Hey guys, a few notes: 1. Shaoban (烧拌) is an old-school name that’s only used to describe certain dishes now, e.g. the ones using wild rice shoots (茭白) and winter bamboo shoots (冬笋), in which, the ingredients are roasted in ashes. Apart from the roasted chili, this preparation may also be part of the reason why this style was called “shaoban” (roast mix). 2. As we mentioned in the video, you can think of these as three flavor profiles for your Sichuanese liangban cold dishes. You can use whatever ingredient you want with these flavors. And here’re a couple simple rules of thumb in terms of make-your-own combos. a. If using crunchy vegetables like daikon, carrot, jicama, celery, etc., you want to keep its crunch and just give it a quick purge like we did in the video, or a quick blanch and rinse to simply cook it. b. If you want to use leafy green like spinach or bak choy, the common approach would be blanching them, rinse to stop cooking, and squeeze the water out to keep the leaves relatively dry so that it doesn’t dilute the sauce too much. c. And of course, you can keep your vegetable salad style and mix them directly with the sauce. d. When it comes to non-vegetable choices, roast, poached, or deep fried meat would all work great. For tofu or seitan, you want to blanch to cook first. Fish balls and meat balls are also my personal favorite when making liangban dishes. Some other options include seafood like jellyfish or squid. Or stuff like kelp, glass noodle, and hard boil eggs. And of course, no matter what you’re using, remember to drain or squeeze well so that the sauce won’t get diluted too much. 3. The quantity of seasoning we showed in the video is mostly based on volume because we want to make a 101 video accessible to most people, not everybody has a kitchen scale after all. However, ratios are very important for this kind of sauce-based dishes. So I would recommend you check out the ingredients weight even if you’re using the volume measurement when making the dish. So that you’d have an idea that in this fish fragrant sauce - soy sauce: vinegar: sugar is 2: 3: 4; or ginger: scallion: garlic is 1: 4: 5 - for example. And with the ratio in mind, you can adjust the flavor of the sauce with the basic knowledge of what is/should be more prominent in that sauce. 4. If you like Sichuan food and would like to make it on a regular basis, we strongly recommend you make Sichuan chili oil. The Lao Gan Ma quick chili oil substitute is tasty as well, but an actual Sichuan chili oil will give you the kind of taste that you’ll get at one of those old-school small eateries somewhere deep in Sichuan. 5. On the same note about ingredients, Chencu dark Chinese vinegar works well in the context of Yuxiang sauce. But personally I (Steph) really like fish fragrant made with Sichuan Baoning vinegar, which doesn’t seem that much different at first couple bites but there’s certain kind of subtle tastes that rounds up the flavor. So if you see Baoning vinegar from Sichuan, don’t hesitate to get it. And in case you don’t know the difference, we made a video talking about major Chinese vinegar types: kzread.info/dash/bejne/omxmytGhaMivnKw.htmlsi=eBtnNtp8igE21liw. 6. With the toasted dry chilies, you can make a bit more and pound them all into a powder and use it in other applications. We toasted 10 chilis in the video. Traditionally the dry chilis are toasted together with the bamboo shoots buried in the ash of a kitchen fire pit. 7. Chicken thigh may take a little longer to poach depending on the size of thigh itself. So do use your own judgment.

@AnotherGeekOnTheWall

3 ай бұрын

You putting in notes like this is amazing. You make excellent and simple videos, but also emphasize when more effort is warranted! That's a wonderful thing and I wish your channel the best. I strongly agree with your #4 note here. I sometimes use store-bought chili oil when I run out of homemade and it quickly reminds me that its place is when it's a minor component of the dish. I think it's usually a major component in a lot of Sischuan dishes though and a harmful substitution as a result.

@maryantczak

3 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@Themyscara

3 ай бұрын

How about a video about China's gutter oil problem.

Wake up babe new CCD just dropped

A note on sourcing toasted chilis, most Mexican groceries will sell chiles arbols tostados which are pretty deeply toasted and might save u a step

My favorite part is always where she shares a little with the dog!

In Australia we call a supermarket rotisserie chicken a ‘bachelors handbag’

'Use Any With Thing' jkjk love the video

@vespasiancloscan7077

3 ай бұрын

I'm 99% sure they did it on purpose haha

It's taken me a long time to conceptually understand the whole "make multiple dishes for a meal" thing that seems common in Chinese cuisine. Like some of these recipes y'all post are pretty involved and it would be a lot of work. But I think I'm starting to get it. If you have dishes that are basically "mix prepared food wish a sauce" then that's no different than a side salad or steamed/roasted veg. I could easily see the shredded chicken and daikon as bowls on a table along with some higher effort food and some bowls of rice and that's a meal for a family. This makes a lot more sense now.

