Your Big Red Book: Four More From The Cultural Revolution Cookbook

Spicy White Radish Salad

The Chinese seldom eat vegetables that have not been cooked thoroughly, but this one is an exception. These large radishes -- which you can often find in American supermarkets -- are especially sweet and lend themselves to being eaten raw. Topping this dish off with a large spoonful of crushed, roasted nuts will add even more flavor and texture.

Ingredients

1 large white, Daikon radish (if unavailable, 2-3 turnips may be substituted)
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 slice ginger (about the size and thickness of a quarter)
1 tsp. (5 ml.) vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. (30 ml.) sesame oil
3 Tbsp. (45 ml.) soy sauce
3 Tbsp. (45 ml.) dark vinegar (but white will do)
1 tsp. to 1 Tbsp. (5 to 15 ml.) hot sauce, to taste (Chinese cooks use a paste made with hot peppers, but Tabasco sauce may be substituted)

Method

1. Wash and peel the radish and slice it into strips about 2-3 inches (5-7 cm.) long and 1/4 inch (6mm.) wide. Crush the garlic and chop the ginger, mixing them together into a smooth paste.
2. Mix all the ingredients (except the radish) together and add them to the garlic-ginger paste. Blend them well into a sauce.
3. Arrange the radish pieces on a serving plate, cover with the sauce and serve.

Notes:    

1. The other night, when I couldn’t find a daikon radish at my local market, and didn’t feel like essaying the turnip version, I substituted instead a combination of thinly sliced red radishes and baby bok choy.  It was excellent.  I have not tried adding the crushed roasted nuts yet, but I imagine it would be wonderful.  

2. Chinese dark vinegar is a complex blend from the Chinkiang Province of China made of glutinous rice and malt.  I have seen it in both extremely affordable (at Chinese groceries) and overly expensive versions (at Western specialty markets). It is somewhat similar to a balsamic vinegar, which may be substituted.  Another “close enough”equivalent might be a red rice vinegar with a small amount of superfine sugar added.

Fried Eggs With Chives

The Chinese adore this combination of flavors; they feel eggs and chives are a match made in heaven.  This dish was popular among peasants and sent-down youth because both principal ingredients could be raised at home legally and consumed privately during most of the Cultural Revolution.

Ingredients

1 large bunch chives (about the diameter of a half-dollar or 30 mm). (Chinese chives recommended, if possible.)

4 eggs

Dash of salt

5 tbsp. cooking oil

Method

1. Rinse off the chives and cut them into small pieces, each about an inch (2.5 cm) in length.   

2. Beat the eggs and add the salt.  Heat the oil in a wok.  When it begins to smoke, add the chives and stir-fry them until their color changes into a deep green. This should take about a minute.  

3. Add the eggs and stir-fry them until they solidify.  Remove and stir.

Steamed Savory Egg Custard

This was a particularly popular dish during the Cultural Revolution because it did not require oil, which was strictly rationed, and because portions could be increased by dilution so that adding more water meant feeding more people.

Ingredients

2 eggs

3 ½ cups (900 ml.) cold water

Dash of salt

¼ scallion (spring onion)

1-2 Tbsp. sesame oil (optional)

Sprig of cilantro or parsley (for garnish; optional)

Method

1. Beat the eggs in a dish and add 1 ½ cups (about 400 ml.) of the water and the salt.  Mix well.  Cut the scallion into small pieces.

 

2. Put the mixture in a heat-safe dish with a cover.  The covered dish should fit inside your wok.  Add the remaining water to the wok and bring to the boil.

3. When the water begins to boil, place the covered dish in the wok and then cover the wok itself.  Turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.

 

4. Remove from the wok.  Just before serving, sprinkle the scallion and drizzle the sesame oil (if desired) on top of the custard.  Garnish and serve.

Vinegar-Glazed Chinese Cabbage

This dish is most common in north China, where cabbage enjoys a longer growing season.  It is best when made with dark vinegar.  Even balsamic vinegar, which is not native to China, gives it a wonderful flavor.

Ingredients

1 small head of Napa cabbage

3 cloves of garlic

1 Tbsp. (15 g.) cornstarch

2 Tbsp. (30 ml.) cold water

4 Tbsp. (60 ml.) cooking oil

3 Tbsp. (45 ml.) dark vinegar

Dash of salt

Method

1. Rinse the cabbage thoroughly and remove any brown leaves.  Slice the leaves in half lengthwise and then crosswise into shreds that are approximately 3-4 inches (7-10 cm.) long. 

2. Slice the garlic into thin pieces.  Combine the cornstarch and the cold water (it must be cold to avoid lumps) and make a smooth paste.

Heat the oil in a wok until it just begins to smoke.  Then add the garlic and stir-fry for 10-15 seconds.  

3.  Add the cabbage and stir-fry for about two minutes, until it has softened completely.  Add the vinegar and salt and stir-fry for 10 more seconds until it is completely mixed.  

4.   Then add the cornstarch mix and continue to cook. The liquid will thicken quickly.  Transfer to a platter and serve.

