flukey

Most ingredients are either shelf stable (and can be bought online/shipped) or easy to find in normal grocery stores.

Online, get:

• Sichuan peppercorns (red)
• Chinese chili oil
• Chinese doubanjiang (usually coming from the “Pi Xian” region is a good indicator of quality)
• Shelf stable packages of tofu (alternatively, if you have access to refrigerated tofu at your grocery store, I like that better).

In a regular grocery store, get:

• Ground beef
• Ginger
• Scallions/Green Onion
• Garlic
• (Optional) Corn starch
• (Optional) Tofu if you can get it, if not, buy the shelf stable stuff online
• (Optional) some kind of stock

Prep:

• Toast sichuan peppercorns dry, and then grind them up and set aside.
• Mince garlic and ginger.
• Slice scallions.
• Cut tofu into cubes.

Cook:

• Stir fry ground beef until browned. Season with salt.
• Add doubanjiang, cook it in.
• Add ginger and garlic, cook that in.
• Add starch and incorporate it.
• Add stock or water so that the starchy sauce forms.
• Check salt levels, see if it tastes right.
• Add chili oil.
• Add cubed tofu, stir it gently in.
• Plate.
• Sprinkle sichuan peppercorn over the top.
• Add scallions over the top.
• Spoon from plate over a bowl of rice, like a gravy.

Meat is optional. I’ve made it with finely diced mushrooms, various meat substitutes, or just leaving out the meat component entirely.

But once you find your rhythm this is a sub-30 minute dish from beginning to end, including prep, and can become a weeknight staple.

In Taiwan, the traditional cut of meat used for this dish is beef shank (sometimes known as beef shin). That cut is often used in the west for things like osso buco or boeuf bourguignon, and requires a long, slow braise.

Yeah, it just sounds like a shadow on a wall moving faster than the speed of light. Or the dot cast by a laser pointer on the wall.