@jospinner1183

3 ай бұрын

They've actually got a video about cooking a standard family-style Chinese dinner for four that addresses this, titled "Chinese Mise En Place and Cooking a Full Meal." They show how planning and prep work make a multi-dish meal pretty feasible. It's still not something I'd do when only cooking for myself, but it makes some sense when cooking for 4+ people.

I would love more cold dish recipes like this. I'm that specific combination of lazy and novelty seeking which means the best cuisine option for me is to have a bunch of little dishes prepped in the fridge and ready to eat a little bit of each, a la korean banchan.

Yes!!! Sichuan Cold Dishes are some of my All-time favorites! Higher underrated! I love Koshuiji and Funky Cold Noodle, too!

amazing - only yesterday I read the chapter on cold dishes in a book of Fuchsia Dunlop. Great to see it in video now!

For another sauce that enables the "mix with chicken and enjoy" method, I suggest looking into Shacha sauce, which is kind of like a non-spicy, budget, XO sauce. Goes well with whatever chili oil you have, and is also great for hot pot

Thank you for the work that you do CCD!

8:03 *licklicklicklicklick …. Licklicklic…*

god-tier video tutorial for LBC. finally i have the powerrrrrr

Sichuan cold dishes are an underappreciated genre. When I'm feeling lazy it's nice to simply sous vide "poach" some chicken breast and mix it with a chili oil sauce.

Would shredded king oyster mushroom work in place of chicken? And if so how would you prepare that?

@mjstecyk

3 ай бұрын

i think that would be pretty good. i would steam them for about 5 mins, let them cool and then shred them into chunks - then add the sauce of course.

@robinwright531

2 ай бұрын

@@mjstecyk thanks!

This channel has opened me up to the fabulous and diverse Chinese Cuisine. Thanks for making it accessible. Though vegetarian, it is easy to substitute meat with Tofu and other veggies. Thanks for all your hard work and incredible recipes.

大吉大利 pot! Just nice for Luna New Year 😀

Glad to see Mala market here… love those guys, a little pricey, maybe, but a good gateway

@joncraigue8436

3 ай бұрын

And by the way they also carry some highly addictive pickles, including pickled chilies

@ChineseCookingDemystified

3 ай бұрын

Yeah I really appreciate what they do. The pricing definitely wouldn’t make it an everyday thing, but unfortunately a premium positioning is just the reality of being a small importer that wants to keep things on the up and up.

Can you do a video on fried pigeon peas? I had those once, and it was so new to me!

I sure as hell will use any with thing thank you!

Awesome video, I hope you guys consider melding Thai and Chinese dishes together eventually.

I feel like the cold dish could be a great salad base. On a related note, might yum cha & dim sum (often confused with each other & aren't just dumplings) be at least somewhat similar to chaat in terms of function (with the word tea quite literally being in the name of both yum cha & in chaat) & variety of dishes served?

Great idea now off to the cold spicy beef tendon and shank.

Looking for pigeon peas in the States? Go to the Latino food section of a grocery store or to a Latino grocery store. They are called gandules in Spanish. I've never been to a Puerto Rican party that didn't serve arroz con gandules.

Thank you for the another amazing and useful video! Quick question about Erjingtiao Pickled Chilis. In you old video these very obviously pickled at home, so perhaps you remember the recipe (I'm curious if it's more like fermenting them in ~3-5% salt brine or like pickling jalapenos in water-vinegar solution)? I grow Er Jing Tiao in Ukraine (sourced the seeds from Taobao 3 years ago and then distributed in local pepper growing community) so it would be pretty easy to pickle them actually. edit: after quick search I'll try Mala recipe for fermenting brine.

DiGel, *sigh*, medicine of the gods. Fabulous video, btw.☺️✌️

ever thought of publishing a book? i'd buy two

You know I am always surprised how few cold dishes exist. We even have "3 hots and a cot" as a saying in the American South where it often does not get below 85F in the summer and this is payment for summer jobs as a term of internship. It is 100 degrees out and I just got done plowing a field... am am on fire. I had a job as a ranchhand and would make a cold version toasted chili and it was loved by the guy who hired me and, entire family, I would use sliced shrimp that is would literally just pour hot water over to barely cook then toss with soy sauce, a chili oil, an "Asain black sauce" I can no longer find though I think it is just now properly named as black bean sauce. Toss with cold Soba noodles and serve topped with crushed peanuts.

