[0:00] Welcome back to our ongoing "over rice" series, 
and today we are going to show you three Halal  
[0:06] dishes that are awesome to smother over rice. 
As to *why* there are Chinese halal over rice  
[0:13] dishes... that is an interesting corner of 
the Chinese culinary map! Some of you might  
[0:19] have already known that in the northwest of 
the country there are some really good Halal,  
[0:25] Chinese Muslim, food or Hui people food... with 
famous dishes like Lamian hand-pulled noodles,  
[0:32] grilled lamb, or all kinds of Mo bread. But 
all of that belongs to the north of China's  
[0:39] fabled wheat rice divide: and as you can 
see, they are very good at dough making.
[0:45] But there is one large Hui community living 
south of that divide, and that's where we are  
[0:53] living today - in Yunnan. How they got to 
the other corner of the country is in its  
[0:59] own a very fascinating story... the long 
and short of it is that they were first  
[1:04] sent down as administrators during the 
Mongol Empire and then from that base,  
[1:10] more ended up coming. And today, while some of 
the best noodles and buns are still coming from  
[1:16] Hui vendors with their still very robust dough 
technology, rice here also became a mainstay.  
[1:23] And throughout central Yunnan, you can find 
a ton of these Halal fast food joints where  
[1:29] people will load up on the rice and top it with 
dishes… and here are some dishes you may find:
[1:35] The first one today is Mala Beef. Now for this 
Yunnan Mala beef, and all of this in general  
[1:43] actually, I should say that it's often not very 
clear that where Hui food ends and where central  
[1:49] Yunnan food in general begins. There's lots 
of crossover, and the Mala Beef is definitely  
[1:54] a classic for a lot of ethnicities around here. 
It's often made in a larger quantities and kind  
[2:01] of kept around, and today what we'll be 
making is a pair down one meal variation.
[2:07] So predictably for mala beef you will need 
some beef. This is 500 gram of beef loin  
[2:13] that we’ll then thinly slice into 3mm slices. 
And outside of China we think picanha will be  
[2:20] a great option for this application. You don't 
need to be too obsessive with the thinly slicing  
[2:25] here... just do the best you can. Something like 
this is perfect. Then we'll toss that into a big  
[2:32] bowl and then we can marinate. Now for the 
marinade there is one important ingredient:  
[2:38] the ma in the mala, the Sichuan peppercorn. And in 
Yunnan what's generally used is this green Sichuan  
[2:46] peppercorn – Qing Huajiao – and that's the powder 
that we'll be using in our marinade. Of course  
[2:52] we're spoiled, because we can just go to our local 
market and get a bunch of this freshly ground… and  
[2:58] I assume you probably don't have that option. 
So what I would suggest for you living outside  
[3:03] of China to use whole Sichuan peppercorn - both 
green and red will be great in this application.  
[3:11] So first quickly toast them over a medium low 
flame, and after about 2 minutes take those and  
[3:18] give them a grind. Here we'll need two teaspoons 
for this amount of beef together with two  
[3:24] teaspoons of red fragrant chili like Gochugaru or 
Kashmiri… and this will be the base of our Mala.
[3:32] Then we'll also marinate with a half teaspoon 
salt, a quarter teaspoon each chicken bouillon  
[3:37] powder, white pepper, and dark soy sauce, 
one tablespoon each soy sauce, and dark brown  
[3:44] sugar. And mix that really well. Then also toss in 
about 10g of dried chilies snipped into sections,  
[3:51] 2 inches of sliced ginger, and the white parts of 
three scallions. Coat that generously with oil,  
[3:58] about a tablespoon or so, and leave that 
to marinate. So, how long to marinate is  
[4:04] up to you. We like to marinate in the morning 
and fry it up during dinner time. But you can  
[4:10] also do this the day before and fry up the 
next day. Or if you want to cut it shorter,  
[4:16] that's totally okay as well. Uh, I will only 
recommend you at least let it marinate for  
[4:22] 30 minutes. Then after that time, there's 
not much to do but fry it up. Just add a  
[4:28] half a cup of oil to a hot wok together with an 
optional two star anise and one Caoguo [Tsaoko],  
[4:35] Chinese black cardamom. Heat it up over a medium 
high flame until the spices are starting to bubble  
[4:41] around 140 centigrade. Then add in the beef. Then 
just patiently fry that in the oil until the beef  
[4:50] is starting to dried up again and the oil begins 
to get clear again. About five minutes or so. Then  
[4:56] take it out and toss it in a mixing bowl. Next, 
sprinkle over two teaspoons toasted sesame seeds  
[5:03] and a 1/4 teaspoon MSG onto the beef. Then begin 
to reheat that oil up. Once it's hit about 160° C,  
[5:12] shut off the heat. Dump in two tablespoons of 
chili flakes and then transfer all that hot  
[5:18] chili oil onto the beef. Then mix well. Toss it 
in a shallow bowl to serve. And mala beef, done.
