Fuchsia Dunlop on a versatile ingredient that’s a key to mapo doufu – and her father’s shepherd’s pie
Sichuan chilli bean paste is one of the most important and distinctive ingredients of Sichuanese cookery. It’s often called Pixian chilli bean paste because it’s made in Pixian, just outside the capital Chengdu. Usually it’s made with broad beans – not soya beans – and a particular variety of local chillies called er jing tiao. It’s used in lots of famous dishes like mapo doufu, twice-cooked pork, and lots of hearty home-cooking in Sichuan. My father puts it in shepherd’s pie; it just has this extra level of savouriness and deliciousness and a slight edge of spiciness.It’s a sort of chunky paste, not entirely smooth. Sometimes you get whole pieces of bean, and in that case, it’s better to blend or finely chop it. When it’s freshly made, the chillies are bright red and the beans dark, but as it matures, it goes a sort of darker chestnut-y colour and eventually almost purplish. Some varieties will have oil in them; they are a fairly dark red and look glossy.
Continue reading...