Century Egg and Eggplant Dip
Vegetables are not the only foods that get the fermentation treatment in China. We previously brought you a recipe for salted duck eggs, the lightly fermented eggs you can make with a salt brine in your fermentation jar. Those are not to be confused with "century eggs," or pidan, their darker and funkier cousin with yolks turned black from an alkaline fermentation.
Contributor Charlene Luo brings us this recipe for a century egg and eggplant dip that shows off the addictive funk of century eggs, which are in reality fermented for a mere three weeks. Charlene learned all about the process from a pidan master in Sichuan this past summer and shares the details with us in this piece. Here's an excerpt about the dish itself, a wonderful introduction to the glories of pidan:
"Here in the States, non-Chinese cooks and eaters have long considered century eggs a type of “untouchable” food only fit for food challenges. (They most famously appeared on the television show Fear Factor.) But perhaps this is because Westerners are unaware of how to prepare this prized ingredient....
"At my weekly supper clubs in Brooklyn—where I serve some by-the-book Sichuanese dishes along with some newer takes on dishes from neighboring provinces—I’ve been making a dish that shows off this ingredient’s unique flavors: eggplant-century egg dip (léijiāo pídàn qíezi, 擂椒皮蛋茄子)....
"A variation of a Hunan-style cold dish, the original dish’s name is quite literal: 擂 (léi) refers to the act of mashing in a mortar pestle (or 擂子léizi); 椒 (jiāo) refers to chilies; 皮蛋 (pídàn) to a century egg; and 茄子 (qíezi) to eggplant. In traditional versions of this dish, these three key ingredients are mashed in a large mortar and pestle with garlic and other aromatics, then served at room temperature.
"...I’ve been using a somewhat unorthodox technique for making this dish: pulsing the ingredients in a food processor to make something more like a dip, instead of making the traditional version that more closely resembles a salad. The result is a deliciously rich, savory snack with an intense kick that’s balanced out with the crispy snap of the cucumbers and radishes that I serve alongside, to scoop up big bites."
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