Vinegar starts here

NOTES:   

1.  My previous entry about The Cultural Revolution Cookbook proved to be extremely popular, so I thought posting a few more of the delicious recipes would be a good idea and, I hope, encourage readers to buy the book, which is both inexpensive and incredibly worth owning.   

It has been great to see Sasha Gong and Scott D. Seligman’s work receiving very good reviews and what seems to be a lot of attention in the press.

2.  Regular visitors here may have noticed that I tend to post vegetarian recipes (and sometimes fish and seafood), but I’d like to mention that The Cultural Revolution Cookbook also contains excellent meat, poultry, fish and seafood dishes.  The book’s hallmarks are simplicity, community and humanity, all scarce ingredients in these current dark and angry days.

So, for all the people who are unlikely to be daily lunching on Dover sole and dining on Wagyu beef, this may be  

Your Big Red Book.

As Clear as Tofu and Scallions: The Cultural Revolution Cookbook

INTRO:  




Of my various 2011 "Christmas books" (they ranged from volumes of political  analysis  and invective to artistic, natural history and culinary works), my absolute favorite was The Cultural Revolution Cookbook by Sasha Gong and Scott D. Seligman.


When I first read about the book's impending publication, I thought it must be a sort of joke item.  Remembering the Cultural Revolution, one tends to think about political terror, acts of terrible and confusing cruelty, social destruction and material privation, rather than cuisine.

During the Cultural Revolution




But Sasha Gong, a Chinese-born American academic whose family was relocated from Guangzhou to Hunan province during the Cultural Revolution, significantly interrupting her schooling, has in this handsome, beautifully written and sensibly priced book, transformed proverbial lemons into lemonade as she tells the story of learning by necessity to live, cook and eat simply in the countryside, growing, preparing and sharing pure, good and traditional food.


I have been cooking from the excellent, delicious recipes in this book non-stop and I am pleased to present you with one of Ms. Gong's simplest, easiest and best meals.  If you want, you can elaborate on it by adding minced or sliced ginger,  hot chilies or various types of pickled vegetables .  It's splendid as is, however, and the title of this post, explained in the text following the recipe -- "As clear as tofu and scallions" -- used as a simile for  integrity or flattering sobriquet -- is an image I understand and find very moving.  

 Tofu

Tofu With Scallions and Sesame Dressing

Ingredients




1 scallion
1 cake firm tofu (bean curd)
2 tsp. sesame oil
Pinch of salt




Tofu was invented in 164 BC by a Chinese nobleman trying to make medicine, and it has taken its rightful place as a major source of protein in the Chinese diet.  This amazingly simple dish is incredibly tasty, low in fat and high in protein.  Use a firm bean curd to make it because it will hold its shape better this way.


Shred the scallion into very small pieces, cutting it on the bias to maximize surface area.  Rinse the tofu and place it on a microwave-safe serving plate.  


Warm it by microwaving it on high for one minute, or simply heating it very gently in a conventional oven.


          Remove the tofu from the oven, and with a sharp knife or cleaver, cut it up into small pieces about 1 ½ inches (4 cm.) long, an inch (2.5 cm.) wide and about ½ inch (about 1.5 cm.) thick. 



          Sprinkle the scallion, sesame oil and salt on top of the tofu pieces and serve while still warm.




Note:  There were obviously no microwaves in the Chinese countryside during the Cultural Revolution, nor did peasants have convection ovens.  They would simply have soaked the tofu – which would have been freshly made – in hot water for 10 minutes to heat it up.

Sesame

“Supreme Instruction – 

‘ Struggle against selfishness and criticize revisionism’”

During the Cultural Revolution, people were often accused of offenses, from stealing or engaging in extra-marital  affairs to slacking off or having “bad thoughts.”  Meetings of village production teams were forums for dispute resolution where people were often compelled to criticize themselves or defend themselves against such accusations.  A good defense was to proclaim one’s loyalty and demonstrate knowledge of communist doctrine, with whatever rhetorical flourishes one could muster.  



     This dish – its milky white bean curd a sharp contrast to the deep green of its scallions – provided a useful metaphor.  If your innocence was  ‘as clear as tofu and scallions,” then anyone ought to be able to appreciate it. 



Excerpted from:  The Cultural Revolution Cookbook by Sasha Gong and Scott D. Seligman (Hong Kong, Earnshaw Books, 2011)

Scallions

OUTRO:



I confess a deep and profound love for Chinese bean curd.  Although it is fine in this country, especially when it is freshly made, it is out of this world in China. 



     Thinking about bean curd, which I probably do an abnormal amount, brings to mind the final testament of the Chinese poet Qu Qiubai, imprisoned and then executed by the Kuomitang because he was too ill to depart on the October 1934 Long March.   One of his final acts was composing a goodbye note, "Some Superfluous Words," which after praising flowers, moonlight and factory chimneys, concluded by recommending "Anna Karenina" and "The Dream of the Red Chamber" and stating, last of all, that "the Chinese bean curd is the most delicious food in the whole world.  Goodbye and farewell!."

Qu Qiubai – "Some Superfluous Words"

 

This makes me think of the author, Sasha Gong