth a try for people
@@ChineseCookingDemystified how much baking soda should I put?
The sponsored message is perfectly fine, go for it, it helps you, it helps us, everyone wins.
This link says ~1 tbsp per liter. www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/baking-soda-ramen-noodle-spaghetti-hack.html
That might give you a rough taste though, so I'd personally recommend using a smaller amount (~1/2 tsp?) of baked baking soda or a splash of jianshui (i.e. kan sui) which's what I did.
Awesome video guys. This is one of my favorite dishes! Currently working on my own version for my next book. Have you tried using the western technique of using some pasta water in the sauce base? I find a little bit can help get the sauce to a real nice creamy consistency. Works well for Sichuan hot sesame noodles too.
Cheers! Always great to hear from you Kenji, really looking forward to the next book.
So for the pasta water, we've never personally tried it ourselves in this sort of dish - obviously makes sense though. Another option for adding a bit creamier of a texture would be to add a touch of lard to the dish. Your approach undeniably makes a ton of sense when it comes to convenience factor though.
Well You've guys are obviously doing something right if Kenji shows up in your comment sections. Congrats!
Wow! I am from Montreal, where Épice de Cru is based and I have been using their red imperial & green Sichuan peppercorn for a long time: it is by far the best I've got outside of China! Happy to see my favorite spice shop has been sponsoring your channel! Its definitely a bit more expensive than what you'd get in asian supermarkets but the difference in taste is really incredible!
Ah nice! Phillipe's son turned him on to the channel, and I think they also wanted to support the videos. I really like what they do, so it seemed like an obvious fit.
Re price, I think if cost's an issue, totally use the cheaper ones for certain uses - e.g. flavoring poaching liquid. For something like this, it *really* helps. It adds a little less than a buck to the cost of a serving, which certainly isn't nothing, but it's one of those ingredients that quality can really make a difference - you could even use a combination of cheap/pricey ones (this is what many restaurants in Shenzhen do).
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Yes absolutely, I do use a mix of cheap and theirs for different purposes. As a side-note, do check out their Tellicherry black pepper (I use the grade 10 if I am not mistaken), It'll make you rediscover black pepper! I used to see black pepper as a somewhat bland one-size-fit-all spice, but I use the tellicherry almost in the same way I'd use Sichuan peppercorns, it is that tasteful! Amazing for caccio e Pepe pasta!
I've also been using their products for a while. They are extremely good quality products.
Marché Jean-Talon, they have a great outlet there :D
I love that this channel is brave enough to use MSG with all the misinformed bias against it. It's been proven to be less harmful than sugar, processed from natural sources just like sugar, and it's in all kinds of things we already eat anyway. It's extremely rare for someone to be actually allergic to it and if you are then there's a whole list of natural foods you wouldn't be able to eat either. I started adding it to my Cantonese dishes a couple years ago after avoiding it for years and it gave me the flavors I grew up with, it was like the missing link from my childhood. No health issues whatsoever.
Yeah it's something that I find sort of funny from otherwise great English-language sources like Kiam Lam Kho and Fuschia Dunlop: they'll have a little blurb about how MSG is completely safe, but how some chefs overuse it, and how they therefore don't use it at all.
Never made sense to me. I think some restaurants in the USA overuse bacon, but that's no reason to "never cook with bacon ever". David Chang gets out there and preaches about how MSG isn't harmful, which is awesome and important, but have you ever seen a recipe where he uses it?
Anyway, we get about one comment every day or so that goes "MSG? Yuck!" or "MSG is SO HARMFULL" or something similar. It's a little annoying but doesn't really bother us none.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified it's only a pinch or two for an entire dish anyway. The nitrates used in our preserved meats are far more harmful in the long run. Once people read into how less harmful MSG is compared to so many other things we over consume it's pretty silly. Hell, the salt in our American diet literally leads to heart disease. It's our leading cause of death here.
General Tip for buying dried chilies for novices: more often than not, online spice merchants tend to be pricey, so shop around. However, unless you already know in advance that a mail order company has really good quality in what you're looking for, your best bet is often to shop in person in a local gourmet foods market that caters to SE Asian and/or Indo-Pak shoppers, and has a good selection and turnover. Dried chilies are surprisingly perishable, and will lose their color and flavor complexity with prolonged exposure to air, so look for chilies that are still brightly colored, pliable (not brittle), and vaguely fruity (squeeze the bag and sniff ... most bags are not airtight). Gently squeeze the bag ... if chilies begin to crumble, and/or have faded somewhat from bright red to orange or reddish brown, shop elsewhere. If you find good one, then when you get them home vaccum seal most of them in cryovac to VASTLY improve their shelf life (10-fold), and then pack as much as will last you a few weeks in the smallest glass jar that will fit them, and store in a cool dark place. To make super fresh ground dried chilies, dehydrate in a food dehydrator, or scissor into small pieces and pan toast over lowest possible heat (or in a low oven) for a bit, then let cool ... after which they should be brittle enough to grind.
