What you need (serves two to three)
about 200g meat of your choice (such as shrimp, sliced beef, or pork), 150g boiled lotus root, 70g glass noodles, bok choy, mushrooms, and mala xiang guo paste.
What you do
Making mala xiang guo paste– you can just use premade paste, but the second time I made this dish, I had run out, so I made my own from scratch, hoping to tone down the spice a bit.
Ingredients: 180g cooking oil, 8g Sichuan peppercorns, 8g dried red chilies, 40g doubanjiang, 20g chopped scallions, 20g minced garlic, 20g minced ginger, 1g star anise, 2g cinnamon stick, 0.5g cloves, 2g white pepper, 4g sugar, 2g salt, and 15g dark soy sauce
- Heat the oil in a pot and sauté the scallions, garlic, and ginger until fragrant.
- Add Sichuan peppercorns, dried chilies, and the rest of the spices. Stir over medium-low heat to infuse the flavor.
- Stir in doubanjiang, soy sauce, sugar, and salt. Let it cook for 2–3 minutes.
- Let it cool completely and store in a jar.
Making Mala Xiang Guo
- Cut all your ingredients (meat, veggies, etc.) into bite-sized pieces.
- I skipped the usual blanching step and just stir-fried them until about 70% cooked—it’s faster and worked well for me!
- Add 3–4T the mala paste and 1T oyster sauce.
- Stir-fry everything together over high heat for about 3–5 minutes until everything is coated and cooked through.
Lab notes
The first time I made this dish using Hai Di Lao Basic Stir Fry Sauce, it was way too spicy for me—even with peanut sauce on the side. So I made the paste from scratch, and it turned out to be way more manageable and still super flavorful.