Chili Fried Chili! A humble stir fry from Hunan and Jiangxi that’s pound for pound one of the best ways to consume vociferous quantities of white rice.
0:00 – why chili is poor people food
2:05 – making chili fried chili
4:50 – making a full meal
FULL WRITTEN RECIPE
… is over on Substack! Free as always, if it had to be said:
https://open.substack.com/pub/chinesecookingdemystified/p/poor-mans-stir-fry-chili-fried-chili
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https://www.patreon.com/ChineseCookingDemystified
Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ
Found via My Analog Journal (great channel): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHaL5H-VYRg&t=896s
38 Comments
Hey guys, a couple notes:
1. Like Steph said in the outro, I know that if the average person in the west were scribbling a word cloud for 'spicy', probably 'humble' and 'rustic' wouldn't quite make the list. In the substack post I do a little theory-crafting on the place chilis have, culturally, in China vs the west (or, at least, America). Not sure just how content I am with the explanations, but check it out if you're interesting in my rambles on said topic: https://chinesecookingdemystified.substack.com/i/193859640/poor-people-food-in-china-but-rich-people-food-in-america
2. As I was writing down the recipe for the chili-fried chilis, it dawned on me that prepping the chilis via broiling might be a convenient route for some people to go. I didn't test it out myself, but if you'd like to try to experiment, definitely report back!
3. The tofu in the outro using a technique called 'chili-simmering' (辣椒煮___). We learned it from the writer Huang Xiaoji (黄孝纪) in his excellent book on food in a Hunan village in the 80s, Menu from a Village (一个乡村的食单). They would use the below process for tofu, tofu puffs, egg, etc. Highly recommend the book if you happen to know Chinese.
4. It always rubs me the wrong way a little when people traveling to China, Southeast Asia, etc blindly convert local prices to USD/EUR show how 'cheap' things are… and we were definitely guilty of the sin in the outro 🙂 If you want to know how expensive things feel to the average person on the ground here, my advice is generally this: *swap the 元 directly for $*. Disposable income in China is roughly RMB 41k per year. Disposable income in the USA is roughly $48k per year. So, a sort of neat symmetry — the average Chinese person has roughly as much ‘leftover’ in Renminbi terms as Americans have in Dollar terms.
5. So, to the statistically average person here, this meal would feel roughly akin to $7, or $10 including rice, oil, and the other ingredients. So, roughly $5 per head. Not too bad but definitely less of the sticker shock than you'd get just going from the video.
That's all for now. Apologies for being a little slow on the draw with this one, was a little under the weather last week. Going up to Shaanxi after this, we'll try to get back to a more regular schedule next month 🙂
Turkish sivri is my go to to replace luosijiao in Europe. I'm no expert, but there seems to be different spice levels and shapes, the one that looks a bit like a screw pepper is pretty similar in taste too.
Is this considered chilli on chilli crime.
Stir fry is already a poor man's stir fry. This is just clickbait for promoting chili fried chili, the Chinese equivalent to Chicken Fried Chicken. It's not special or some magic replacement meal. GTFOH 🤦
Did I hear you say three-eighths of a teaspoon? Hurh!
Id probably eat that once a day. Though 2 chili dishes seems like a little redundant
Thats breaking up of tofu in the spatula was so beautiful❤ you kniw a white lady it would take three more dirty dishes to handle that tofu
Chicken fried chicken competitor
Congratulations, dish got up priced to Rich to prevent you peasants committing communism.
I think an exchange student from Szechuan cooked me something similar once. He added spaghetti and it was pretty delicious
fried green peppers is a cheap classic side dish here in Spain. Usually with just dome salt to appreciate the sweetness/bitterness of the long green peppers. I will deffinetly try to add some chilly, garlic and douchi next time to change it a bit <3
Just how hot did you make it? Chris is breathing pretty heavy throughout the video 🥵
I don’t know how much written evidence exists but I’d love if you guys did a mini-series of pre-Colombian Chinese recipes.
Cowboy bebop style bell peppers and beef
Going to make this asap!
Dude, that much tofu for less than half a dollar is crazy cheap
Is this chili squared?
The tofu looks amazing
Yes, I will absolutely take another chili-centric dish, thank you very much. I cook with peppers all the time, I'm surprised it's taken me this long to use them as the main part of the meal.
I wish I could cook, but I have no patience.
I was just at the grocery store in Seattle and chilis were averging $6/lb (:
Just tried this, fucking delicious. So stoked at how affordable it is too
I'm jealous of those tofu prices. If I could get that much tofu for 60 cents I would never eat anything else. The cheapest tofu I can find is at least triple that price. Still a pretty inexpensive, but not as cheap as it could be considering how many soy beans the US produces.
Chinese cooking demystified doing village food is a recession indicator
Jesus Christ that's cheap tofu and peppers
"3/8 tsp of salt" lol we will be adding how ever much I grab with my fingers
PLEASE do a video on Chinese beer and beer snacks!!!!!
More tofu dishes like the one in the video please! It looks like something I can actually do on a weeknight after work, vs most of your recipes which are much more involved affairs and/or require deep frying.
Yumm, gonna make this tonight!! Can't wait.
i have to double check its not april first
Is there any non spicy chinese food that also doesn't have shellfish or pork in it? Been trying to find something and all I find are spicy dishes or shellfish/shrimp paste or pork, of which I am SEVERELY allergic to shellfish and pork. any help would be lovely. thank you.
I’m sorry for going off topic, but I trust you as you’re on often and other chefs covered the topic years ago.
Scallops steamed with fermented black beans. Usually large fresh are recommended, but I can only buy tiny, Patagonian frozen ones. Fresh are quick to cook but if I bought the tiny ones they’d be overcooked. If I used these should I avoid defrosting 😊but rely on the steaming process to defrost and heat them up?
3:06 – just to clarify the audio – "let those fry for about 4-5 minutes soften right up, stirring them periodically… ". Not 45 minutes
太感谢了！
Oh that looks heavenly, I'll have to make some.
Anyone have any good pepper recommendations I can find in the US aside from Problanos?
Bruh i want those Tofu shops, it sucks being in a rural place in the west if you like Tofu.
"Hey, man, I heard you really like chili, so I put some chili in your stir fried chili."
Congrats on one million subscribers! I've been watching and waiting for that to happen!