Your other option, if you own a good dehydrator, is to dry them yourself. Thin walled chilies can often be dried whole, different varieties have different needs, so you may neen to cut the tops off. Fleshy chilies like red jalapenos are easiest to dry after deseeding them and cutting lenghwise into 1/8" thick strips. Hollow chillies like haberneros are best cut in half to greatly speed drying.
Expanded a bit. Happy to provide time/temp suggestions for those with dehydrators who are interested in drying chilies.
this is very helpful, thanks!
ayyy my guys getting that money. congrats on getting a sponsor!
I am supposed to do work today and was saving this to watch later. Autoplay happened then I saw SpiceTrekkers. I am pretty sure that you nailed the demographic, as I normally (easily) have 100+ spices from all cuisines in my spice cupboard, 30 minutes on their website later and my children's college funds are now at risk.
Congratulations on the sponsorship! The type of sponsor you got and how you added it to the video made it not intrusive at all. If you can turn this channel into a career that would be amazing!
I live in Chongqing and this version of the dish actually looks better than most the versions I see around the streets. Most xiaomian around me is much soupier, and I prefer the type you've made where there's not so much left over at the end.
I love mala everything. Mala Yu and ma pa dofu are favorites. My wife was from Chengdu, and we had a major Asian market area on Buford Highway in Atlanta for the special spices and tricked out vinegars. I ordered ma po dofu in the states and my wife tasted it and demanded to see the chef. She admonished him, and taught him how to make it. She threatened him with her returning to see if he was doing it right. Cuisine riots are next! LOL
Lived in Chengdu for 2 years, ive missed these noodles since the day I left...ill be trying this recipe soon...hope its the same!!
Scrummy as usual! This looks so darn good.
These easy, quick, stupendously uncomplicated recipes with the "Oh, this?! Why, it took hours! Thank you for noticing" look and complex flavours are just perfection.
I'll certainly check out the spice sellers as well.
Thanks for consistently showing how easy Chinese cuisine is for the most part. It's really fresh, great tasting ingredients, prepared with as little processing as possible, that makes any dish delicious.
Jenn 💖 in Canada 🍁
Haha I think sometimes we manage to make things *more* complicated for people ;) But yeah, Phillipe and Ethne over at Epices de Cru are super nice, real interesting people... they've got like an encyclopedic knowledge of spices, are cookbook authors, travel the world... would love to figure out how to cooperate with them in different ways in the future
One of my favourite dishes, me and my wife eat this few times per week and everyone I served that noodles to, simply loved it.
Just one change - ovet time, I started to add a bit more vinegar (up to 3/4 tbs), because we prefer it more sour and it ended up great.
Youlazi is quite easy to make, but I tend to double or tripple the amount of ingredients and make a batch in advance, saves some time later. I do the same with peanuts and peppercorn (toast and ground it in advance and keep in a container for later use, works just fine for me)
Ahhhhhhh! The Spice Trekkers are Canucks! YAY! Francophones to be exact (well Mr is, lol) I'm just chuffed that I can order from Montreal~about a 3 hour drive from Kingston! Been there a few times. And no exorbitant shipping fees etc. I think I'm in love. 😍 I'm not surprized you like them. We Canucks are quite likeable ☺
Jenn 💖
Tried this out tonight, got some good mileage out of my spice kit! :D Thanks again.. this turned out really well. I used a little too much peppercorn - we weren't expecting how, well, numbing it would be - I've definitely done more of your Cantonese recipes! Also cheated a little and used my Dan Dan oil since I already had some... but we really enjoyed it. Added some extra fried leeks too, and bok choy, which was really awesome.
Totally - this's definitely seriously numbing... for my personal tastes I actually like a little less. My order outside is usually "medium spicy, little numbing" - unless I suspect they're hesitant to give me the real taste out of fear a foreigner wouldn't like it, then the magic words are "te ma te la" ('especially numbing, especially spicy') :)
This is the most delicious noodle dishes I've ever made! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Only video I recall being happy for the uploaded saying it’s sponsored - happy for you two !
