sichuan water poached beef 四川麻辣水煮牛肉

With a lot of Asian dishes this is one dish the name can so easily lost in translation. If translated word for word, this dish would be called water cooked beef which does not sound too appetizing. It was nearly 10 years ago in a business trip to Dalian that I had my first taste of a sister dish of Sichuan water poached beef - Sichuan water poached fish. When the fish was presented to the table in a large shallow ceramic bowl there was this half inch thick of orange chili oil. Very intimating. I was immediately perplexed with the name as the abundance of oil gave me the impression that the slices of fish were more likely poached in hot (as spicy hot) oil rather than cooked in water as the name suggested.

A couple of years ago I tried my hand on making a Sichuan water poached fish relied mostly on my intuition of reverse-recipe by taste. Only now that I went and found out the basic technique of preparing this two famous Sichuan dishes. As in a lot of dishes, the method that you see presented may not be suitable for home cooking, especially if you don't want to leave the house with a fouled kitchen smell. Hence I adapted the restaurant method to home cooking by avoiding generating a lot of oil smoke.

this is my first attempt with this dish - this was the only photo that I took

In the following day I set out to make this dish the second time. It is so much easier that I had attempted it once, and this time every step become easier. Additionally I modified a couple of steps to reduce oil smoke generation. I also use much less oil for a healthy dish. I used common vegetable oil to extract the essence of the chili and Sichuan peppers, and add extra virgin olive oil just before serving. You never should overheat extra virgin olive oil.


here are the vegetable ingredients as well as the fermented soy bean paste and an assortment of chili peppers and Sichuan pepper corns (which isn't really pepper corns); Sichuan pepper corns is special that it is not really hot, but rather it has a numbing effect on your mouth and lips

the marinated beef - I cut into narrow strips instead of large thin slices

the beef is layer into the spicy and hot broth and poached under low heat with generous amount of cilantro on top

While I the photos shows the dish in a clay pot most of the cooking is done in a wok. I only did the last few steps in the clay pot.

just need a bowl of steamed rice and a delicious meal is ready

I didn't want to make it murder hot but it is still plenty hot

the unsung hero of this dish are the vegetables; the ones that do not turn into mush and bring strong fragrance are the best choices

I am adding this dish to one of my favorite Chinese dishes. The basic techniques can be used for fish and many other ingredients in place of the beef.

this is an excellent video on how this dish is prepared in a restaurant kitchen