China’s Hunanese Food – Surprisingly Simple and Delicious by Ruth Paget
The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlop contains recipes from the homeland of China’s Chairman Mao Zedong. Dunlop’s cookbook preserves Hunan’s flavorful and healthy dish that young families can try to learn about one of China’s most important culinary areas.
Dishes from Hunan province appear on menus throughout China due to its ties with leaders of the Communist Party, notably Mao Zedong.
People interested in diplomatic careers or international business careers can find something from every food group in Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook that they can try in the US or China to help prepare them for meals they might eat in the course of their career.
The following recipes use items that have become easily obtainable in most local supermarket’s Asian food sections for families who would like to try a multicultural meal like the following one at home using recipes in Dunlop’s Hunan cookbook:
*Farmhouse Stir-Fried Pork with Green Peppers
Dunlop writes that pork is the main meat staple in Hunan. She notes that this dish is found on almost all restaurant menus in Hunan, including those in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province.
You can use green bell peppers or hotter ones in this recipe. The green peppers are sliced and marinated along with sliced pork belly in shaoxing wine and soy sauce.
The peppers are cooked first in a wok and set aside. They are then taken out and the pork bellies are cooked next.
Garlic and fermented, black soybeans go in next followed by lean pork. When the pork has changed color to indicate being cooked, the green peppers are added back into the work and stir fried till steaming.
The green peppers in this dish contain Vitamin C, which is also an antioxidant that helps remove free radicals, which may cause cancer from the body. The black, fermented soybeans in this dish give it extra protein, probiotics to promote gut health, iron, and more antioxidants.
I like the flavor combination in this mild, salty dish, which is cheaper than beef. You could probably substitute chicken in this dish or firm tofu.
*For vegetables, I like Hunanese stir-fried mixed mushrooms.
This dish starts out with stir-frying steamed smoked bacon and adding garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes. Then, chopped mushrooms go in the wok.
Once the mushrooms are cooked, you add stock, salt, pepper, and chopped scallions before serving.
The secret to preparing Chinese food is to cut and slice up everything up in advance and line up your measuring spoons and cups and spices before cooking. Stir-frying is easy if you do this.
The Salinas, California angle to this story is that most of our local supermarkets have an Asian food aisle for the pantry items needed to prepare the dishes Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.
For Asian produce, the Marina Certified Farmer’s Market on Sundays from 10 am to 2 pm often sells Asian produce like bitter melons and strongly flavored green onions. This market also has food trucks and stall vendors. Lee’s Garden is located in the shopping mall where the market is held, if you want to do a market day lunch. (Ho-Wah Restaurant is right around the corner on Del Monte too).
For items you cannot find at the market, there is an Asian supermarket on Reservation across from QQ Noodle to make market day a real excursion.
The Hunanese dishes described in Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop can be the foundation of a fun multicultural Chinese food activity for young families in Salinas and the Monterey County region. There are more resources in town to do this locally, but this is an example of how to organize Chinese Food Day.
Happy Cooking!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
