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Kung Pao Cauliflower
![Kung Pao Cauliflower](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/01/12/dining/hm-kung-pao-cauliflower/hm-kung-pao-cauliflower-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1tablespoon soy sauce
- 1tablespoon black vinegar
- 1tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼cup vegetable stock or water
- 1teaspoon cornstarch
- 3tablespoons neutral oil, such as grapeseed or canola
- 1head cauliflower (about 2 pounds), cut into small 2-inch-long florets
- Kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
- 1green or red bell pepper, core, seeds and membrane removed, and cut into 1-inch pieces
- ½ to 1teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, lightly ground in a mortar and pestle, spice grinder or crushed with a rolling pin
- 5 to 8whole dried chiles, such as er jing tiao or chiles de arbol
- 2garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1(1-inch) piece of ginger, peeled and finely sliced
- ⅓cup roasted peanuts
- 2scallions, white and green parts, finely sliced
- Steamed rice, to serve
Preparation
- Step 1
In a small bowl, whisk together the dark soy sauce, soy sauce, black vinegar, sugar, vegetable stock or water, and cornstarch. Set aside.
- Step 2
Heat wok or large (12-inch) skillet on medium-high until very hot. Add 2 tablespoons of oil, the cauliflower florets and ½ teaspoon salt, and toss for 1 minute. Cover and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, tossing the cauliflower every 1½ minutes or so, until the cauliflower is crisp-tender and charred in some parts. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Step 3
In the same wok or skillet, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of neutral oil, along with the bell pepper. Toss for 1 minute, then add the Sichuan peppercorns and whole dried chiles, and stir for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the garlic and ginger, and stir for 30 seconds, then add the cauliflower back to the pan. Stir the sauce in the bowl to make sure the cornstarch is well incorporated, then pour it over the cauliflower and toss until the cauliflower is well coated. Toss in the peanuts and scallions, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Serve with rice.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I admire your valiant efforts to substitute for Szechuan peppercorns, and I am sure the resulting dishes were delicious. Please be aware, however, that there really is no good substitute for Szechuan peppercorns. The reason doesn’t have to do with flavor, but rather with sensation — Szechuan peppercorns numb your mouth as you eat them, not with pepper heat, but with a numbing sensation (on the touch, rather than taste, receptors). The result is difficult to describe… but very worth trying!
This was excellent! I've been wanting to buy Sichuan peppercorns but skipped buying a 1-lb bag the other day (only size available) so I after looking up potential substitutes subbed a 50-50 mix of black pepper and coriander with a generous helping of grated lemon peel. Also added a dash of Trader Joe's umami seasoning (which I've otherwise found few uses for) because my substitute apparently lacks the umami flavor in the original. A rather simple and really delicious dinner I'll cook again!
another source for szechuan/sichuan peppercorns is penzey's.
I’ve been studying and cooking Szechuan-style food for more than 20 years. There is no good substitute for Szechuan/Sichuan peppercorns (Hua Jiao). The best can be found on this wonderful site called The Mala Market. https://themalamarket.com/ Anthony Bourdain, on the infamous heat level of Sichuan’s food: "It’s the spicy, sensualist heartland of all the things I love about China… food that can burn you down to a charred, smoking little stump."
I had everything on hand except the cauliflower. I did, however, have a big bag of carrots. Cut in oval coins, look beautiful and taste wonderful as Kung Pao carrots!
I can recommend the Spice House for buying Sichuan peppercorns. The flatpacks ship for free and the quality is excellent. https://www.thespicehouse.com/products/sichuan-peppercorns PS: I'm not affiliated but I get a lot of my spices from them, as well as Oaktown Spice Spice Shop. Spice House ships in lined paper flatpacks and only uses paper for packaging. They keep the environmental footprint to a minimum.
Definitely double the sauce. Maybe even triple depending on the size of your cauliflower. And cut the florets small. They’ll better absorb the sauce. Szechuan peppercorns are a must. I also increased the garlic, ginger and green onions. All and all a delicious dish.
