Dry-fried cauliflower 干煸花菜

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Now is the time for cauliflower: it's at its best in local markets. We find two kinds at the wet market near my house, one being the traditional tight head of cauliflower such as is popular in the west, and an organic 有机 variety which has longer-stalked, gangly, looser florets. This latter kind has more flavor, and it's the one I usually buy. It's the one I used today. Here's what they look like. (You can click the photos to enlarge them.)

 

   

 

Dry frying or 干煸 (gan bian) is a cooking process popular in the southwest of China: Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. The idea is to cook a mild vegetable with a minimum of extra moisture so as to concentrate the vegetable's flavor. 干煸花菜 (gan bian huacai) is popular here and you can find it in most restaurants, large and small, at this time of year. If you like Sichuan food 川菜, you are probably familiar with dry-fried green beans 干煸四季豆 (gan bian siji dou); they are a staple menu item, both here in China and overseas in the western world. It's a dish that has been successfully exported.  

 

I'll show you a straight-forward way to make this nice cauliflower dish at home. Doesn't take much time; requires no fancy tools. Today I was making it for one, and I used about a third of a head of organic cauliflower, the kind with the longer, somewhat spindly florets. Use your fingers to tear it into shreds. Large pieces of stalk should be cut into thin pieces. If you are using western cauliflower, with the bigger florets, cut it up into thin slivers. The idea behind this is to allow it to cook fast with dry stove-top heat. Thick pieces would require a different cooking method to become tender. 

 

Soak these cauliflower pieces in dilute salt water for about 20 minutes. (I used a scant teaspoon of salt in nearly a quart of water.)  

 

  

 

While it is soaking, prep the other ingredients. Many Chinese recipes call for using fat pork belly meat 五花肉 (wuhua rou) sliced thin. Others call for sausage. Today I used Yunnan slow-cured ham from Xuanwei county, in the NE mountains of the province. 宣威火腿。Sliced it thin, alongside some minced ginger 老姜 and garlic 大蒜。Tore up two or three dry red chili peppers 干辣椒 and sprinkled out a half teaspoon of cumin seeds 孜然。I had some tasty cherry tomatoes 小番茄 in a basket on the window ledge, and I sliced a few of those. 

 

Since the quantities were small, I used a non-stick saute pan today 不粘平底锅, but I could just as well have used a wok 炒锅。Quick fried the garlic, ginger, peppers and ham slivers over medium heat until they began releasing their aroma 去香味。Careful not to burn the garlic; only takes 20 or 30 seconds. 

 

   

 

 

Drain the cauliflower and blot it dry, then add it to the spices in your skillet. Stir it with a flipping motion 翻炒 of your spatula or wok tool 锅铲 keeping the heat between medium and high. When the cauliflower begins to take on a bit of golden color 变金黄, add the small tomatoes. At this point you could also add some fresh hot green peppers 青辣椒 for more heat, or sliced spring onions 大葱 for greater complexity.  

 

   

 

 

Reduce the heat to medium now and continue stirring until the cauliflower is tender-crunchy and the tomatoes have lost most of their moisture (about 5 minutes.) Add a sprinkle of salt and another of sugar. (Remember that the ham has some salt, best not use too much extra.) Add a teaspoon or so of light soy sauce 生抽 and another of dark aged vinegar 老陈醋。Don't be tempted to add water to make a gravy, as you might if this were a standard stir-fry. You want all the flavors to be absorbed into the vegetable as it cooks.

 

   

 

It's ready when the stalks yield easily to being pinched with chopsticks. Plate it up 装盘 and dig in 动筷子。This can be served with rice as a side dish in a larger meal. If you prefer a vegetarian version, just leave out the meat. Consider a few wild mushrooms in its place.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished product!

 

 

                                                                       

 

 

[889]

Real ham!

 

Real ham!

 

I never order anything promising "火腿“ anymore because I know it'll be just some disgusting processed meat.

 

By the way, I always thought 干煸 was one of those cooking styles best left to professional chefs working over high temp flames. Is this the same as restaurant fare, or is there a difference? Speaking objectively, of course.

 

(Without question I'd add 花椒 to the mix. A dish just doesn't seem like 干煸-whatever without 花椒!)

 

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On 11/18/2018 at 3:30 AM, 889 said:

By the way, I always thought 干煸 was one of those cooking styles best left to professional chefs working over high temp flames. Is this the same as restaurant fare, or is there a difference?

 

This came out pretty much the same as when I've had it in restaurants. Similar consistency and flavor. Last time was in a nearby Sichuan restaurant, a couple weeks ago. Didn't require industrial-strength fire. My home kitchen gas burners were adequate. 

 

On 11/18/2018 at 3:30 AM, 889 said:

(Without question I'd add 花椒 to the mix. A dish just doesn't seem like 干煸-whatever without 花椒!)

 

The recipes I found used either cumin seeds 孜然 or huajiao 花椒, not both together. Maybe next time I'll make it with 花椒 instead; that does sound good. This organic cauliflower is in high season now. I'm sure I'll make this dish, or something similar, once or twice more before the vegetable is all gone for the year. 

[mungouk]

How come organic is 有机？  Isn't 机 usually associated with machinery?

 

 

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12 hours ago, mungouk said:

How come organic is 有机？  Isn't 机 usually associated with machinery?

 

Good question, @mungouk -- I'm not sure of the answer and I find it puzzling too. Could it have something to do with chemistry? Perhaps the lack of artificially-introduced organic compounds, such as pesticides and fertilizers. Organic farming = 有机农业。

 

The Baidu article about 有机花菜 makes the point that this is not really a different variety of cauliflower; it's just regular ("tight and fluffy head") cauliflower grown in a different environment which alters its shape and taste somewhat. 

 

I don't recall seeing this same "loose-head and long-legged" cauliflower in the U.S., at least not in supermarkets. Might exist in farmers markets, however. Afraid I just don't know. 

 

 

[大块头]

 

2 hours ago, abcdefg said:

9 hours ago, mungouk said:

How come organic is 有机？  Isn't 机 usually associated with machinery?

 

Good question, @mungouk -- I'm not sure of the answer and I find it puzzling too. Could it have something to do with chemistry?

 

Not so sure about the origin, but 有机 is definitely used to refer to organic chemicals like benzene, toluene, etc. My guess is that term originally started in the chemistry realm.

[889]

Ever notice that it's always 有机花菜 you see on menus? When was the last time you saw 有机四季豆 on a menu?

 

That is, I wonder whether, in the case of cauliflower, 有机 has come to refer not so much to cauliflower that's been truly organically grown but to a certain type of cauliflower that resembles what consumers think is "organic cauliflower."

 

See, e.g., here:

 

https://www.guokr.com/blog/789469/