One of the best parts about blogging and, now, running a shop is hearing from readers who have actually cooked from the recipes and shopped at the store. We have some very talented followers, and it's time to show them off!
Send us your photos in which you've used a Mala Project recipe and/or Mala Market product by May 1, and we'll enter you in a May 3 drawing for one of our cool Mala Aprons (see below). We'd also love to hear a little about your experience making it and who you cooked and shared it with (send pictures of them too, if you'd like). I think some people are intimidated by the recipes and ingredients, but I want to show them that if we can do it, they can do it. So if you have the best-looking dish and story, I'll send you an apron, too. That's one apron for the best try and one for being lucky! (U.S. entrants only, please.)
As always, thank you for reading, sharing and shopping! We truly appreciate your support of our new store and hope you'll help us spread the word.
Taylor & Fong Chong
Hudson's Mapo Doufu
Reader Hudson Hoen made thismapo doufuwith his son in Florida using products purchased from The Mala Market and the recipe on The Mala Project. Check out that beautiful giant wok and gorgeous silken tofu!
Tommy from Tommy: Eats, a blog covering New Jersey food and drinks, made ourdry-braised shrimp with crispy pork, a criminally overlooked recipe on the blog and one of Fong Chong's favorites. His looks better than mine!
Tommy from Tommy: Eats also made ouryu xiang pork, a classic Sichuan dish of pork slivers, wood ear mushrooms and Chinese celery (or celtuce) with a sweet-and-sour-pickled-chili yu xiang sauce. Yum!
Chef-owner Patrick O'Cain of Asheville, North Carolina's highly creative and acclaimed Gan Shan Stationwhipped up this amazing-looking shrimp bowl using The Mala Market's green Sichuan pepper. It includes royal red shrimp, squid ink dan dan noodles, leek and kale.
If you're brave enough to try to recreate it, you'll need:
Over at Omnivore's Cookbook, our affiliate partner Maggie madeyu xiang eggplantusing Mala Market ingredients. We too love this dish and it was one of the first dishes I made on The Mala Project.My versionis made the traditional way by deep-frying the eggplant in a wok and using no meat; Maggie's—while sauced traditionally—is adapted to be shallow-fried in a skillet with less oil and includes pork. Take your pick of methods, but do try this dish, one of Sichuan's absolute best.
(Thanks also to Maggie, photo stylist extraordinaire, for the 'M' photo above.)
