Fuqi Feipian

Beef and offal braised, cooled completely and sliced thin, then dressed cold with no heat anywhere at the end.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

For the braise

• 500 g beef shin
• 300 g ox tongue
• 200 g beef tripe, cleaned
• 2 litres water
• 40 g ginger, sliced
• 4 spring onions
• 3 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
• 100 ml light soy sauce
• 50 ml Shaoxing wine
• 2 teaspoons salt

For the dressing

• 6 tablespoons chilli oil, with its sediment
• 3 tablespoons of the strained braising liquid, cold
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon black vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground roasted Sichuan peppercorns
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste
• 50 g roasted peanuts, roughly crushed
• 2 celery sticks, sliced thin on the diagonal
• a handful of coriander

Method

1. EVERYTHING IS COLD BEFORE IT IS DRESSED, and that is not a serving suggestion. Warm meat melts the chilli oil into a greasy slick and greys at the edges; cold meat holds the oil in a coat you can see on each slice. The braise is done the day before.
2. AND IT IS COOLED IN ITS OWN LIQUID, not lifted out hot. Lean shin and tongue dry and tighten within minutes in air. Left submerged, they stay slack enough to slice thin.
3. Tongue and tripe blanched from cold water 10 minutes, drained and rinsed. The tongue's rough outer skin scraped off -- it comes away easily after blanching and will not come away at all later.
4. All three meats into fresh water with the ginger, spring onion, whole spices, soy, wine and salt.
5. Brought to a bare simmer and held there. Shin and tongue need about 2 hours and tripe about 90 minutes; each lifted out when a skewer meets light resistance and no springiness, then returned to the pot once all three are done.
6. Heat off, lid on, cooled to room temperature in the liquid, then the whole pot into the fridge overnight.
7. Next day the meats lifted out and the liquid strained. Three tablespoons kept for the dressing and the rest frozen -- it is worth more than stock.
8. Everything sliced as thin as you can manage, across the grain, into pieces about 5 cm by 3 cm. COLD MEAT AND A VERY SHARP KNIFE: the slices should be thin enough to drape rather than stand up on the plate.
9. Dressing whisked together -- chilli oil with its sediment, the cold braising liquid, soy, vinegar, sugar, ground peppercorn and garlic. Tasted on its own, it should be sharply savoury and numbing before any meat goes near it, because the meat will mute it.
10. Celery turned through the slices, the dressing poured over, and everything turned gently by hand rather than with a spoon so nothing tears.
11. Left 10 minutes for the slices to take the dressing.
12. Peanuts and coriander scattered at the table rather than before -- the peanuts soften within half an hour, and the crunch against the slices is the point of them.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes