Ghost Fire Green (Guihuo Lü) - Yunnan Chili & Herb Dish

[00:00] So this dish, Ghost fire green, at its core is  poor people food. It’s like a Yunnan beans and   rice, it’s one of those dishes that’s simple,  delicious and flavorful that you can down with   a whole bunch of rice when your wallet’s a little  thin. But unlike a lot of other dishes around the  

[00:18] world that can kinda fit that bill – stuff like  porridge, or pickles – something that’s really   cool about this one is that it’s also a really  great way to eat a whole bunch of fresh vegetable.

[00:30] Now I should say though that “ghost fire”  probably isn’t the most accurate translation in   the world… in the Southwest dialect ‘guihuo’,  Ghost Fire, actually really means more like   ‘annoyed’. So… “thank you, but I prefer  it my way”. And that’s because fundamental  

[00:47] to this dish is a whole bunch of fresh chili  pepper, pound for pound, probably one of the   cheapest quote-unquote ‘vegetables’ you can find  anywhere in the world, but especially in China. So… you can use 80 grams of any  mild to medium chili pepper that you  

[01:03] enjoy – these are Chinese erjingtiaos, but  I do think Jalapenos would be really nice,   or maybe a mix of Jalapeno and Serranos if you  wanted something a little more on the spicy side.   But either way just cut them into thin  strips on a bias, and set them aside.

[01:21] Then, the second leg of our ghost fire is going  to be herbs – or potentially actually even the   roots of herbs if you happen to have some around.  Now today we won’t be calling for any herb roots  

[01:37] because I know they aren’t that available in the  west – like, I know that for Thai cooks outside   of Thailand ‘shortage of cilantro root’ can be  a continual struggle. But if you happen to have  

[01:49] any lying around – not just cilantro root, but  scallion root, onion root, green garlic root,   whatever – this is the dish that you can toss  them in. So we’ll be using 50 grams cilantro,   50 grams scallion, each chopped into half inch  sections, root optional, and set them aside.

[02:08] Then… besides those two thing, you are going to  have a ton of flexibility with this dish. Like,   local to where we live right now in Yuxi, Yunnan…  a lot of people’ll add a root called piecaigen  

[02:22] or some people’ll even add in a bit of salted  duck egg. Or over in Hunan they have a really   similar dish called caigenxiang where a lot of  people toss in cucumber or western style celery.  

[02:35] So like… what do you have in your fridge?  What do you want to eat? If you think some   kind of addition will be really good in this  dish – trust yourself, it probably will be.

[02:48] But either way, then just take those and  mix them with 40 grams of sliced ginger,   30 grams or about a half a head of sliced  garlic, quarter teaspoon salt, half teaspoon   MSG, two tablespoons of soy sauce, and a  half tablespoon of dark Chinese vinegar…  

[03:04] and if you can’t get dark Chinese vinegar, for  this specific recipe totally feel free to swap   that for a bit of balsamic. But then just…  mix mix mix, zhua zhua zhua… really go at it,  

[03:16] really kind of massage everything all  in, and then that is literally it. Of course, I am aware that right now  this doesn’t look like all that much,   so I should probably also  teach you how to enjoy this.

[03:29] So… this is what I like to do. Take this.  Toss it in the fridge. This is going to   be your mindless “I’m hungry! I need to eat  something!” meal over the next couple days.

[03:42] And when that time comes, you’ll  then get some rice – you can make   some fresh from the rice cooker,  or you could also just nuke some,   like this. Then you’ll get your ghost fire  green and you’ll eat it on and around your rice.  

[03:59] Something else that I really like doing is  sprinkling some crispy pork belly and also adding   it to this bowl – it’s another Chinese humble  with-rice classic... really good in this context,  

[04:12] so I’ll teach you how to make a batch in just a  second… but if don’t feel like doing all that,   totally get it, you can also fry up a strip or two  of American style bacon, also really good here.

[04:26] But if you happen to be in the market for some  crispy pork belly, this is what I like to do.   Take about 200 grams pork belly, and slice  it into about 4mm sheets and then cut those   sheets in thirds or maybe halves. Then add in  about an eighth teaspoon each salt and MSG,  

[04:41] a half teaspoon of soy sauce… mix mix mix,  then toss in a generous glug or about 2-3   tablespoons of oil. Then I’ll add that to a cool  pot or wok, and then slowly begin to render out  

[04:55] that oil over a medium flame. It will take  a hot second, about 15 minutes, maybe 20,   but once the pork belly is good and brown and  crispy, transfer it over to a paper towel.

[05:09] And so long as you were good about  really frying out all that moisture,   uh… this is actually totally good to keep  out at room temperature. I mean, I dunno,   maybe ServSafe might have other opinions, but I’ve  kept this kind of stuff out a few days, even up  

[05:26] to a week… haven’t really gone past there because  it usually gets eaten… but yeah. This whole dish,   just one of those simple delicious things, so I do  hope you can give it a try. So huge thank you to  

[05:38] everyone that’s supporting us on Patreon… and of  course, subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.