Doubanjiang

I've become slightly obsessed with Sichuan cooking and got a bottle of doubanjian. Couldn't get pi xian but I got the shopowners 2nd favourite from Taiwan.

What can I use it for when I get sick of mapo dofu and dan dan mien?

Twice-cooked pork (hui gui rou，回锅&#32905

Now we're talking

What, no recipee?

Didn't even see this thread before posting what I just posted to the food photo thread

Or go drypot (didn't intend to post this photo, wish I had photographed one with lotus root slices and more intense red seasoning):

kostenlos bilder hochladen

Basic method: precook (steam, blanch, bake, stir fry...) whatever you want, then make a mini-stir fry of the usual aromatics, some cumin and fennel powders, chili flakes, sichuan pepper (and optionally star anise, cinnamon, cloves), infused oil, doubanjang, rice wine/chinkiang/soy sauce/the-usual-stuff-you-know toss it all together with cilantro and/or gronions... sesame and/or sesame oil if it fits... some recipes suggest using actual hotpot base, which you can of course do...

Oh, I forgot: Gochujang and Doubanjiang can *somewhat* substitute for each other in cooked dishes (obviously, you wouldn't want to make ssamjang with doubanjang ), if you balance the rest appropriately.

Thanks life.

This looks really nice.

Think I'll visit the asian grocer next time I'm in Melbourne.

@Nemo actually, this is one that got too dense and is missing a bit of glaze - as always, when having some small cut ingredients in a mixed dish - and here the small soy puffs set the tone... and the baby corn already got soaked more than i wanted - one wants to err on the side of thin when it comes to sauce consistency, but it got a bit too thin there..

Get some lotus root when at your grocer: looks great in that kind of dish, what you don't use makes awesome tempura (crunchy throughout. Goes great over plain soba in broth, but that's just my opinion) , and you will have a good excuse to keep a laser gyuto around (these cut like a carrot and a water chestnut's bastard, and they are two inches thick, and are best used kept round and sliced 2-5mm).


----

Ah, two more uses, though they don't strictly call for doubanjiang:

You can use it for fish-fragrant eggplant. I like using half/half doubanjiang and sambal oelek for that - make sure you don't make it too salty though! I suggest to use small japanese or turkish eggplants, slit them a couple times, then stir fry them whole a few minutes, then add aromatics and build sauce, braise (cooking times for various eggplants varies....), break up the eggplants only for the last few minutes of cooking... )
Wouldn't recommend the huge western eggplants - they can be bitter and you need to cut them up, which makes stir frying them without ripping off irregular pieces or getting a mushy layer of flesh a pain...


Have you made some ants climbing a tree yet? If you want a meatless version, crumbled firm tofu (maybe combined with diced shiitake and diced normal mushroom) fried HARD works great (as it does in mapo dofu of course...).

Really any of the "fish-fragrant" recipes (often translated as "in hot garlic sauce" or "in garlic sauce" in the US). Yu xiang rou si (fish-fragrant pork/pork in hot garlic sauce) is probably the most common in the states.

Oh yeah, the original Sichuan version of kung pao chicken uses it as does the spicy eight treasures stir fry/ba bao la jiang (woks of life has a pretty good post on this recipe).

Still haven't figured out whether it is a must or an option in (sichuan, not jiding) kung pao... It certainly won't mess it up I guess, it's heat acidity and umami, they're all welcome in it...

So, its first outing was as a quick snack in a tiny little egg pan with garlic, spring onions, sugar and sesame oil over some fresh noodles with peanuts. Super deep fermented flavour, very salty, less heat than I expected but I am excited about it as an ingredient

@Badgertooth you po mian essentially?

On a related note, try chinkiang, douchi, and maybe some of the pickled/fermented tofus (I find some of them yuck, some yummy. And can't vouch for that stuff being 100% safe for someone not used to it, so approach with caution*) for deep fermented flavors.

*fermenting stuff with rice could be a cereus risk, and I think I read about occasional cereus finds in such products too - so I wouldn't put it in the "feed to children in quantity" category...