Cheers man, will probably be either a one time or sporadic thing, but they were just sort of a perfect fit. If you look up the two people that run Epices de Cru they're just... awesome. Really appreciate everyone being so cool about the plug, I was definitely a little nervous about it.
Good to see this channel taking off! Keep at it guys!
Cheers! Uploading the next vid - Tangyuan - now. Will be up in a couple hours :)
This channel’s videos are sooooo well edited
Nice to see that Richard Dreyfuss is getting voice-over work these days. Great recipe!
Those noodles look so good... Just found your channel and I really like how quick and simple your videos are, but also that you go into detail when needed on some of the ingredients that can be harder to find.
I've convinced myself the ingredients of this dish is just sorcery, as I cannot replicated the authentic flavor no matter what I tried.
It's 3am here and I'm about to sleep. But priorities first, sleeping hungry
My first experience with mala dishes was a Pork in Hot Chili Oil meal at a local Szechuan restaurant. They used black fungus in the recipe and it was incredible. Highly recommend black fungus for added texture and flavor experience ❤
I see "Mala" and I like already. Even better when combined with noodles! Thanks :)
Really liked your dan dan recipe, going to try this next! But I find the intermixing of measures confusing--sometimes it's grams, sometimes it's spoons. And grams are wrong for liquid, it should be milliliters. Is 100g of stock the same as 100ml (about 1/2 cup US)? Should be close, but not always. I assume you're using them interchangeably. Most confusing, though, is the amount of sichuan peppercorn. The amount being toasted is supposed to be 4g, which is about 1 tsp. But to finish the bowls you need a full tablespoon of ground. Can you get a tablespoon of ground from 1 tsp of whole? It defies the laws of physics! Plus, it looks like more than 1 tsp being toasted. So maybe that's just a typo... should be 15g?
I don't mean to sound critical, we love your videos! Just trying to get things straight...
Awesome video! I was actually just about to ask that you show us how to make this dish so thank you! Note: I believe Tahini is untoasted sesame paste whereas the Chinese version is from toasted sesame seeds. Cheers guys.
So I'm totally willing to admit that Wikipedia might be wrong - hell, for the 'Mala sauce' convo above it definitely was!
But yeah, Wiki does say that Tahini's also roasted: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahini Someone on Reddit was saying that they believed that Chinese sesame paste was unhulled, but then Baidu Baike described the hulling process as like the first step of making sesame paste.
Soi what's the difference? Certainly there's a difference in color and texture - my personal guess is that Chinese sesame paste's roasted for longer. And if that's the only difference, then it's definitely a decent sub at least, especially in a dish like this :)
Great channel for intrest in Chinese cooking. Thank you
Omg. Did you guys finally find a recipe for Mala???????? That’s the sauce!!!!! That’s the one!! This local Chinese place sells dumplings with mala sauce and they numb and are spicy and sweet
So here's the interesting thing about Mala sauce: we've never really encountered such a thing! The English language wikipedia entry for "Mala Sauce" obviously describes the process for creating hotpot base - i.e. 火锅底料. Interestingly, there's no Chinese language equivalent for that page, although they do give a Chinese term '麻辣酱" (i.e. malajiang, literally 'mala sauce') on the side.
Malajiang, meanwhile appears to be a wholly different thing if you search in Chinese, basically a minor sauce with a bunch of variations.
You local place's mala sauce with dumplings is likely a dipping sauce - if you have a pic we might be able to help you reverse engineer it.
Ok. I’ll order it and send you guys pics of it. Possibly with it also smeared across my face.
More Sichuan dishes!
As soon as you said this would be spicier, you got my like.
Thanks. I live in Chongqing and eat xiao mian at least once a week.
Just made these this evening. Wow! So good! Super intense and satisfying. Can really feel the endorphins pumping away.
Glad that I live in san Gabriel we have access to 99 ranch market. Also there is a new spicy paste out on market Sichuan Chili Crisp. The peppercorn is sourced from Chengdu a must try!
Cai Zi You (菜子油 or more commonly 菜籽油) is basically rapeseed/colza oil. It is largely unavailable outside of China because it’s considered unsafe for human consumption. The profile is otherwise largely similar to canola oil (produced from genetically altered rapeseed), use it if you can get some. I’d suggest people in China to avoid Cai Zi You as well.
Great explanations and presentation style. Subscribed!
