Sichuan mustard green fish

I was inspired by the Sichuan fish on Ugly Delicious and decided to make up my own version. This based on what I've seen in cooking shows, traditional recipes and youtube recipes.

Ingredients


1.5-2 lbs fish
1/4-1/2 cup dried red chili
6 cloves garlic minced
1 inch ginger minced
3 scallions chopped
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
1/2 cup chopped chinese celery or Cilantro
1/2 cup pickled mustard greens
4 Tbsp corn starch
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
1 tsp five spice
1 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp mirin
2 Tbsp Tobanjan
2 cups chicken stock
1 tsp brown sugar

Pepper powder

In a pan roast the Sichuan peppercorns, coriander and 2 dried chili until fragrant. Grind to a powder in a spice grinder and set aside.

Pat the fish dry with a paper towel and cut the fish into 1/2 inches pieces. In a bowl add the white pepper powder, salt and shaoxing rice wine. Let it sit for 15 minute before cooking.

Over low heat, roast the dried chili until it turns fragrant and starts to brown. Add 2 Tbsp oil, garlic, ginger, tobanjan, scallions and mirin. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes on high heat and then add chopped pickled mustard greens and chinese celery. Cook for 2-3 minutes and then add 2 cups of broth and sugar.
When the broth is boiling, add the fish and cook for 5-6 minutes or until the fish is cooked. Turn the stove off and sprinkled the pepper powder on the fish.

Adjust the amount of dried chili and pepper powder to your taste. In Sichuan, they add a crazy amount of pepper corns and dried chili. When it's just me I like 1/2 cup of dried chili. When I cook for the family I reduce the amount of chili to avoid burning everyone's mouth off.

Maple Cinnamon Anko

The red bean paste I made last time was good, but I thought it needed more depth. This time I changed the recipe a bit and it like it even better

Ingredients
1 lb bag dried azuki beans
3 cups water
1 tsp salt
4.5 tbsp maple syrup
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cocoa powder


Cooking

Soak the dried azuki beans in water for 2-3 hours. After 3 hours, the water would be a little bit red. Discard the water and soak the azuki beans over night 8-12 hours. After 8 hours, you should be able to smell the azuki bean aroma.

Bring 5 cups of water to a boil. Once it's boiling, add the azuki beans and cook for 5 minutes. Discard the water and drain the beans. Put the beans back in the pot with 3 cups of water, maple syrup, cinnamon, salt and cocoa powder. Bring it to a boil and then simmer for 2 hours. Check it after 1 hour and add a bit more water if needed.

When the beans are soft and squish easily between your fingers, they are ready. Let the beans cool for 30 minutes and then mash them. If you want a fine red bean paste, use a food processor. I like it with a bit of texture, so I mash it with a potato masher.