SOUP BASE
This is it. My favorite dish in the world and the grandmother of Sichuan cuisine. Translated literally as “pockmarked grandmother’s tofu,” its totally apocryphal origin story is identical to a half dozen other food origin stories: it starts with hungry crowds and a cook with few ingredients but plenty of creativity. The result is an inexpensive stew that uses simple ingredients—soft tofu, ground meat (traditionally beef, but frequently pork), fermented chile bean paste, a handful of Sichuan peppercorns, and plenty of red-hot chile oil—to create simple, soul-satisfying fare.
Ingredients
"Tamal en cazuela is our ultimate comfort food," insists Acela Matamoros, one of Cuba's top cooking teachers and food historians. A kind of Cuban polenta -- or a stove-top tamal -- at its most basic, tamal en cazuela can be just a soft mush of water, cornmeal, and salt, sometimes eaten with milk and a sprinkle of sugar. Other versions use grated corn or the strained "milk" of the corn puree, which thickens when cooked. The flavorings range from classic pork, such as here, to chicken to seafood. This recipe, using pork ribs and a combination of grated corn and some cornmeal to thicken it, is easy and fairly quick but delivers plenty of that comforting, grandmotherly flavor.
Pot stickers, known as jiaozi in China, are a kind of meat or vegetable-filled dumpling, commonly eaten across Asia.
Pork slivers make a delicious addition, but vegetarians may omit them and still enjoy the dish.
Chow mein made from scratch using all fresh ingredients, including frying up my own crispy noodles.
This is a recipe that allows time and low heat to work their magic. I like to rub the roast with the seasoning and let it cure for a day before cooking. At Gramercy, as a way to use the whole hog, we slow-roast bone-in pork shoulders.
The tomato/meat base of this ragout will work with any shape of pasta. Just use this recipe as a trusty guide. The point is to use whatever meat you have, such as roast pork (or beef or lamb or poultry), and heat it quickly with canned tomatoes to make a succulent sauce. Keep in mind that the meat is already cooked to perfection, so it takes very little time to come together.
The secret of this delicious, easy to prepare and inexpensive dish lies in the use of preserved vegetables, which are typical of northern Chinese cuisine. In the north, people must preserve vegetables by salting or pickling, since the winters are long and cold. If you like your dish a bit spicier, like me, use Sichuan preserved vegetables.