Do you do anything with the leek you pull out or is it spent? I feel like I'd taste it and perhaps if it werent spent, add it to the sauce, thinly sliced, OR before i add it to the oil, thinly slice it, crisp it and then readd it to the sauce. I know its not traditional, but I'm just thinking of using everything. What do you think? I'm about to use this technique to make another dish that involves beef and maybe the noodles that are hand made, that is if i can find the ingredients. I'm in an asian part of my city, so shouldnt be so hard...maybe.
Congratulations for getting sponsor. Already off to a great start in 2019. Great video, will definitely try it since it seems vegetarian.
Agreed. I love how this channel makes Chinese cooking simplified.
All the best for them 🤗
Oh that's right, it is vegetarian! Easy to lose track of in Chinese cooking sometimes haha. Totally forgot to tag it as such.
Hope the sponsored message wasn't overly intrusive :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified it was not intrusive at all.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Is there a reddit link or any web link for the detailed recipe?
Not yet, still pounding out the recipe. Will post ~8:00AM EST (so in 2-3 hours)
as always, your videos are spot on!
I have tried to do this tahini for zhmajiang substitution; it does not work. Never fear though... you can make chinese style sesame paste with toasted seasame seeds, an immersion blender, neutral oil, and love... It works way better than tahini and there are a reasonable number of recipes on the internet. These are the things you learn when you watch this channel religiously but are also stuck in rural Newfoundland.
i can't do spicy but this look so good. i goona try
I always like to add a egg yolk to mine. Your dish looks delicious.
I'm up for this! Looks delicious!
I would destroy this bowl (and it would probably destroy me back 😂)
Really awesome looking recipe, I gotta try but problem will be with ingredients as i live in a country with no asian markets
Hello, thanks for this wonderful video :) Are these noodles similar to Luo Si Fen? Please make a video on making Luo Si Fen at home, what sauce and spices to use in it, please, Thanks!
Wow 🤤 this looks amazing! 💜
that looks reaaally good, i need to get ingredient shopping
Just discovered this gem. Love cooking Asian and you are helping me to up it. Thank you.
Looks incredibly tasty.
Looks sooooo good
What if I use the red chili oil used for the dan dan noodles here? I've prepared that because I thought it was required for mala noodles as well. I followed your recipe but I added onions and green onions, so I guess it's not so different.
this is amazing! as China's influence grows bigger, the whole world's gonna start incorporating this kind of stuff into their regular diet as once happened with burgers. Here in South Spain there are already local farmers growing "bok choy" or youcai. I'm glad there's a new wave of discoveries.
Totally, there's really like a whole continent of cuisine here. There's *so* many ingredients and techniques that can be borrowed, twisted, adapted, and localized.
I think what we'll see with Chinese cuisine in the upcoming century's sort of akin to the influence West African music's had on the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. It's not like other places don't have their own awesome traditions, they do - but there's something special in the water there.
In my mind's eye, I imagine it like a flare, a fusee, burning so brightly that it's impossible to ignore. Think about the most popular genres of music - Jazz, Rock, Rap - they can all trace their origins back to West Africa. I think - I hope - we'll see a similar spread of ideas and techniques with Chinese cuisine. There's just so much good that's here.
Anyway, I'm rambling and being a bit overly purple here haha. Point being - take some ideas, localize it to what you got available in south Spain... because the space in between's really quite fascinating :)
Chinese Cooking Demystified absolutely, our kids generation is gonna eat noodles soup and jiaozi all the time and “almost” be unaware of where did all that come from.
Excellent. Can't wait to make this.
I really wish you would put the written recipes on a blog website with photos step by step instead of reddit. It's a bit difficult to read
说实话，以我来看你的声音听得很闹，但视频很有教益。去中国两次的我很珍惜想念玩成都和重庆火锅点
Last time I was en Chengdu, I was always a bit confused when it came to ordering DanDan Noodles. I would ask for MALA since that's what someone told me means "Hot and numbing". Did i get DanDan Noodles or did i get this? There's never pork in Mala Xian?
The best cooking channels are chinese. Go figure since the food is amazing
Take that you korean fire noodle!!!
can i use maggi seasoning sauce istead of soy sauce?
Where I live it is call "Mine bouille" AKA in English boil noodles
Tahini is untoasted sesame. It does not have the same flavor profile at all. Unsalted peanut butter would be the best substitute.
I thought Tahini traditionally used roasted sesame seeds? I'm not an expert on middle eastern cuisine, though.
So I made this last night and it was the first time trying Yacai. Is it supposed to be super salty?
Chonqing Noodles next please!
this is SO SO GOOD !!
