It’s hard to make Chinese food without garlic and ginger. Luckily, for some Sichuanese recipes (a few!) that’s less of an issue. This is a variant on a recipe I’ve made before. Simple (if you have the ingredients) and a good opportunity to use up some things in my freezer and pantry.

Do you know zha cai? It’s the preserved tuber of something in the Cabbage family, I forget which species. If you’re a Lucky Rabbit, you can buy it in a can:

But I’m lucky enough to live close to not one but two (!) Chinese groceries where you can buy it in bulk.

Perhaps the ugliest vegetable ever? It looks like something that should have been removed from your colon.

It keeps forever in your fridge, like this one, maybe six months old.

It’s salted, dried, rubbed with chile, and fermented. Delicious, soft/crunchy, but very salty, so it needs to be sliced thin and soaked in water before use:

It’s the first time I’ve used Sichuan pickled peppers:

They are nicely sour, but hellaciously hot, so I only used three, chopped:

Too much meat!

So, half sliced into 1/8″ strips, the rest back into the freezer.

This step is completely optional: Mix one egg white with 1 tsp. cornstarch and add the beef:

The yolk, with a bit of thyme and salt, was cook’s treat:

Heat two Tbsp. oil, then add 1-1/2 Tbsp. chili bean paste (or to taste) and the pickled peppers (but not a whole peck):

Add the beef and stir for a minute or so, until it isn’t completely done:

Remove to a bowl. Drain the zha cai. Heat another 2 Tbsp. oil in the pan, and cook the cai ‘n’ peppers until done.

Add the meat and stir until well combined and hot:

Beef with Peppers and Preserved Vegetable:

Yum!

-R