The Chinese Pantry, Part 1: Chilis and Chili Pastes

This section covers some chili basics. This is not an exhaustive list of chilis and chili pastes for Chinese cooking, but rather a short list of some of the items listed in Dunlop's Sichuan cookbook. For each item I'll include an image with key characters circled on the label and an English explanation. Click on the images to see larger versions. There are many brands available, so if any of my readers out there have experience with other brands and can make recommendations please contribute in the comments!

"Facing Heaven" Chilis

You'll find an assortment of dried chilis available in any Asian grocery store. The most common type that I've noticed are the thin pods about 2 inches long. I use those a lot. But if you're looking for "Facing Heaven" chilis, which are commonly used in Sichuan cuisine, this is what you're looking for. Take a note of the circled characters as they say "facing heaven." NOTE:  Always look over dried chili packages carefully for mold. I think these items can sit around a long time before they reach the store shelves. I found some lovely looking dried chilis that looked almost fresh, so supple did their dried skins appear, but upon closer inspection some had become moldy.

Chili Bean Paste

According to Dunlop, Sichuan chili bean paste should be made with fava beans (broad beans), but other regions in China use soybeans instead. These two brands use a mix of fava and soybeans, and will certainly do the trick. The darker the paste, the more "mature" it is. You can also use Lan Chi Chili Paste with Soybeans as an alternative.

Chili Bean Paste Example #2

This brand of chili bean paste uses only fava beans and is imported from Sichuan province. There's no English on the main label, so it helps to recognize the Chinese characters and then confirm (if possible) the English ingredient label. The contents are less paste-like than the others, and instead look more like chopped-up chilis and fava beans (which they are).

Chopped Salted Chilis

Two brands of salted chopped chilis. There are innumerable types of salted chilis available, including some with green chilis. Salted chilis are preserved with salt, but the bottled versions in stores generally also contain vegetable oil and even MSG. Unfortunately, I don't know which brands are considered "the best." And what are chopped chilis preserved in salt? A form of pickled chilis! So I think you can use these as substitutes in recipes that call for pickled chilis... but if you want something that is specifically labled as "pickled chilis," read on to the next item.

Pickled Chilis

Sichuanese pickled chilis are preserved in a brine of salt, sugar, wine or vinegar, and spices. All sorts of chilis are preserved this way. This kind is a long red chili, but you can also find green ones. In a pinch, Sambal Oelek (Indonesian chili paste) can substitute. According to Dunlop, if you find tiny red pickled chilis, they are probably Thai chilis and are viciously hot.

As I said, this isn't intended to be a comprehensive list, but I hope that having bottle labels and a few characters identified will make it easier to spot these items.

Here in Ann Arbor, all of these items are available at Hua Xing, and I've seen some of them at Tsai Grocery as well. And I'm sure they can also be found at the sizable Chinese grocery on Plymouth Rd. in the strip mall near Nixon. At Hua Xing, the bottled and pickled chilis were in the same aisle, but the dried chilis were with the other dried herbs and spices.

Comments

[Victor Caston]

Fabulous. Thank you, thank you, thank you. :-)

[Deborah Dowd]

Thanks for the lesson. I love cooking Chinese and so often there is no English on the packages or it is totally nondescript (like: red peppers). I will be coming back to this post before I head out to the Asia Grocery.

[Kate]

Wei Chuan series of cookbooks are awesome for making authentic chinese dishes~ I have around 8 of them specializing in various regions, and they are excellent (recipes are in both English and Chinese) there are few typos and they are pretty odvious.

[Condiment Grrl]

This is great! I have a blog devoted exclusively to condiments and I have only referred a couple times to Asian condiments, mostly because I don't cook with them as often as I'd like to. But I'm am so excited to learn about pickled chiles on this post. I love all things pickled and then you get all the health benefits with the chile.

[kitchen Chick]

Condiment Grrl: I particularly like the chopped salted chiles. I could eat them straight out of the jar.

[Edward "Ed" Brawn]

Love this You ROCK - well cook haha

Just curious any plans...or revisits to anything from Africa South Africa in full flavour...

[Kitchen Chick]

This is a great idea. I do quite a bit of North African cooking for ourselves, and on occasion I tackle Ethiopian. (I have some North African and a few Ethiopian posts hiding in the archives.) But it's been a long, long time since I've made a West African mafé. And actually, we do have a South African cookbook, though I haven't made anything from it. So yeah... some African pantry and recipe posts are a great idea.

[Lo Carriere]

This is an exceptionally good website, very artistic and literate, and well laid out. I love your writing and your guests' comments.

This article was especially interesting as I am researching the possibility of setting up an online store that sells the authentic Sichuan products Dunlop recommends in Land of Plenty. My biggest frustration in her recipes has been finding those ingredients, and I know I'm not alone in that regard. And many folks don't have a nearby Asian grocery store. I have not had real good luck with the sources Dunlop lists in the back of her book.

[lisa kaye]

I'm looking to purchase on line, the chili bean paste you labeled "example #2". Do you know where I can find it?
Lisa

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's husband]

@Lisa: we've never had to look for online sources for these items; we've been fortunate enough to live in a place with multiple Asian grocery stores. There's a lot of discussion about it online, but a quick look didn't show any online sources. If you find one, please let us know.

[Sylvia]

Its good to have a general idea of what I'm buying at a store where I can't read anything.. Thanks for the information. Kudos

-Sylvia
Propane Burners

[bambo2000]

spent the weekend learning about chiles. I was hunting for the facing heaven chili pepper. it took awhile to find this. your link and the photo of the package was exactly what I needed.

I've found several specialty stores in the area but the fresh peppers aren't really labelled well and its hard to know what to buy.

Specialty vegetables are all obvious but the specialty peppers and some of the substitutions aren't. A lot of us only know what these things look like dried.

Is there a photo FAQ that would have the top 5 peppers for italian, mexican, chinese, indian and thai cooking. something that chefs put together. that would make this all so much easier.

just thinking and wanted to ask.

followed some of the substitution dialogue but people are not all in agreement. a photo trail guide for the top peppers from a good chef would help a lot.

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's husband]

Where are you located? We haven't been able to find facing heaven chilis in a couple years here in Ann Arbor, so we're actually trying to grow some from seed this year.

[Faith Kramer]

Great overview of the different products. I'm sure I'll be linking back to this post sometime when I need to explain it all!

[brambo2000]

hey joe

I'm in Atlanta. it took me about 140 miles of driving all over town but I finally found an exact match for the peppers.

thank you so much for putting up the photo. even the dry ones are really hard to find.

I can send you a couple of packages. they had 10 or so in the store and this was in a really big market.

just send me a note.

all the best

- the source in ATL was hong kong super market norcross ga.

[Joe, Kitchen Chick's husband]

Oh yes, we'd love some! You don't have an email linked, so I can't message you directly -- please email me, mine's linked from my name!

[Jason]

I found a jar of a really good chili paste at the Chinese grocery in Madison Heights. The brand was Spicy King and the first thing that caught my eye was that it had actual Sichuan peppercorns in it.

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