WoW, this is top Food. Please more
Would more expensive sichuan pepper corns have less pits? Sometimes the bags I buy have way more pits than others, and I'm not sure if it's a false correlation, but they usually aren't as good. Also, I recently discovered I have a friend who knows someone with a sichuan peppercorn tree. I tried some last years and they blew my mind (and tongue) away. She also said the leaves are edible. Are there any specific dishes you recommend using the fresh peppercorns and/or leaves?
Yes, sort of. Whether the Sichuan peppercorn has pits or not depends primarily how the peppercorns were dried. Improperly dried ones will contain many more pits than properly dried ones, but the latter will *still* have pits.
Generally, the pits just... aren't a variable. I know some people in the States complain about it adding a 'gritty' texture - never experienced that myself, my only guess is that theirs were *real* garbage ones where like every peppercorn contains a pit.
So really, what I'd say is that you can't really tell whether there's a difference in quality depending on the pit - like, if one bag has 5% of the peppercorns with pits and another has 10%, you couldn't really glean much there. But if you're looking at something where there's a significant quantity of pits... if they aren't drying the peppercorns right then there's probably a *lot* of other corners they're cutting.
As for the fresh ones, they're awesome! Toss a couple stems in some Sichuan hotpot, or make Sichuan peppercorn-infused oil. I'll try to bug Steph on the subject when she wakes up too :)
What's the difference between red and green Szechuan pepper corn?
You sound like YoungDab. Great dish.
Chris Lawrence what up playaaaaaaaa
Yum. Thank you.
can you make chinese preserved or pickled or fermented vegetables fruits smoke meat chicken fish thank you
Wow! Amazing
any idea where I could get some yatzi (pickled mustard greens) here in the states?
作为一个重庆人，我得说，小面一般有更多汤（一般就是筒子骨汤）做底，小面一般都是汤面，视频里面这种算是干馏小面，点小面的时候除非特别说要干馏，否则端上还是带汤的
hmm, 因为我们（以及身边朋友）都大爱干的，所以直接就做成少汤版了～多汤版想留着以后做豌杂面呢～
@@thisissteph9834 在其他区吃的时候没注意过，但是有做过沙坪坝区那边面店老板跟我说过（因为留学吃不上怎么好吃的就厚着脸皮去问了），干馏小面可以额外加一点猪油在汤底里面来代替猪骨汤不够导致面与料粘合不够。虽然说不知道猪油这事是不是真的，但是老板的方子是真香。BTW,视频很棒 ;)
@@iezons6634 谢谢～～～也见到过有猪油加麻油的，不过猪油捞一切都肯定好吃啊啊～～～～
I think I gained some weight since I subscribed! 😂 Good job though! Tried making some of your dishes and well... I gained weight from all the trying. ❤❤❤
more soups please!
Ni hao, any idea where I can purchase crude rapeseed oil (Tsai zio) online ? I have done a lot's of research but I am limited because I don't speak Chinese. Many thanks
Pretty sure it's impossible. The only report I've heard of being able to find it's at one specific supermarket in Flushing. It's technically banned, just like Indian mustard seed oil, due to its high erucic acid content. Indian supermarkets get around the ban by labeling the mustard seed oil as 'for topical use only'. We keep the recommendation because the oil's as fundamental to Sichuan cuisine as olive oil is to Italian cuisine. It's a variable to consider when trying to recreate Sichuan flavors - worst comes to worst you can still get by with peanut.
Any suggestions for how I can tell a good quality peppercorn supplier from a sub-par one? Specifically when buying online. Wishing I'd asked this question *before* I ordered the cheapest per ounce on Amazon
go to Mala Market :)
Can you make Suan la fen?
2:11 Can you please spell that for me? I didn't understand what that is !
Thank you for the amazing video.
I think it’s zha cai (榨菜). It’s basically spicy pickled mustard root.
Edit: My bad! Its actually Ya cai (芽菜). Which is made from pickled mustard greens. The stems, that is.
@@apalinode3859 thank you for responding. I'll search that term online.
Woah! 😲 This could become my new favourite dish! Will try it as soon as possible. Guess I'll serve it with cucumber salad as a fire extinguisher. 😅
I also appreciate that it's vegan friendly, so everyone can enjoy!👍
OMG this looks so good... anyone tried it... thoughts please?
what's the difference between these and dan dan noodles?
can I use lao gan ma chilli oil?
hello .. can you do video of mala than ? thank you 😊
Can you please make malatang? ❤️ ☺️☺️☺️
So Mala noodles are Dan Dan noodles without the pork.
