[00:00] So this dish, Ghost fire green, at its core is&nbsp; poor people food. It’s like a Yunnan beans and&nbsp;&nbsp; rice, it’s one of those dishes that’s simple,&nbsp; delicious and flavorful that you can down with&nbsp;&nbsp; a whole bunch of rice when your wallet’s a little&nbsp; thin. But unlike a lot of other dishes around the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:18] world that can kinda fit that bill – stuff like&nbsp; porridge, or pickles – something that’s really&nbsp;&nbsp; cool about this one is that it’s also a really&nbsp; great way to eat a whole bunch of fresh vegetable.
[00:30] Now I should say though that “ghost fire”&nbsp; probably isn’t the most accurate translation in&nbsp;&nbsp; the world… in the Southwest dialect ‘guihuo’,&nbsp; Ghost Fire, actually really means more like&nbsp;&nbsp; ‘annoyed’. So… “thank you, but I prefer&nbsp; it my way”. And that’s because fundamental&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:47] to this dish is a whole bunch of fresh chili&nbsp; pepper, pound for pound, probably one of the&nbsp;&nbsp; cheapest quote-unquote ‘vegetables’ you can find&nbsp; anywhere in the world, but especially in China. So… you can use 80 grams of any&nbsp; mild to medium chili pepper that you&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:03] enjoy – these are Chinese erjingtiaos, but&nbsp; I do think Jalapenos would be really nice,&nbsp;&nbsp; or maybe a mix of Jalapeno and Serranos if you&nbsp; wanted something a little more on the spicy side.&nbsp;&nbsp; But either way just cut them into thin&nbsp; strips on a bias, and set them aside.
[01:21] Then, the second leg of our ghost fire is going&nbsp; to be herbs – or potentially actually even the&nbsp;&nbsp; roots of herbs if you happen to have some around.&nbsp; Now today we won’t be calling for any herb roots&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:37] because I know they aren’t that available in the&nbsp; west – like, I know that for Thai cooks outside&nbsp;&nbsp; of Thailand ‘shortage of cilantro root’ can be&nbsp; a continual struggle. But if you happen to have&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:49] any lying around – not just cilantro root, but&nbsp; scallion root, onion root, green garlic root,&nbsp;&nbsp; whatever – this is the dish that you can toss&nbsp; them in. So we’ll be using 50 grams cilantro,&nbsp;&nbsp; 50 grams scallion, each chopped into half inch&nbsp; sections, root optional, and set them aside.
[02:08] Then… besides those two thing, you are going to&nbsp; have a ton of flexibility with this dish. Like,&nbsp;&nbsp; local to where we live right now in Yuxi, Yunnan…&nbsp; a lot of people’ll add a root called piecaigen&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:22] or some people’ll even add in a bit of salted&nbsp; duck egg. Or over in Hunan they have a really&nbsp;&nbsp; similar dish called caigenxiang where a lot of&nbsp; people toss in cucumber or western style celery.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:35] So like… what do you have in your fridge?&nbsp; What do you want to eat? If you think some&nbsp;&nbsp; kind of addition will be really good in this&nbsp; dish – trust yourself, it probably will be.
[02:48] But either way, then just take those and&nbsp; mix them with 40 grams of sliced ginger,&nbsp;&nbsp; 30 grams or about a half a head of sliced&nbsp; garlic, quarter teaspoon salt, half teaspoon&nbsp;&nbsp; MSG, two tablespoons of soy sauce, and a&nbsp; half tablespoon of dark Chinese vinegar…&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:04] and if you can’t get dark Chinese vinegar, for&nbsp; this specific recipe totally feel free to swap&nbsp;&nbsp; that for a bit of balsamic. But then just…&nbsp; mix mix mix, zhua zhua zhua… really go at it,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:16] really kind of massage everything all&nbsp; in, and then that is literally it. Of course, I am aware that right now&nbsp; this doesn’t look like all that much,&nbsp;&nbsp; so I should probably also&nbsp; teach you how to enjoy this.
[03:29] So… this is what I like to do. Take this.&nbsp; Toss it in the fridge. This is going to&nbsp;&nbsp; be your mindless “I’m hungry! I need to eat&nbsp; something!” meal over the next couple days.
[03:42] And when that time comes, you’ll&nbsp; then get some rice – you can make&nbsp;&nbsp; some fresh from the rice cooker,&nbsp; or you could also just nuke some,&nbsp;&nbsp; like this. Then you’ll get your ghost fire&nbsp; green and you’ll eat it on and around your rice.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:59] Something else that I really like doing is&nbsp; sprinkling some crispy pork belly and also adding&nbsp;&nbsp; it to this bowl – it’s another Chinese humble&nbsp; with-rice classic... really good in this context,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:12] so I’ll teach you how to make a batch in just a&nbsp; second… but if don’t feel like doing all that,&nbsp;&nbsp; totally get it, you can also fry up a strip or two&nbsp; of American style bacon, also really good here.
[04:26] But if you happen to be in the market for some&nbsp; crispy pork belly, this is what I like to do.&nbsp;&nbsp; Take about 200 grams pork belly, and slice&nbsp; it into about 4mm sheets and then cut those&nbsp;&nbsp; sheets in thirds or maybe halves. Then add in&nbsp; about an eighth teaspoon each salt and MSG,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:41] a half teaspoon of soy sauce… mix mix mix,&nbsp; then toss in a generous glug or about 2-3&nbsp;&nbsp; tablespoons of oil. Then I’ll add that to a cool&nbsp; pot or wok, and then slowly begin to render out&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:55] that oil over a medium flame. It will take&nbsp; a hot second, about 15 minutes, maybe 20,&nbsp;&nbsp; but once the pork belly is good and brown and&nbsp; crispy, transfer it over to a paper towel.
[05:09] And so long as you were good about&nbsp; really frying out all that moisture,&nbsp;&nbsp; uh… this is actually totally good to keep&nbsp; out at room temperature. I mean, I dunno,&nbsp;&nbsp; maybe ServSafe might have other opinions, but I’ve&nbsp; kept this kind of stuff out a few days, even up&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:26] to a week… haven’t really gone past there because&nbsp; it usually gets eaten… but yeah. This whole dish,&nbsp;&nbsp; just one of those simple delicious things, so I do&nbsp; hope you can give it a try. So huge thank you to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:38] everyone that’s supporting us on Patreon… and of&nbsp; course, subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.