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February 18, 2016

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Cooking with crisp, sweet bamboo shoots

By Xu Wenwen | February 18, 2016, Thursday | Print Edition

IN traditional agriculture, spring is the season in which everything grows, hence picking sprouts and plants during that time should be limited. One of few exceptions are bamboo sprouts.

The plant grows fast and, to make sure it gets the space it needs, as well as a good amount of sunshine and nutrients, farmers have to pick excess shoots in winter and spring so that the rest can grow tall and straight throughout the coming months.

Bamboo shoots picked during spring (chun sun) are young and slim and highly sought after in Hangzhou, a traditional bamboo-growing area, due to their crisp texture and sweet taste.

Hangzhou residents love treating themselves and their guests to chun sun dishes when the delicacy is available in the markets.

Shanghai Daily visits three Hangzhou locals and ask them to make their favorite chun sun dishes.

Before learning their recipes, here is a quick trick for dealing with the shell: Stab the knife’s sharp tip near its handle into the lower end of the bamboo, making sure the tip jabs most of the shells.

Then keep the knife’s slant position and push it forward till the end of the bamboo and the shells are ripped. Use hands to peel off all the shells, and if there are some remains, use the knife to scrape them off.

Also, it is suggested not to use too much bamboo at one time because the vegetable contains strong fibers and acid, making it hard to digest. Half bamboo for each person in one meal is appropriate.

The dish is crispy, tender, a bit sweet, and appetizing. “It is a great choice for vegetarians, and an easy dish that can be surprising,” says 32-year-old Min Min, who loves cooking.

All steps of making the dish are easy, and the only troublesome thing would be cutting the bamboo.

After shelling, cut the bamboo vertically into halves. Then cut the halves into pieces horizontally — please make sure all pieces are not too long to be chew in mouths; and again cut them vertically until the pieces are about the size of your pinky.

To remove the acid in the bamboo, Min Min cooks the bamboo in boiling water for a minute. After removing the bamboo, she heats oil (one third to half rice bowl) in another pan, and pours the bamboo in once she sees smoke.

Fry the bamboo for one to two minutes, add soy sauce and sugar depending on your taste.

The last step is to add some water and cover the pan, simmer the dish for eight to 10 minutes, or, “until the ingredient is cooked while the water is reduced so the dish is not a broth,” Min Min says.

Xie Dacheng, 63, has loved cooking his whole life and recommends this pot because it’s a warm dish for the cold days, and because hot pots remind him of family gatherings and sharing food with your loved ones.

Chinese bacon, or xianrou (salty meat), is pork preserved in salt and qianzhang is a kind of thick tofu sheet which you might have seen in hotpot restaurants. If you find the creamy colored thick ones, with a size of an A4 paper, cut them into long slices like noodles. If it is the yellowish smooth thin kind, then cut it into half, roll it and make a knot. And roll-cut bamboo with a slant angle.

Xie’s recipe is: Boil the bamboo in the water, when the water begins bubbling, add qianzhang, and when the water again bubbles, add the bacon slices. Cover the pot and simmer it for 20 minutes. Salt is not necessary because the soup is salty enough from the bacon. Add scallions for more color.

Housewife and grandmother Tian You introduces a popular Spring Festival dish for local families that is simple and can be made by anyone.

Cut bamboo shoots into long rectangular pieces. Lay them in the bowl’s bottom and arrange soy sauce duck above. Steam it for 20 minutes and the dish is done.

The only tricky part is cutting the duck. Tian said firstly one needs to cut vertically from the duck’s buttock, so the poultry is split into two along the spine.

Then use a sharp knife to get the legs and wings off. Cut the half again into two halves vertically.

The final step is to cut the quarter into slices. “Choose a heavy sharp knife, and chop quickly,” the 71-year-old adds. “Make sure one piece is cut off with one chop, otherwise it looks ugly.”

She also shared a trick: to chop not exactly horizontally but cut parallelogram-shaped slices, so the meat looks more than it really is!

The dish is popular and prepared by many local families during Spring Festival because the bamboo shoots absorb the grease, and no other ingredients are needed because the duck was preserved in soy sauce and other seasoning.

Hangzhou


 

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