@bodyno3158

3 ай бұрын

You need to check out their liangmian episode, spend most of my life in southern China, I can feel your pain.

I absolutely love Sichuan cold dishes! Can't wait to try some yu xiang variants. If going the pigeon peas (they're easy to get here) how would you reccomend cooking them? Deep frying straight? Soak, dry and fry? Soak, boil, dry and fry? Or something else?

@pinkmonkeybird2644

3 ай бұрын

The Indian method is to pressure cook them after an overnight soak, then drop them into a flavorful masala as it cooks over medium heat. I think for yu xiang, you’d need to soak, cook, dry, and then fry before smothering with sauce to get the great crunchy texture. I’m no expert on any cuisine, regional cooking style, or technique though, so take my opinion for what it’s worth. If you come up with a good recipe with white peas, could you please post it here so I can learn too?

Hi! Thank you for the video! What are the amount of servings you would say per recipe? I know it differs in appetite, but are these two serving dishes, two side servings, or more? Thank you so much for your help and time!

@ChineseCookingDemystified

3 ай бұрын

In the context of a western meal? Yeah two side servings sounds about right. Or maybe three if you keep your sides really small. In the context of a Chinese meal, each would serve the function as one ‘dish’ - albeit these would be smaller dishes that would round out the meal.

is the first one basically what some might call koushuiji "saliva chicken"?

real ones have already seen it 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Scallion white or Spring onion, for the simple sweet sour sauce?

There's a lot of Jamaicans that live near me, every grocery store has Pigeon Peas.

Adding a teaspoon of sesame paste to the first option 🤤

Isn't it weird to wash off the surface starch of the lotus root only to re-cover it in corn starch?

@jameshaulenbeek5931

3 ай бұрын

No. The lotus starch by itself wouldn't allow it to crisp or brown well on its own. By rinsing it, then using a different (grain or potato) starch, you'll get proper browning and crisping.

Thank you for these recipes. I was lucky enough to find pickled erjingtiao, here in Paris. How to use them for the fish fragant sauce? I just mix them in a mixer?

@ChineseCookingDemystified

3 ай бұрын

Yeah basically, you can find our old recipe on the topic. Basically just cook down a touch of seasoned baijiu liquor (if you have it) and blend together with the chilis.

@arnauldbordes

3 ай бұрын

@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thank you. Yes, I have baijiu :-)

😢sichuan cold cow feet and beef brisket! With the peanuts and cilantro! O,g i could eat buckets of it!

For a Sichuan chili oil, would the one made by Fly by Jing work in this context? I've seen their products at the local specialty grocery store so it would be easy for me to grab that if it's reasonably authentic

@ChineseCookingDemystified

3 ай бұрын

If theirs is more oily than LGM, then yeah you could use it straight. To work as a hongyou sub, I personally find LGM to have, for lack of a better term, too much ‘crisp’ and not enough oil, which’s why we supplement with more oil + chili powders. If theirs is oilier then sure, go for it. And of course you could totally swap the two in our ‘quick and dirty’ hongyou sub above. Maybe just add a little more MSG because FBJ (proudly?) doesn’t include any in theirs.

Why do you remove the surface starch of the root before coating it in cornstarch? Does it not fry well? I was also a little disappointed that it contains no actual fish.

Oh my urge to mix all 3 together LMAO

Any reason you couldn't deep fry dried and soaked pigeon peas for a similar effect as fresh?

Use any with thing?

🤤

Can't have yuxiang flavour without a fermented component (doesn't have to be douban sauce), otherwise the flavour profile would be more like Hunan food.

idk how your dog can handle more spice than meee

Is possible to make deep fried battered eggplant Sweet and sour? Adding the peanuts and maybe a little bit of Pineapple?

@nikobatallones

3 ай бұрын

I imagine that would work!

How would the pigeon peas be prepared? Cooked in liquid, drained, fried, then sauced?

@wezzuh2482

3 ай бұрын

I imagine the same procedure as with most dried legumes? Soaked, then boiled. Then you can fry them.

Use any with thing

How do you guys dispose of your spent cookimg oil? Just being nosy, respond as suits you.

I reaaaally want to see that chinese pigeon pea dish...

Love all your videos, but this title is giving "Don't Dead Open Inside" lol

So "fish fragrant" generally doesn't have any fish sauce or other fish bits in it?

@harryyan1646

3 ай бұрын

Nope, that's the secret that everybody knows in Sichuan: using non-fish related ingrediants to make it have fish fragrance. The truth is I don't think it really tastes like fish either. It's just a compound of rich and savory flavors that become standardized and were given a name. It works really well for a lot of thing (e.g., tenderloin strips, eggplants).

@michaelgeary9370

3 ай бұрын

My guess is that it is referring to a flavorant with similar savory and umami properties as popular fermented seafood products like fish sauce, oyster sauce, shrimp paste, etc...

@jameshaulenbeek5931

3 ай бұрын

They covered it in a much older video...I think you'd have to go back maybe 2-3 years to find it. I don't recall the reason myself.

@jameshaulenbeek5931

3 ай бұрын

My apologies, it's from 6 years ago. Type: "Chinese Cooking Demystified Fish Fragrant" into the search bar, it comes right up.

@jameshaulenbeek5931

3 ай бұрын

Kenji also has a good version.

4:32 kind of interesting that something sour has the sound "tang" in it, is that the root that means sour or sweet? would be hilarious and coincidental if it meant sour

@dawnpatrol13

3 ай бұрын

Tang means sugar (i.e., sweet). Cu is vinegar (i.e., sour).

@bobby_greene

3 ай бұрын

​@@dawnpatrol13in english tangy means sour

@dawnpatrol13

3 ай бұрын

@@bobby_greene I'm aware: that's why the cross-linguistic pun fails to work. Tang is not tangy.

Wonder if you could do the peas using Chick Peas (Garbanzo) instead of the Pigeon Pea? Lotus Root is also easy to get here but O M G has it become expensive in the past 4 years. Pigeon Pea's whole can be found at Pakistan/Indian Grocers, at Caribbean Grocers and at Mexican Grocers here in Canada. They do tend to be much less represented than other whole peas though, and since the Happy Feel Good times of the 2020's are far less represented (along with 90% of dried goods, the entire range has narrowed dramatically and as of 2023 Hominy Corn is no longer available at all! Used to be an hours bus ride to the last retailer, now that one no longer stocks it). Most Indian people know the split version Pigeon better than the whole version, Toor Dal however Toor will cook down, while the whole pea remains with tooth bite even when fully cooked. I have whole Pigeon Pea as part of my Cupboard Stores, use them either for Peas and Rice, or when cooking historical dishes their origins.

Enjoyed this video a lot, as I do all your videos! One thing kept taking me out - I've never heard someone pronounce 'components' that way. Am I crazy?

@ChineseCookingDemystified

3 ай бұрын

Yeah apparently I pronounce it weird

Use Any With Thing

I'm surprised that there is no garlic in any of these sauces except for the fish fragrant sauce. Would garlifying the shaoban or the sweet & sour sauce be wildly alien to traditional Sichuan food?

USE ANY WITH THING

hey

Pardon my ignorance but what "cold" about this? anyway i just eat this version but with edamame DAMN! I don't know the usual tasteless edamame can be this delicious!

Minor editing mistake(?) that's a bit jarring: At ~ 1:07, you throw up a screen and say to pause the video to look at ingredient amounts for the Toasted Chili, but before you finish the sentence saying to pause the video you transition to the footage of holding the ingredients. I found it pretty jarring because even though I wasn't pausing I fully expected there to be a "pause here" beat after that before the transition. It just... took me out of the video somewhat! Obviously it's not a huge deal, I just wanted to let you know so you can maybe catch that in the future! I don't comment much, but I love how much research and care you both put into everything! You are appreciated!

My neighbors have no idea what they're in for this coming July 4th.

I absolutely hate that I can not tolerate spicy food. If anyone has any suggestions on how to flavor these dishes without the heat I would love to hear your suggestions… I feel like I’m missing out on so many wonderful foods. I drive 200 miles to shop at the Asian Market just to get the simple ingredients I can’t find in my stores or online. To make matters worse, Asian dishes are my absolute favorites and I’m so limited in what I can tolerate!🙁

@Squaretable22

3 ай бұрын

Do you have zero spice tolerance? Those very mild aromatic chillies are one thing, but if no chilli at all there is still all of those non-chilli spices like Cloves, Anise, Sichuan Pepper, different kinds of paprika, and aromatics like Alliums.

