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Sichuan Spicy Vegetable Stew

Sichuan Style Spicy Vegetable Stew

If you aren't familiar with Sichuan cuisine, make this recipe your introduction to it. It's packed full of salty, spicy and savoury flavours and is actually really easy to make. It's a simple stew made with some quintessential Sichuan ingredients like Szechuan peppercorns, Doubanjiang and five spice powder. 
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings: 2
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tbsp Oil
  • ½ tsp Sesame oil
  • 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
  • 3 cloves Garlic minced
  • 1 tbsp Ginger grated
  • ½ Onion sliced
  • ½ tsp Five spice powder
  • 2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
  • 2 tbsp Doubanjiang (Chinese fermented chili bean paste)
  • 1 Carrot sliced
  • 1 Zucchini 2cm dice
  • 2 cups Chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
  • 2 tsp Sugar
  • 2 tsp Rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp Cornflour
  • 1 bunch Enoki mushrooms ends cut off
  • Spring onions for garnish
  • Sesame seeds for garnish

Method
 

  1. Heat your saucepan over medium heat and add your oils. Once it's hot, add your Sichuan pepper corns and toast them in the oil for a minute or 2 until they become fragrant. You can remove the peppercorns at this point if you'd like as they will fragrance the oil, but I like them left in.
  2. Add your onion, garlic, ginger and five spice and sauté until the onions are soft.
  3. Deglaze with the Shaoxing wine, then add the Doubanjiang, carrots, zucchini, chicken stock, soy sauce, sugar and rice wine vinegar.
  4. Leave that to simmer with the lid on for around 10 minutes to allow the vegetables to soften and the flavours to amalgamate. Taste the broth and adjust if necessary.
  5. Mix your cornflour with a few tablespoons of water then pour into stew. Mix it thoroughly to evenly distribute the slurry and let it bubble for a few minutes so the broth becomes thick and glossy.
  6. Break up your enoki into little bundles and add to the top of the stew. Turn the heat down and pop the lid back on for 5 minutes to soften the mushrooms.
  7. Sprinkle with chopped spring onion and sesame seeds and serve with rice.