Recipe: Hand-Torn Sichuan Cabbage

Hand-Torn Sichuan Cabbage

Hand-Torn Sichuan Cabbage is our approximation of a favorite dish at Albany’s Northeast Chinese II. It has an irresistible sweet/sour/hot flavor with the additional mala of Sichuan peppercorns. Theirs includes slices of steamed pork belly, which you can certainly add if you like. Our goal was to produce an economical, tasty vegetarian side dish and here it is. Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:
1 small head or 1/2 large head green cabbage*, about 1.5 lbs
4 or more dried red peppers, each cut with scissors into thirds
1 t Sichuan peppercorns
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
3 T peanut oil or vegetable oil
2 T Chinkiang black vinegar**
2 T soy sauce
2 T Shaoshing cooking wine or water
1 t sugar
1/2 t Kosher salt

Method: discard outer leaves of cabbage and tear into pieces about 1 1/2 inch square. Heat the oil to medium in a wok and add peppercorns and red peppers; cook slowly, stirring frequently, till they are very fragrant (about 5 minutes). Add garlic and sauté till lightly browned. Turn up heat and add the cabbage all at once. Tumble the cabbage around in the wok until all pieces are coated with oil and it has picked up a bit of wok char.

Dissolve sugar and salt in a container with vinegar and soy sauce and pour over the cabbage in the wok. Add water or Shaohsing wine. Cover, turn down heat and steam 10-15 minutes until the cabbage is tender. Serve hot.

*You can find recipes that use more expensive Napa cabbage for this dish but Northeast Chinese II uses plain green cabbage. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us.

**Chinkiang vinegar is essential to the robust, tart side of this sweet/sour dish. If you don’t have it in your pantry, order a bottle from Amazon and hold off making this recipe till it arrives.