Northern Chinese
Each month we explore a restaurant trend, highlighting key dishes and ingredients. Here, Wei Shao, owner of Baoziinn, London (baoziinn.com), guides us through traditional dishes and ingredients of the Chinese provinces of Hunan and Sichuan and how they’re served at the restaurant. Sichuan pepper
A real favourite when it comes to Northern Chinese cooking. Rather than giving off pure heat, Sichuan pepper causes a tingling sensation in the mouth and is said to stimulate circulation and aid appetite.
Chef ’s special house-made soy sauce
Chinese soy sauce infused with star anise, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves and other herbs and spices. This sauce is used in many dishes at Baoziinn, but most notably it’s poured over prawn wonton dumplings, the restaurant’s most celebrated dish.
Black ear fungus
Also known as cloud ear mushrooms, these are an edible tree fungus grown in Yunnan as well as Sichuan and Hunan. They are dried and need to be soaked before use. They’re often used in a Sichuan salad where they’re combined with coriander, vinegar and pickled chillies. They have a rubbery, almost jelly-like texture.
Mantou Chang fen
A steamed bun normally eaten in mainland China at breakfast. We make our own and use them for our prawn brioche. The dough is slightly sweetened with coconut milk, creating a crisp base (while the middle stays soft) as well as perfectly complementing the fragrant prawn paste.
These are flat rice noodle sheets rolled up and filled with shrimp, beef or vegetables – a Cantonese dim sum staple. They’re eaten at breakfast or in the evening. At Baoziinn, they’re made with dried shrimp and covered with homemade soy sauce and Sichuan red chilli oil.
Dan dan noodles
Made from flour and egg and cut to medium thickness, these noodles come drenched in a spicy broth that contains Sichuan red oil, homemade soy sauce, vinegar and sesame sauce. They’re topped with pork mince and stir-fried with Sichuan preserved mustard greens.
Baozi
Another steamed, flour-based bun with a completely encased filling, usually of meat or vegetables.
Chengdu jiaozi
First recorded in 1893 as a heritage dish awarded by the Sichuan Government, these small dumplings made with a flour-based pastry are usually filled with minced pork and herbs or vegetables. They are predominantly served boiled but they can also be steamed or fried.