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Every Grain of Rice (Classic Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop)
$30
Traditional Regional Chinese Food, But Simplified
Since completing an advanced cooking degree in China in the 1990s, Fuchsia Dunlop has written meticulously researched, authoritative cookbooks on the foods of Sichuan, Hunan and Jiangnan, teaching home cooks and chefs alike the intricacies of those cuisines. Master the recipes in those books and you could open your own regional Chinese restaurant.
But Fuchsia has also turned her attention to Simple Chinese Home Cooking, which is the subtitle of her 2013 book Every Grain of Rice. The recipes remain traditional but are streamlined to make them easier. Like her other books, this one has become a classic, as relevant today as the year it was written.
Every Grain of Rice ranges all over China—from Guangdong's salt-and-pepper squid to Chengdu's fresh spring rolls to Xi'an beef potstickers—but goes heavy on the food of Sichuan, the Chinese cuisine the author first mastered and for which she is best known. The Sichuan classics are here—and not just the spicy ones—but while some of those recipes may remain unchanged from her previous books, most of the recipes here are simplified, with fewer ingredients and fewer steps.
You'll still need a basic Chinese pantry and a specialty Sichuan pantry to cook them, but you'll do it quicker and more easily. And you won't miss out on the history of the dish and the personal details of where she ate it and which chef in China taught it to her over her many years living and visiting the country, because that is all still included.
We think of this cookbook as a grand tour of China where you have access to the kitchens of the best chefs and home cooks across the land, while Fuchsia's single-cuisine cookbooks get into the nitty-gritty in a way you could only if you lived in a single place and studied its cuisine longterm. Which suits you best? For us, the answer is both!
Contents
The book kicks off with cold dishes, meaning room temperature appetizers and side dishes; moves through ingredient categories like tofu, meat and root vegetables; and finishes with chapters on soups, noodles, dumplings, stocks and preserves.
Most notable about the book is the predominance of easy and inventive vegetable dishes, such as stir-fried cucumber and wood ear, and romano green beans stir-fried with fermented soybeans. In fact, the book is full of recipes where vegetables are the main attraction and meat plays a supporting role because that has traditionally been how people eat at home in China.
Also helpful are the example menus, with multiple menu plans for serving two people, four people or six people with recipes from the book.
