Thanks so much to Food & Wine for featuring Appetite for China today as their Blog of the Week and also for giving a shout out to Plate & Pencil! I had fun discussing various things close to my heart, including Chinese food around the world, dumplings, and of course, interesting cheese discoveries.
Head over to Food & Wine for the full interview!
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I had been meaning to update this recipe for a while. Whenever I teach Intro to Sichuan cooking classes, we focus on simple and easy-to-love stir-fry dishes such as Kung Pao Chicken, Mapo Tofu, and Dan Dan Noodles. But anyone who has spent enough time in good Sichuan restaurants is bound to eventually try a dish listed as Chongqing chicken, Sichuan chicken with chilis, wok-fried chicken, or a number of similar names. (Lazi jiding is the name in Mandarin.) And inevitably in every class, when I go around the room during the intro ice-breaker and have students list their favorite Sichuan dish of all time, at least one or two will mention this dish.
When a student in a private class I recently taught requested we work on this dish, it reminded me of how long it has been since I made it at home. And so I decided to update this, making it extra crunchy with the method I developed for dishes like General Tso's Chicken and Chinese Lemon Chicken in my cookbook.
Lazi jiding (辣子鸡丁) is like a more sophisticated version of kung pao chicken. It's smokier, spicier (a lot spicier if you chop up the chilis), and only a bit more complex in its preparation. (The way I make it is more like shallow-frying. I use about 3 cups of oil, and dredge the chicken in a cornstarch-salt-pepper mixture beforehand.) Few fried chicken entrees are enveloped by such a succulent tongue-tingling sauce.
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This winter has been super busy here at my Brooklyn studio. Since launching Plate & Pencil, and being busy teaching a ton of post-holiday classes, I've been pretty much sticking to simple nightly cooking routines. Roast chicken and salads. Spaghetti. Takeout. A Sunday of dumpling-making followed by 5 days of dumplings for dinner. I kept meaning to get back into the kitchen to develop a new recipe. And luckily, a few weeks ago, I got asked by Bonne Maman, one of my favorite jam companies, to develop a recipe with the National Pork Board to use one of their delicious jams and preserves with St. Louis-style pork ribs.
How could I say no to developing a recipe for sweet and savory ribs?
When I make Chinese-style roasted meats, there is usually a sweet element involved, whether in the form of honey, sugar, and/or hoisin sauce. So it wasn't a big departure to use plum preserves instead. The thick texture makes the preserves perfect for a marinade, and they whisk easily with other ingredients I have on hand.
For this recipe, I used St. Louis-style pork ribs, which are basically just pork ribs with the sternum bone, cartilage, and rib tips removed. Any good butcher can easily square off the rack of ribs for you. Though the name of the cut comes from St. Louis-style barbecue, it's also the cut most typically served in Chinese restaurants in the US.
So...have these photos enticed you enough to try them yet? They are super easy with a great complex flavor of sweetness from the preserves, tartness from the vinegar, earthiness from the hoisin sauce, and lip-smacking savoriness from the soy sauce and pork itself. Not to mention roasted garlic aroma and flavor. You simply cut the ribs apart before roasting, whisk together the marinade, wait a few hours, then roast in the for 45 to 50 minutes. St. Louis-style ribs are so incredibly versatile and easy to prepare that it's surprising more home cooks don't use them for more than barbecue.
So, dear readers, now you have a chance to win some cool prizes: a $40 Visa gift card courtesy of the National Board Pork, and 12 jars of Bonne Maman jams ($60 value).
Plus! By sharing your #PORKLUV you'll also be helping those in need. Each Facebook share will turn up the heat on the #PORKLUV map, an interactive map that measures how much #PORKLUV there is in each state. The state with the most shares will receive a 30,000-meal fresh pork donation to the food bank in their state.
Hope you enjoy the recipe and follow the simple steps above for a chance to win and help your state's food bank!
UPDATE: Congrats to the winner, Rachel from Indiana!
Serves 4
I just came back from a long weekend of Chinese New Year celebrations in Boston, where I basically gorged on good seafood the whole time.
It's the double threat of being in a New England city known for its abundance of seafood, and being in the midst of the New Year celebrations where lobster, steamed fish, seafood nests, and shrimp and scallop stir-fries are de rigueur. So naturally, when I came back to New York earlier this week, I was still on a seafood high. And wanted to continue cooking it both for weekday meals and for sharing with you all on this here blog.
Fermented black beans, if you're not already familiar with them through dishes like mapo tofu or black bean chicken, are very potent and tasty, but definitely not the most attractive ingredient in the world. They come prepackaged in either a plastic bag or a plastic or glass jar. The best way to describe the smell right out of the package is "super funky barnyard". That said, when cooked, they add a wonderful earthiness to Chinese dishes, so that's why we use 'em. However, if you do buy them in plastic, it's best to transfer them to a glass container with a tight lid, to store in the back of the fridge. That way, their lovely funky aroma won't bother anyone and they'll keep for a really long time.
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This doesn't happen very often, but my next Dumplings & Wontons class in Brooklyn falls right in the middle of Chinese New Year! OnFeb 5th, come join us at West Elm Market in DUMBO to celebrate the New Year,dumpling-style. You'll learn a variety of ways to fold both dumplings and wontons as well as sure-fire methods of cooking them perfectly. Plus, there will be plenty of eating at the end.
Also, readers of Appetite for China can get $10 off with the discount code NEWYEAR. Sign up and join us!
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