[0:00] This is chili fried chili, lajiao chao lajiao, 
a humble dish from Hunan and Jiangxi that has  
[0:06] to be one of the all-time greats when it comes to 
conspiracies to down a big portion of white rice.  
[0:14] Because this, this is village food – together with 
all the wisdom that’s inherent within. Because  
[0:19] like, you can find these ‘chili fried’ dishes 
pretty much all throughout China – what they are  
[0:24] are a stir fry base of fresh chopped spicy chilis, 
aromatics like garlic and ginger, maybe a little  
[0:30] douchi… resulting in dishes like chili fried beef, 
chili fried pork, or even chili fried century egg.
[0:37] Now the reason that that flavor is so synonymous 
with humble cooking is that back in the day,  
[0:43] people up in the mountain villages would 
actually often use spice to kinda make up for,  
[0:48] flavor wise at least, a shortage of 
salt. And that’s because salt was a  
[0:54] product monopolized by the various 
governments of imperial China,  
[0:57] a very important commodity… and so if you were a 
random Qing dynasty farmer deep in the mountains,  
[1:03] often that salt supply chain wouldn’t exactly 
reach your front door. And so to stretch out  
[1:09] your supplies, those spicy chili-fried flavor 
profiles could kinda help bridge that gap. 
[1:15] But – that’s just flavor. Simultaneously, chili 
peppers – especially the mild to medium ones –  
[1:22] are often used as a vegetable in a lot of rustic 
village cooking. Because chilis, they’re quite  
[1:27] healthy, lots of vitamin C, and importantly they 
can grow really quite well in otherwise poor,  
[1:33] rocky soil. So throughout China’s mountainous 
interior, you can find dishes like tiger skin  
[1:39] chili or ghost fire green – basically dishes 
where the vegetable itself is a chili pepper.
[1:45] So now put A and B together. A chili-fried 
flavor profile, with chili as the vegetable… and,  
[1:53] of course, white rice as the base of it 
all. A quintessential poor man’s stir fry.
[2:04] So. To make it, for your ‘vegetable chili’, you 
are going to want something a little more on  
[2:09] the mild to medium side – these ones are luosijiao 
a.k.a. screw peppers, which… may or may not be the  
[2:15] same thing as an Italian long hot? But either way 
these ones, long hots, maybe Anaheims, poblanos,  
[2:21] even bell peppers if you wanted… we’ve got 450 
grams worth, lightly crushed to flatten and I like  
[2:27] to chop them into sections for ease of consumption 
but a lot of people’ll just keep them whole.
[2:32] Now, then, the technique that we’ll use 
to cook these is going to be the tiger  
[2:37] skin chili technique. To do the move, just 
swirl a tiny touch of oil into a hot wok,  
[2:43] just enough to get a thin shmear, then toss in 
the chilis and begin to press them down over a  
[2:48] maximum flame. Let one side char for about 60 
seconds or so, then flip them, and do the same  
[2:54] move on the other side. Then we’ll sprinkle in 3 
eighths of a teaspoons of salt over those chilis,  
[3:00] mix that super super well, then swap the flame 
down to medium/medium low. Cover the wok,  
[3:06] and let those fry for about 4-5 minutes soften 
right up, stirring them periodically… what  
[3:11] you’ll be looking for is for the chilis 
to kinda smell ‘roasted’ and for the skin  
[3:16] to just start separating from the flesh. Then 
remove those, and we’ll continue the stir fry.
[3:22] But. For the flavor profile today, we’ll be 
working from a mix of 25 grams of a spicy chili,  
[3:29] these guys are Chinese Heaven 
facing, three cloves of garlic,  
[3:32] and an inch worth of ginger. Slice your chilis, 
smash the garlic, smash the ginger… and then  
[3:38] mince those all together until you get something 
relatively uniform, or about 1-2 minutes. That’s  
[3:44] our base. …but in addition I will also 
be adding in a half tablespoon of douchi,  
[3:50] Chinese fermented black soybeans, wetting them 
with a little baijiu liquor – or you could use  
[3:55] water – but… definitely optional, definitely not 
imperative if you don’t have any douchis on hand.
[4:02] But… right. Back to the stir fry, we’ll first 
toss in three tablespoons of lard or oil if  
[4:09] you’re keeping veg, and let that melt over a 
medium-low flame. Then minced chili-aromatics in,  
[4:15] give that a quick mix, then toss in the wetted 
douchi – if you’re using – and fry those all  
[4:20] until they’re fragrant, or about one minute. 
Then, up your flame to maximum once again,  
[4:25] go back in with the green chilis, stir 
fry that all for about 30 seconds…  
[4:30] then pour a half tablespoon of soy sauce over your 
spatula and around the sides of the wok. Nice mix,  
[4:36] seasoning in, up here on the screen, and then 
fry it all for a final 15 seconds or so to  
[4:41] mix and dissolve. Then out, and with that, 
you’ve got yourself some chili fried chilis.
[4:49] So. A lot of people may not associate 
chilis with something that’s like really  
[4:53] cheap? But – what we just got here is 
500g green chili and it’s only 4 kuai  
[4:59] rmb which is basically 6 mao us dollar. And it 
is actually really cheap here in China too. And  
[5:06] now let’s go get some tofu and make 
a complete meal out of this. Tofu… 
[5:22] And now we got another three kuai of tofu, 
basically it’s four mao us dollar. So that’s like  
[5:31] one us dollar in total here and now let’s go home 
and I’ll show you how I can whip this thing up.
[6:16] So right! There you have it – chili fried 
chili, chili fried tofu… a delicious,  
[6:21] balanced, nutritious, cheap meal that’s just 
a little more than one dollar. So right! Full  
[6:28] recipe for both of these dishes are over on 
Substack, a huge thank you to everyone that’s  
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