Couple’s Delight or Fuqi Feipian (Szechuan) / 夫妻肺片(川菜) is one of the two side dishes that I always order in Szechuan restaurants, the other is mouth-watering chili chicken, previously shared here. ? Anecdote about this dish: originally, the “Fei 肺” (lung) in the dish name is originally another Chinese character “廢” (waste) with the same pronunciation, referring to all the organs (beef tongue, beef tripe, beef heart, etc. ) used in the dish. These parts are not the most valuable and used to be discarded as waste, until a couple followed by many other chefs transformed them, crowned this representative Szechuan cold dish today, and thus changed the character from “waste” to “lung”, hinting the organs used in the dish, STILL! Lung is not usually used!
QUICK TAKEAWAYS
- do not over cook beef parts, beef tripe will be very soft in 1-1.5hours. Too soft will make it difficult to cut into fine slices
- whether to put in soy sauce when cooking beef depends on the style of braising you go for. 白滷不需加醬油，紅滷可加醬油 (白、黃、紅鹵水的區別）
- be patient and wait till beef parts completely cool down before slicing into thin slices!
- when making chili oil, add sesame oil to chili powder, sesame seeds before pouring hot oil to prevent splashing and add flavors
RECIPE
Beef parts:
- beef shrank 牛腱子
- beef honeycomb tripe (optional) 金錢肚 (not omasum beef tripe 牛百葉)
- beef heart (optional) 牛心
- beef tongue (optional) 牛舌
- beef tendon (optional) 牛筋
Dried spices (skip if not have):
- Szechuan peppercorns 花椒
- whole black peppers 胡椒
- star anises 八角
- funnel seeds 小茴香
- cloves 丁香
- bay leaves 香葉
- cinnamon 桂皮
- cardamoms 豆蔻
- tsaoko 草果
- whole coriander seeds 香菜籽
- dried peppers 辣椒乾
Other ingredients:
- ginger slices
- scallions
- rice wine
- soy sauce
- traditional soy sauce
- salt
- chinese celery chunks
Procedure:
Step 1: cook beef parts in cold water with rice wine, ginger slices and scallions; get rid of all foams. 焯水去血水
Step 2: put dried spices in water, bring to boil for 10mins
Step 3: put in beef parts, ginger slices, scallions, salt, soy sauce, traditional soy sauce, bring to boil then turn down to cook in mid heat for 45min – 1hr
- different parts will need different times, beef trip will be very soft in 1-1.5 hours; if done cooking, can get them out first to avoid over-cooked, and difficulty to cut into slices
Step 4: get beef parts out of sauce and cool down completely. Very important for them to be cool for slicing into thin pieces~!
Step 5: fry peppercorns, star anise, ginger slices, scallions, onion slices till onion slices become golden brown
Step 6: mix chili powders, sesame seeds, grounded peanuts and sesame oil; pour hot oil from previous step over the mix; this will be chili oil for mixing beef parts!
- sesame oil here is to prevent splashing of hot oil, and also add fragrance
Step 7: slice beef parts into 1-2mm slices
Step 8: mixing sauce with beef slices (can either choose plating and pour sauce on, or first mix then plate)
- a few tablespoons of soup from the braising pot
- a few tablespoons of chili oil
- soy sauce
- salt
- sugar
- vinegar
- grounded peanuts
- peppercorn powder (optional, great if you have it!)
- minced garlic (my preference)
- cilantro (again, my preference haha :D)
Step 9: plating:
- in a bowl, line up the side with beef slices one by one, this will be the outer surface of your dish once flipped and remove bowl, so choose nicely cut slices~
- layer more beef slices from out to inwards
- in the center, place chinese celery chunks (you can either eat raw or brief cook in water)
- flip the bowl and lift it carefully~~
- pour a few spoons of chili oil FOR THE COLOR obviously, the look of the dish is everything for not-eaters-audience isn’t it!
- spray sesame seeds and chopped cilantro
READY TO SERVE!
RESOURCES
