The Hubby and I are continuing our Sichuan kick in the kitchen these days, mainly because my family keeps me in stock of incredibly fragrant Sichuan Peppercorns. The next dish we decided to try our hands at was La Zhi Ji Ding, deep fried morsels of chicken, wok-fried with dry chili peppers and numbing Sichuan peppercorns. At restaurants I love picking out the pieces of chicken from the sea of chili peppers, like a tasty treasure hunt. Making the dish ourselves we used fewer chili peppers, but far more potent ones. Trying to maximize the amount of wok-air (and get photos), we let the oil get a little too hot and the chili peppers did blacken. I’d recommend adding the aromatics to the wok as soon as the oil begins to smoke.

La Zhi Ji Ding

2016-07-31 21:58:29

Serves 2

Deep fried bite-size pieces of chicken with spicy chili peppers and numbing Sichuan peppercorns

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Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

1 hr 30 min

Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

1 hr 30 min

Ingredients

1. 20 chicken wings, deboned and cut into small cubes
2. 2 tbsp rice wine
3. 1 tbsp soy sauce
4. 1/4 tsp salt
5. 1 egg white
6. 3 tbsp cornstarch
7. 1 tsp salt
8. 1/4 cup dried whole chili peppers
9. 2 cloves of garlic minced
10. 2 spring onions, diced
11. 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns crushed

Instructions

1. Debone the chicken wings and cut into small pieces.
2. Marinate the chicken with thr rice wine, 1 tbsp of soy sauce and salt for 30 minutes.
3. After the chicken is marinated, add the cornstarch, egg white and mix well.
4. In a sauce pan (or deep fryer), heat the oil to 375F and fry the battered chicken until golden.
5. In a wok, heat up 1 tbsp of the oil used for frying the chicken. Once the oil begins to smoke, add the garlic and dry chili peppers.
6. Fry until fragrant and remove from heat. Add in the cooked chicken, crushed Sichuan peppercorns and toss together. Garnish with chopped green onions before serving.

Notes

1. We used chicken wings because that's what we had on hand and the ratio of skin to dark meat was perfect. Other cuts of chicken can also be used, and would cut done on prep time with less intense de-boning required.

xiaoEats | Toronto Food Blog http://xiaoeats.com/

Heat up oil and fry the chicken

Fry chicken until golden and set aside

In a hot wok, heat up oil and add the garlic and dry chili peppers. Once fragrant, add the cooked chicken, Sichuan peppercorns and toss together.

Whenever I visit a Sichuan restaurant, I have to order the Shui Zhu Yu (water fish). To me, this dish is the measure of authenticity for the entire menu. The numbing, peppery flavour is one I crave for often. After eating different versions of Shui Zhu Yu at many Toronto restaurants, and making it at home using pre-packaged spice mixes, The Hubby and I decided to try making the recipe from scratch. I was surprised with how easy it was to make and how well it turned out. However, I did have a secret ingredient available, Sichuan peppercorns straight from China that were incredibly fragrant (much more than the ones I’ve bought in Toronto). I would adjust the number of peppercorns and peppers depending on personal preference and the strength of the spices.

Shui Zhu Yu

2016-05-16 01:41:06

Serves 4

A traditional Sichuan dish highlighting the cuisine's signature numbing spice flavour

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Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

30 min

Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

30 min

Ingredients

1. 2 large basa fish fillets (2 cups sliced into chunks)
2. 2 tbsp rice wine
3. 3 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, finely ground
4. 1/2 cup oil, seperated into two 1/2 cups
5. 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
6. 1 inch chunch of ginger, sliced
7. 3 green onions
8. 1/8 cup ground red chilies
9. 1/4 cup dried red chili peppers
10. 2 bay leaves
11. 2 star anise
12. 1 cinnamon stick
13. 1 tsp fennel seeds
14. 2 tbsp spicy doubanjian, fermented soybean paste
15. 4 cups bean sprouts (or more)
16. 2 cups water
17. 1 tbsp soy sauce
18. salt to taste
19. 1 cup of cilantro, chopped

