Recipe Time: How to Make Dry-Pot Cauliflower

Dry pot (干锅 gān guō) dishes appear frequently on the menus of Hunan, Sichuan, and homestyle cuisine restaurants. Exceedingly versatile, gan guo dishes can feature any combination of meat, vegetables and bean curd, although they are almost always laced with fresh and dried chilies for a healthy hit of spice. It might look complicated, but this must-order restaurant dish is actually very easy to recreate at home.

My recipe is a sort of mash-up of the Hunan and Sichuan versions of the dish, adding the black beans and fresh chilies popular in Hunan cuisine but omitting that cuisine’s smoked pork in favor of belly pork. The homecooked version might not be as dramatic as the ones served in restaurants complete with an oil burner (although you can easily buy one of these yourself on Taobao) but it will still go down very well with fans of spicy food.

The final dish in all its poorly photographed glory

Notes:

1. This dish is easily made vegetarian – simply leave out the pork and add a bit more oil when stir-frying the aromatics.
   

2. Try and use the local kind of cauliflower, the one with the longer stems and looser florets – it will cook quicker and capture the spicy-savory flavors of the dish better.
   

3. Cut the cauliflower florets fairly small, otherwise, they won't cook quickly enough.
   

4. You can substitute the cauliflower for other vegetables such as lotus root, potatoes or tea-tree mushrooms, although note that root vegetables may need blanching (or deep frying if you want to go all out) beforehand. If blanching, make sure the vegetables are thoroughly dry before adding to the pot.
   
   

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Dry-pot cauliflower
干锅菜花
gān guō càihuā

• 100g belly pork (五花肉 wǔhuāròu), cut into thin slices (buy this ready-prepared from the supermarket)
  

• 5 pcs dried red chilies (干辣椒 gàn làjiāo), torn in half and seeds shaken out
  

• 5 cloves of garlic (蒜 suàn), sliced
  

• Equivalent amount of ginger (姜 jiāng), sliced
  

• 1 tbsp black beans (豆豉 dòuchǐ)
  

• 1 medium cauliflower (菜花 càihuā), cut into small florets
  

• 1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into strips
  

• 1-2 green chilies, cut into rings
  

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce (生抽 shēng chōu)
  

• ½ tbsp Shaoxing wine (绍兴料酒 shàoxīng liàojiǔ)
  
  

1. Heat 1 tbsp of cooking oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add the belly pork and stir fry until crisp. Remove from the wok with a slotted spoon and set aside.
   
   

2. Return the wok to the heat and turn down the flame to medium. Add the dried chilies and stir-fry for 30 seconds, then add the garlic, ginger and black beans and continue to stir-fry for 1 minute until fragrant.
   
   

3. Increase the heat and add the cauliflower. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring every now and then so the cauliflower picks up some color.
   
   

4. Add the red pepper, green chilies, and belly pork to the wok and toss together.
   
   

5. After 1 minute, pour the soy sauce and Shaoxing wine over the pot and stir to combine. Taste and season with salt, if needed, then serve immediately.

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Photos: Wikimedia commons, Robynne Tindall