[5:27] Now, the next dish brings us to probably THE most 
classic Yunnan over dishes: stinky tofu. Well,  
[5:34] hold on. Before you click away, you should 
know that the Yunnan quote-unquote “stinky  
[5:39] tofu” isn't really that stinky at all. So a lot 
of stinky tofu in China is made with a brine  
[5:46] called Lushui. This brine depends on where you 
are... like in Shaoxing the brine is made with  
[5:52] fermented amaranth and it can be pretty intense. 
Or in Hunan the brine it's made with fermenting  
[6:00] douchi black beans and bamboo shoots, etc. 
However, in Yunnan though, the stinky tofu  
[6:06] is made without a brine and it's very subtle, kind 
of cheesy. It's the perfect gateway stinky tofu.
[6:14] So, you can try it if you are traveling in 
Yunnan around here, of course. But today we  
[6:21] obviously need to substitute that. So, what 
we'll do is get 325g of firm tofu and mix it  
[6:28] with 25g of halal certified blue cheese to get our 
‘stinky tofu’. And trust me, the final result is  
[6:37] surprisingly close to Yunnan stinky tofu. And 
then we'll mix it with one teaspoon soy sauce,  
[6:43] 1/4 teaspoon each salt, chicken bouillon, 
MSG, and Sichuan Peppercorn powder,  
[6:48] eighth teaspoon white pepper, plus one teaspoon 
red fragrant chili powder, and 1 tbsp of oil,  
[6:55] preferably schmaltz or duck fat if you have them 
around. Mash that together, and then this is good  
[7:02] to cook. So to a small pot, add in enough scallion 
to cover the bottom and toss that over a medium  
[7:09] flame. Add in a tablespoon of schmaltz or duck fat 
or oil. And once that starts to sizzle, add in the  
[7:17] tofu mixture together with a 1/4 cup chicken stock 
or water. Cover and let that simmer for 8 minutes.  
[7:25] Then after that time, in a separate little pot, 
heat up two tablespoons of oil until it just  
[7:32] starts to smoke. Then using a half tablespoon of 
red fragrant chili, toss that in. Stir and pour it  
[7:40] over your tofu. This might not look super super 
gorgeous, but I promise it's awesome over rice.
[7:50] Now, number three, uh, which brings us to 
our last over rice… thing… As a tradition,  
[7:58] some sort of lazy college dorm style 
stuff from the jar. And in Yunnan,  
[8:04] that stuff has to be fermented tofu or 
‘lufu’ as they call it here. In Yunnan,  
[8:10] you can tell that the food might be not so 
good if someone asks “ge you lu fu”... that is,  
[8:18] asking for some fermented furu to top over 
the rice. Now there are some fantastic quality  
[8:25] furu here… but when it comes to the Yunnan 
fermented lufu, the closest mass-produced products  
[8:33] will be Laoganma's chili oil tofu. So just 
take a piece, top it with a bit of blanched and  
[8:40] seasoned chives – seasoning down here. And that's 
definitely enough to down some rice. So, right,  
[8:47] those are three very delicious Yunnan Halal over 
rice dishes. There are so many other delicious  
[8:55] Yunnan over rice things that we can't wait to 
share with you. But in the meantime, recipe’s  
[9:01] in description box. A big thank you for everyone 
that's supporting us on Patreon. And of course,  
[9:07] subscribe for more Chinese over-rice videos. Can 
you help me bring dog and beef? All right. And  
[9:16] maybe a piece of dog food. This is a little bit 
too Zhongkouwei [heavy flavor] for him... Mala Beef...