接到广告了 恭喜！
多谢多谢～
So if I remember the vegetarian version of Mapo Tofu is Mala Tofu so this is it only with noodles???..I'm a Indian cook so this is slightly out of my comfort zone...1 thing if you're using Indian mustard oil, which comes from the north of India, you must heat it up to smoking point first, if you don't it can be very acrid and unpalatable, and then let it cool. Sichuan cooking is my fav of all of the Chinese districts well it would be as I lived in Goa home of HOT and pork..Just sub'd :-)
So it's not the same as Mapo Tofu, but there interestingly is a dish that uses the same sort of Mapo Tofu technique with noodles! It uses douhua, that sort of very soft pudding-like tofu, cooks it with the same sort of mapo tofu sauce, and serves over thin rice noodles :)
Definitely noted on the mustard seed oil front. Here we *did* get it up to smoke point (~220C) so I didn't bother explaining. But sometimes we offer it as a general sub, so I think I should definitely note that point if I'm doing so.
Does this mean malatang is coming up?
Funny that they call it Sichuan noodles in English but from Chongqing in Chinese which is more accurate
Look, my wife is from Chengdu and the one thing I learned is that it is never a “small” handful of scallions. It has to be big and on everything
What are alkaline noodles?
Try using Google
I miss the all natural organic crystalized seaweed ;)
Haha I call the ingredient by it's full, proper name if it's fundamental to the dish ;)
Can anyone write the recipe here? Because I can't open the recipe link :(
Thankyou
Try this link without the Chinese characters at the end. Or just do a search. www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/ag800q/recipe_sichuan_mala_noodles
I love Sichuan food here in Australia, but I am scared if I travel to Sichuan China, if they was using cheap gutter oil as cooking oil?
gutter oil incident happened quite a few years ago. There are very strict laws in place in China nowadays on the prohibition of gutter oil usage by street vendors and restaurants. So you are mostly fine, try to avoid unlicensed mobile street food vendors if u are really particular, sometimes they cut corners to keep cost low. You do find some really nice food from them tho sometimes, so decide for yourself.
To echo Colorful Banana, it's not really a thing these days. The city we live - Shenzhen - used to be gutter oil ground zero. If it makes you feel any better, a number of years back I actually purposely sought out and ate street food made with the stuff (I was... not smart as a young man)... it has a *very* obvious burnt garbage smell. You'd know if you're eating it. I've heard the government actually executed people for distributing gutter oil, but I dunno if that's just a rumor.
If there's anything oil-related here that'll give you a tummy ache, it's the same issue as in the West - some restaurants really pushing the limits for how long they can use their frying oil (though sans stuff like ServSafe, that's a bit more common here, granted).
In the end though, if you go to Sichuan, the chilis'll do more of a number on your system than the oil. A lot of travelers seem to mistake food poisoning for a condition I lovingly call 'spicy butt'. Right after you land, pick up a bottle of Zheng Lu Wan, i.e. this stuff: livedoor.blogimg.jp/xiexie_china/imgs/4/e/4e950668.jpg If you're feeling some pain/grumbling, take that. If it doesn't go away, *then* you know you've got a bug, but Zhen Lu Wan'll solve 99% of all 'issues'.
Can you please make sesame noodles
Since sichuan peppercorn is in the citrus family, did you ever hear about it triggering an allergic reaction?
Tbh the only allergies I've ever seen in China've been either shellfish or alcohol.
Really authentic Using MSG lol
Sichuan food after all! Balances the heat from the chilis. Wouldn't be the same without it.
A couple weeks back I went back to the USA for Christmas, and my brother took me to his favorite Chinese restaurant in the city, a Sichuan restaurant (Han Dynasty). Everything was surprisingly quite solid, but there were two things missing, I feel: (1) caiziyou, that rapeseed oil and (2) MSG.
What, youre not going to deseed A million chilis in this recipe?
Hey guys I'm just wondering, I'm not sure I understand the difference between youlazi and hongyou ?
Hmm... best way I could describe it, even though there's a bunch of exceptions: hongyou is an ingredient, youlazi is a condiment.
Hongyou is very particular - you get the flakes finer, the oil's added in stages, and the flakes are soaked in the oil (at least) overnight. Sometimes (but not always) with Hongyou you'll see a mix of spices added in, and at times an herb like zicao to give it a deeper color.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Ohhh fantastic explanation! Thank you ^_^ , as always you guys are the best in the business