Food: The many words for spice(3)

Directions:
1. Cube the chicken and put in a bowl with the Shaoxing wine and a little salt and black pepper. Put this aside to marinate while you prepare the rest.
2. Slice the long hot peppers and put aside.
3. Heat the wok to very high and add no more than a quarter cup of oil. Heat the oil until you just start to see it smoke.
4. Put the chicken in the wok and stir fry for a few minutes until it is just cooked on the outside, but not fully cooked. Remove the chicken from the wok and put aside for a moment in a bowl. Don’t worry—you will finish cooking it in a minute. We do this so the chicken won’t get overcooked and soggy.
5. Quickly rinse and dry the wok and heat it up again very high with more oil. Make sure the wok is completely dry before putting in the oil or it will spatter hot oil around the stove!
6. When the oil is hot add the douban and stir-fry for 30 seconds or so.
7. Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for a few seconds.
8. Add the dry, crushed red pepper, huajiao peppercorns, star anise and stir-fry a few seconds more.
9. Return the chicken to the wok and stir-fry again. Add a small amount of dark soy sauce.
10. Add the long hot peppers and stir-fry for a minute.
11. Toss in the chopped green onions and stir in for a few seconds. Turn off the heat and place in a serving bowl.
Note:
1. Shaoxing rice wine is a cooking wine available in most Chinese supermarkets. You can substitute any other cooking wine or omit it entirely if you want the dish to be alcohol-free.

Notes:
1. Shaoxing rice wine is a cooking wine available in most Chinese supermarkets. You can substitute any other cooking wine or omit it entirely if you want the dish to be alcohol-free.
2. Douban is a bean paste popular in Sichuan. You can find this often labeled as “bean paste” or “soybean paste”. The best kind is known as Pixian douban (郫縣豆瓣). Pixian is a county near Chongqing city famous for its douban. The Lee Kum Kee brand also sells a version of douban. They label it as “Touban Jiang” and sell it in small jars. If you can’t find it, you can omit the douban or even substitute a different pepper paste.
3. Huajiao peppercorns (or Sichuan peppercorns) can sometimes be found on sale in Chinese supermarkets. The packages often have no English label so they can be hard to identify. The name is sometimes translated as “prickly ash” on packages. The Latin scientific name “Zanthoxylum” is also used. If you can’t find huajiao peppercorns, you can substitute any black peppercorns but you’ll be missing the “tingly” taste.


Alan Phillips is the technology coordinator and ASCENT instructor of the Asian American Civic Association.