Sichuan Spicy Boiled Beef, CiCi Li - Asian Home Cooking Recipes

Sichuan boiled beef is a quintessential Sichuan dish. It is known for its rumbling spicy, tongue-burning sensation. In a good way, I promise. There's also an interesting legend behind this fiery dish. Hi, I'm Cece. Today, I'll show you how to make Sichuan boiled beef. After watching today's video, I guarantee that you'll master it just like a pro. There's also a really interesting legend behind this dish. I'll tell you more about it. Stay tuned. I remember when I was still a kid, my parents took me to a Sichuan restaurant along with some of their friends. One of their friends ordered boiled beef, and it's called sui zhu niu in Chinese. It literally translates to water-boiled beef. How could he order something so bland in a Sichuan restaurant? I wondered. When the waiter served the dish on the table and announced, here's the boiled beef, I raised both of my eyebrows and my eyes were almost popped out. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was absolutely nothing like how I imagined. It was indeed a bowl of sliced beef served on top of a bed of vegetables in a fiery hot chili sauce and with like a hundred pieces of chili peppers in it. The beef was meltingly tender. The vegetables were just full of flavors. It was numbly spicy and full of umami taste. It was shockingly pleasing to the palate. So later I discovered that Sichuan sui zhu, or boiling, is actually a common Sichuan cooking method by boiling meat in a spicy hot broth. The broth usually consists of chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger, garlic, scallions, Sichuan pixian broad bean paste, and other seasonings. So according to the legend, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Zigong city of the Sichuan province was known as the salt capital of China. Back in the days, people used cattle to transport salt throughout China. The journeys were very labor intensive. So naturally, both the workers and the cattle were exhausted easily. In order for the workers to have sufficient energy to continue the work, they slaughtered the cattle once they were incapable of traveling anymore. Yes, I know it sounds a little sad here. Then the workers cut the meat into thin slices, boil it in water, and salt, Sichuan peppercorns, chilies, and other seasonings in it. As time goes by, this became the renounced boiled beef of the Sichuan province. So as a finishing touch, we're gonna transfer the red chilies and the Sichuan peppercorn into the bowl. In a pan, we're gonna heat up 6 tablespoons of oil in high heat until smoking hot. Now we're gonna pour the oil over the chilies and the Sichuan peppercorn. I love that sound. Lastly, we're gonna garnish with some cilantro. What is your favorite spicy dish? Comment below and let me know. For me, there are so many. I love Sichuan boiled beef, boiled fish, Sichuan hot pot is also really nice, and there are also so many Thai dishes that I love. So comment below and let me know what is your favorite spicy dish. I'll see you in the next episode. Remember to subscribe, thumbs up.