Chilli-Labor/atory

There is so much Chinese cooking in the West, and so little Western cuisine in China (notwithstanding the recent influx of milk), that it seems as if cooking Chinese cuisine in Europe should present no problems. Reality, as so often, is very different from the imagination. From pots to fire to ingredients, there is a host of problems…

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After toon, another typical spring food was still missing, and one of the more interesting ingredients at that: fern.

The preparation is simple enough: the leafy tops get cut off, the stalks washed and cut into smaller pieces. The fern pieces get fried with some meat, chile pepper and ginger, and then boiled for a little while.

Tomatoes are a somewhat strange thing in China, common and yet peculiar. Not least, that’s because you find the bigger ones as a vegetable along with the large diversity of greens and the like, the smaller cherry tomatoes as a fruit alongside lychees, mangoes, apples and pears – and even in fruit salads.

The tomato tribulations are on in China, too: if there are traditional varieties, they are being given up in favor of more productive, more uniform hybrid varieties. Yet, provided you find ones that are tasty enough, the two typical Chinese tomato dishes are a great example of the simple yet excellent preparation one can often find in Chinese cooking.

After the fold, on to recipes.

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Another sign of spring, besides toon, are the bamboo shoots appearing not just in the groves, but also in the market. And making their way into the kitchen, on the plate. Spicy, too.

Leaves (wrapped up aroound the shoot) are usually removed somewhat already; the shoots get washed, cut smaller, and put into a pot with dried chile peppers and some Sichuan pepper (if wanted), to be boiled until soft (some 30 minutes) in water used for washing rice.

When boiled, the water gets drained, the bamboo shoots separated from the peppers and fried together with fresh chile peppers and some meat (and, if wanted, Shiitake mushrooms cut into strips).

Spring (?, chun) comes, and with it “toon,” which means to say ?, chun – if you look at the character, “the
tree of spring.”

And yes, if you think it looks like something cut off of a tree, that’s what it is – which makes it rather special even amongst the, already impressive, diversity of leafy green vegetables in China. Their aroma and taste is pretty noticeable, quite strong, and rather pleasant.

“Recipes”

Toon Omelette:
Cut some of the leaves (with stalks) small, put in a bowl, add 1-2 eggs and mix. Salt lightly.
Heat quite some oil in a pan (wok) until rather hot, pour in the egg-toon mixture, fry on both sides until done.

Spicy Toon with Pork:

Cut some of the leaves (with stalks), pork, and chillies.
Fry pork until lightly done, add chillies, add toon pieces, fry all until pork is browned. Enjoy.
[Note of caution: This is rather typical Hunan cooking - Xiang cuisine. Frying chillies, it's recommendable to... well, get used to it. And don't do it in a communal kitchen with people who are really sensitive around. The sneezing fits are normal...]

China schätzt frische Zutaten – wie man am Fisch, frisch vom Markt, leicht merkt:
China values fresh ingredients – as you can tell from the fish, fresh from the market:

In anderer Form braucht man ihn dann allerdings…
It’s needed in a slightly different form, however…

… und erhält ausgezeichnetes Essen.
… to give an excellent dish.

Rezept folgt. Der hier verwendete Fisch sind übrigens Karauschen