@shaunahuerta9597

3 ай бұрын

@@Squaretable22 Thank you, thank you! I can tolerate some very small amounts of heat. I can tolerate mustard, horse radish, and wasabi heat much better than anything from the pepper families. Currently I do better with the nasal clearing heat vs mouth tingling numbing sensations. It’s not really a stomach issue, I feel like I can’t taste anything after eating Tabasco; my mouth “cries” if I eat a sweet and spicy sauce… to much like a drooling dog! I will look for the aromatics as you have suggested. I don’t enjoy the licorice taste from Anise. But the alliums I love and always on my grocery list! Oh, and paprikas I do use sparingly but feel like that’s not commonly used as an Asian spice but willing to try!

@Squaretable22

3 ай бұрын

I mean Paprika is just Chilli without the Capsaicin, so if you want the Chilli Flavour without the Chilli spice then Paprika or maybe Poblano or Kashmiri Chilli which are milder might be up your street, but yeah if you can't stand Capsaicin but want the Chilli flavour then Paprika 100%! Paprika is used a lot in certain European cuisines like Spanish and Hungarian so there is quite a bit of variety. And yes ofc all the other spices like Mustard, Wasabi... Alliums, Lemongrass for Southeast Asian and everything else that's aromatic and pungent rather than piquant.@@shaunahuerta9597

Thumbnail: Use any with thing

Bad thumbnail. I read it as "use any with thing"

The smallest note: "smoked chipotle" is redundant, because a chipotle is a smoked jalapeno. Love y'all (and your Very Good Dog) so much.

@loren360

3 ай бұрын

He called for "something smoked like chipotle." Not a smoked chipotle.

@zukokuka

3 ай бұрын

Work on your listening skills before commenting

@borgmardunkleson2225

3 ай бұрын

Kekw

@bestaqua23

3 ай бұрын

Hay All comments are good for the algorithm. So being wrong is not actually bad 😊​@@matthewbohill4147

@crumbtember

3 ай бұрын

Dang these responses are brutal lol. Its not a big deal y'all ❤😅

If I watch on 1.5x speed, its sounds like Ben Shapiro explaining authentic Chinese cooking.

Yall gotta emphasize the Chinese names more... Chinese foods are always translated so that local-wisdomness is lost in that

I used to live next door To a Thai restaurant And I love their food You know why because they never used MSG they said we don't use in Thailand it's a Chinese invention. So why are you using it on your channel You have to tie people from what I've been told from people who lived in Thailand and spoke the language it used to leave offerings for their emperor or king outside the restaurant in the back? Why did they say they do not use MSG and that it is a Chinese invention? If that's the case then why are you using it saying it's authentic Thai food it's not. stop using MSG. It's a mood altering drug. it is known to change the minds chemistry and moods. Sodium is very dangerous in large quantities to human beings. Even sodium sodium chloride Is dangerous if taking too much amounts. you better off using sea salt which is an amalgamation of just sodium chloride potassium chloride manganese and iron salts calcium salts if not just sodium Chloride there's a bunch of different salts in there from the sea And they're healthier for you Do they give you trace nutrients that trace elements from the ocean that you don't normally get If you eat a lot of seafood what do you see salt instead you better spices and stop trying to shove msg down everybody's throats it's not good for you. it is for proven dangerous substance.

@ChineseCookingDemystified

3 ай бұрын

1) this is a Chinese cooking channel, we just live in Bangkok 2) Thai restaurants in Thailand ABSOLUTELY used MSG. Not universally but many 3) MSG is harmless and delicious

@IAmTheUltimateRuler

3 ай бұрын

@@ChineseCookingDemystified I mean, it IS mood altering. I eat tasty food seasoned with MSG and it makes me happy.

@l3urlyi345

3 ай бұрын

Before refrigeration the entire human race wouldn't have flourished if it wasn't for heavily salting things for preservation

@zolopane117

3 ай бұрын

lmao you really commented this under a channel called Chinese Cooking Demystified on a video inspired by Szechuan cooking? and your source for no MSG in Thai cooking is living beside a Thai restaurant? sounds like you could use some mind altering substances to get back to firing on all cylinders there, bud 😬

@orientalmoons

3 ай бұрын

MSG was invented in Japan, not China. To get any useful trace minerals from sea salt you'd have to consume a huge amount of sodium chloride as sea salt is at least 90% sodium chloride. All your claims about MSG have been disproven by blinded trials. Oh and hyponatremia is a thing, look it up.

Use any with thing

Use any with thing