Tonight's Dinner - Shui Zhu Yang Rou (Water Boiled Lamb)

This classic Sichuan dish is usually made with Beef - Shui Zhu Niu Rou, the version made with fish Shui Zhu Yu is one of our favorite dishes at Ba Ren, which more appropriately calls these dishes "Boiled in Hot Sauce". Tonight I thought I'd try making it with lamb.

 

I was surprised how well it turned out.... not quite sure about the photos though. The Missus said they look like brains boiled in hot sauce! The recipe is loosely based on Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe in her fantastic cookbook, Land of Plenty which I've referenced many times over the years. If you have that recipe handy you'll notice more than a few differences. First, I really used water, not stock for this. I also bumped up all the spices, and used four different sources of chilies, including Korean Ground Red Chili and my home made chili oil. I also used tablespoons of freshly toasted and ground Sichuan Peppercorns instead of teaspoons. If you try this recipe out, you may want to increase it even more since I used Sichuan Peppercorns directly from Sichuan that had never been irradiated. Instead of numbing your tongue and lips, it'll numb your entire face. I also used finely minced garlic and a touch of grated ginger, which really helped the dish along.

What's really interesting about this dish is that it's built in layers using a single wok. First you use the chilies and most of the ground Sichuan Peppercorn to develop a chili-and-peppercorn infused oil.

 

You then remove the chilies and use the oil to very briefly stir fry your vegetables. Because I used two different veggies, I made this in two batches.

 

And layered one on top of the other in the bowl to be used for serving.

Next you build your "sauce", much like the way I do my Ma Po Tofu. Once you have your sauce boiling you add your meat, which has been marinating in Shaoxing wine, and mixed with a cornstarch mixture. You stir briefly with chopsticks to ensure the meat is separated. Once the meat is cooked you remove the meat from the now thickened sauce, and add that to the bowl. You then pour the sauce over everything. Chop the dried chilies, sprinkle them on top of everything along with more Sichuan Peppercorn..... and it's done.

 

In case you're thinking this was a long drawn out process, it was actually pretty quick. I even made another stir fried vegetable dish for dinner...... Oh, and it was more "Ma" (numbing) than "La" spicy, at least to me.

 
Shui Zhu Yang Rou - Water Boiled Lamb:

2/3 lb vegetables - mung bean sprouts, lettuce, napa cabbage, etc
2/3 lb Sliced Lamb
2 Tb Shaoxing Wine (Drinking Quality please)
10-15 Dried Red Chilies
3 Tb freshly toasted and ground Sichuan Peppercorn
3 cloves garlic finely minced
1 tsp grated ginger
3 Tb Peanut Oil
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1 tsp Ground Red Chilies
3 Tb home made chili oil
4-5 Tb Sichuan Chili Bean Paste aka Doubian Jian (make sure it's made from Broad Beans)
4 Tb Corn Starch combined with 4-5 Tb water to form a paste
2 tsp Dark Soy Sauce
2 tsp Premium Soy sauce
1 Tb white granulated sugar
2 cups water
salt to taste
Cilantro

- Prep and slice (if necessary) your vegetables
- Slice dried chilies in half and discard the seeds
- Combine the sliced lamb with Shaoxing Wine, mix well, and let marinate
- Add peanut oil to a medium hot wok. Add the dried chilies and 2 tablespoons of Sichuan Peppercorn to the wok.Stir Fry until the chilies start to brown, do not scald. Quickly remove the chilies.
- Add vegetables to the wok and stir fry quickly. Since I used two different items I did this twice. I added a touch of salt and the ground red chilies to the greens. Just briefly cook the vegetables, they should still be crunchy when removed from the wok to create the first layer(s) in your bowl.
- Add the canola oil (I used canola oil instead of peanut oil for this because peanut oil is so darn expensive nowadays) and turn up the heat.
- When the oil begins to shimmer add the Bean Paste, stir frying until it is fragrant.Add garlic, ginger, and mix quickly.
- Add water, soy sauces, and sugar.
- While the liquid is coming up to a boil. Combine the cornstarch mixture with the lamb and mix well.
- When the sauce is boiling, dip a chopstick into the sauce and taste. Adjust the flavor if necessary.
- Start adding the slices of meat to the sauce. As the sauce comes up to a boil use chopsticks to separate the slices of meat.
- Once the meat is cooked, use chopsticks or a slotted spoon to top the vegetables with the meat.
- Pour the bubbling sauce over everything
- Chop the red chilies, and sprinkle on top, drizzle on chili oil to taste along with the remaining tablespoon of Sichuan Pepper.

 

 

Comments

[Jeff C]

Kirk, you lucky man. To be able to get your hands on the unadulterated peppercorns and to taste it is amazing. I really do pity people who've never had the real thing.

[kat]

sounds spicy and that you need a lot of rice with this, which is a good thing :)

[caninecologne]

whoa, irradiated? entire face!? sounds pretty potent!!! and delicious!

[Nate]

Now this looks extremely tasty!!!

[Dennis]

Wow that looks like magma! ;) It seems every step requires a little bit of hot spices. I can imagine it's a very nuanced and delicious spicy dish!

[Kirk]

Hi Jeff - It's much more numbing than what you get here in the states.

Hi Kat - I didn't think it was particularly spicy..... but I did have two bowls of rice!

Hi CC - LOL! Come to think of it, my face did feel like it was irradiated! ;o)

Hi Nate - It was.....

Hi Dennis - Nah. I'm not sure about nuanced, though I like layers of heat.

[bill]

Yum, bowl of spicy hot brains.

[Kirk]

LOL Billy! It does look like brains, huh?

[Buddha]

Kirk,

I went to T&L and talked to the owner and he told me the kind of Douban Jiang to get. I made the boiled fish dish and it came out very good almost like I want it, still needs tweaking. Thanks for the help.

I also went to Spicy House and tried the boiled fish there. I noticed that it was a deep red color very nice but the sauce seemed to be quite oily but still tasted good.

[Michael]

DUDE!! OMG! that looks incredible! What time did you say dinner was again?

[Kirk]

Hi Jeff - I'm glad the dish is turning out well for you.

Hi Mike - LOL! You can now make this in your very own home.

[SK]

Where do you get the chili bean paste? I've tried to find it at 99 Ranch but didn't see anything that looked right.

[Kirk]

Hi SK - I used to get it from 99 Ranch market...then they were out of it for a few months. They now have it back in stock, I saw it the other day. There are other brands that are better, but this one is easy to get. It says Broad Bean Paste with Chili.

[stephen]

Hi Kirk,
Looks and sounds great. I might give it a try, but may have to tone down the peppers. Thanks for posting

[Kirk]

Hi Stephen - Thank you for reading and commenting. This ended up not being too spicy. And my hope is that you'll try something like this......

[Judy@ TinkerWithFood]

hi kirk! long time!!! there's a place in the bay area called china rose that makes really good shui zhu yu and this post makes me want to try my hand at it too! lamb is my absolute favorite. how are you and the missus?

-judy

[KIrk]

Hi Judy - It's so very nice to hear from you! This turned out very well. I hope to read some new posts soon!

[Judy@ TinkerWithFood]

i got a few of my sd friends hooked on your blog ;)! they've been visiting restaurants that you blog all the time. i just bought a house in the bay area, so i've been super busy, but i promise to post soon!

-judy

[conservatories]

I went to spicy House and tried it the cooked fish. I noticed that it was very nice a deep red color, but the sauce seemed to be still good but tasted quite oily.