Instructions

1. Marinate the basa fillets in cooking wine for 15 min.
2. Grind the peppercorns until fine, I used a manual coffee grinder for this.
3. Roughly chop the green onions into 1 inch long sections.
4. In a pot on medium heat, add half the oil, garlic, ginger, half of the green onions, ground red chilies, dried red peppers, bay leaves, star anise, cinnamon stick and fennel seeds. Stir until the garlic begins to brown and the spices become fragrant.
5. Add the doubanjian to the pan and stir constantly. Add the water, soy sauce and bring the pot to a boil.
6. Add the fish slices to the pot, making sure there's enough liquid to cover the fish. Cook until the flesh turns opaque. Once the fish is cooked, add the bean sprouts to the boiling pot, pushing them to the bottom. The bean sprouts just need to be blanched for 1-2 minutes.
7. In another pan on medium heat, heat up the remaining oil until it just begins to smoke.
8. Top the fish with the remaining green onions, ground Sichuan power, additional dried pepper s (optional), in a pile. Pour the hot oil onto this pile before serving.

xiaoEats | Toronto Food Blog http://xiaoeats.com/

Assemble ingredients

Chop fish into chunks

Marinate fish in cooking wine

Stir fry the ginger, garlic and spices on medium heat until aromatic

Stir fry the ginger, garlic and spices on medium heat until aromatic

Add doubanjiang

Add water, soy sauce and fish, cook until the fish becomes opaque

Add remaining green onions and ground Sichuan peppercorn, pour over with hot oil

Ba Shu Ren Jia (or Bashu Sichuan) has two locations in the GTA, the original near Pacific Mall and one in Mississauga. My family is big on Sichuan cuisine and have been frequenting the Mississauga location of Ba Shu Ren Jia since they opened. My mom spent part of her childhood in the province and uses a lot of spice in her cooking. We can all handle our heat and I love the peppery (mala 麻辣) flavour.

Atmosphere: The decor and interior is a little worn. They haven’t renovated or updated since opening and it shows on the edges of furniture and the photos on the walls. Entries on the menu have been crossed out and new dishes manually written in. I would classify them as a casual to mid-range venue. There’s lots of large tables for bigger groups, but also a quick stop for a family meal. The menu items also range in price point from simple to more complex dishes and all reasonable.

Service: To be honest, this is always hit or miss. We’ve had great experiences and not so great ones. It is slow, they’re usually understaffed especially on holidays during meal times and service is minimal. Like most Chinese restaurants you have to flag someone down to refill tea pots, get the bill and they’ll provide takeout boxes for you to self-pack. None of this is really unexpected and we’ve never had any rude or poor service experiences. It is slow though and be prepared to ask for the service you need.

Food: Bashu really shines when it comes to the authenticity of their dishes’ flavours and this is what brings us back visit after visit. The authenticity of the flavours. A few years ago, there was a period where the food had a sweeter flavour profile (to appeal to more customers?), which was odd so my family took a break from visiting. However, they’ve gone back to the traditional mala spice and it’s a welcome return.

We stopped by this year for Mother’s Day and ordered the spicy pork kidney, lamb leg, liang fen (凉粉), oil steamed eggplant, dan dan mian (担担面), la zi ji ding (辣子鸡丁) and fried shui zhu (水煮) fish.

The lamb leg was gamey, tender and fell off the bone. The spice rub really seeped into the meat. I really like kidney and it’s a lot of work o prepare at home and challenging to not overcook. The dish at Bashu is always cooked to just the right texture, the innard is always cleaned properly and with the right amount of spice.

Bashu offers a variety of Sichuan street food/dim sum and we always order the liang fen and dan dan mian. Liang fen is made with green pea powder, forms into a jell-o like texture and is then carved into strands of noodles using a special grater-like tool. The noodles are then mixed with mala spices and oil. The dish is very refreshing and the noodles are a great vessel for flavour. Dan dan mian is cooked somen noodles, topped with a special sauce, fried ground pork and typically pea sprouts.

My favourite dish is the la zi ji ding, which is pieces of chicken (with skin) deep fried mixed in with dried peppers and mala spice. It’s amazing and usually a race in my family to search out the pieces of chicken from amongst the peppers. I highly recommend this dish even if spice isn’t your thing. This dish defines savoury. This was our first time ordering the fried shui zhu fish, we usually have the dish with boiled fish fillets. The fish is freshly killed, cleaned, pan fried and then submerged in the spicy oil sauce along with bean sprouts, mushrooms and rice cakes. The pan is served on a gas stove that continues  to simmer the dish on the table. This was a large dish and took up a food third of our table. It’s also the spiciest dish we ordered that day and worth every burnt off taste bud. Frying the fish before simmering at a low heat really sealed in the flavour and kept the meat soft. Next time I would order a smaller portion. We only finished half of the fish since it was the last to arrive and we were all pretty full already.