Black vinegar is another unique flavor, like Szechuan peppercorns, that doesn't have a good substitute. I suspect that you're best off simply omitting it, or adding a dash of a mild vinegar such as sherry to provide a bit of acidity. FWIW, black vinegar is inexpensive and easy to find if you have a Chinese grocery in the neighborhood.
Substitute sherry vinegar for black vinegar
The taste was excellent but as a novice cook, I did not dry the cauliflower after I washed it. The result was a lot of water coming out into the hot wok and the cauliflower becoming soft and mushy rather than crisp and brown. As a matter of fact, the cauliflower never browned. Lesson learned for next try and I’ll certainly try this one again.
This dish was excellent. You can absolutely substitute other vegetables in if you don’t have cauliflower. We used orange cauliflower and it turned out fantastic. The key to this dish is timing. I had all of the veggies cut and ready to go. They were done to perfection. A touch of finishing salt as I served the dish was a lovely finish to the dish.
Would add more ginger, garlic and green onions. Just my personal taste.
I have spent a lot of time in Laos. Around September fresh, green Mak khan = Zarthoxylum rhetsa = Sichuan pepper comes down the mountains to the Vientiane markets. It's amazing. Something like lemon pepper but the flavor bursts in your mouth and nose and your tongue goes numb. I freeze it. One year I gave some to a friend in California who said she would try it for ice cream. The dried Sichuan pepper we get here does not have the strong lemon peel taste of fresh Mak khan.
"Black vinegar is a broad umbrella term for a grain-based vinegar—sometimes aged for years and sometimes infused with flavor. Most black vinegars are aged for at least six months and up to several years, which gives them their signature color." https://www.bonappetit.com/story/black-vinegar
Be aware that Szechuan peppercorns are sometimes called by different names in Asian grocery stores. At my local H-Mart I found them called flower peppers, and I know there are other names for them as well. They looked right, I googled the name on the package, and I brought them home. Intense but wonderful little things.
Double sauce. Add more vegetables than just cauliflower. Sichuan peppercorns have no substitute. Honey or brown sugar is better than white sugar.
I made this last night. Made exactly as written, but having read the comments I doubled the sauce. The original amount would have been perfect (doubling made it way too saucy), so I would leave this one alone. With the hot wok in hot oil, the cauliflower cooked up perfectly as written. Nice, simple recipe to use up cauliflower that I had. Did add some shredded chicken at the end.
Fantastic, even with substituting Sechuan peppercorns
Very quick and adaptable. Used asparagus rather than cauliflower since that,s what I had on hand, and also subbed maple syrup for sugar (because this is Canada) and it came out delicious! This is going in the regular rotation.
Doubled the sauce per another user's suggestion (and also there is never enough sauce!), it was the perfect amount once served over rice. I also added mushrooms to the bell pepper step. Loved the floral notes of the Sichuan peppercorns!
Subbed balsamic vinegar for black vinegar, subbed black pepper and coriander for sichuan peppercorns
I was a little skeptical about this dish, but I had all the ingredients (except peanuts: subbed toasted cashews) so I gave it a shot. WOW. Crushed the Szechuan peppercorns in my mortar, used 5 nice chiles de árbol, and the sauce came together brilliantly. My husband isn't the biggest cauliflower fan, but said he'd happily eat it again the next day. Could not recommend more highly.
Sauce was thin. Didn’t use black soy sauce. Used 2 T soy 1/2 tsp molasses. Needed a little more bam
Double the sauce, add carrots, cut cauliflower small bits, use stems
Good but not amazing. Roasted the cauliflower in 400 F. oven for 20 mins instead of frying. End result was reminiscent of our days in China but sauce was missing that Kung Pao kick - - could have benefited from more vinegar plus some sesame oil. These are tweaks, overall a decent rendition.
Suggest roasting up your own peanuts. They're divine when fresh! I used instructions from The Woks of Life.
Loved the recipe. I made some adjustments. I grilled the pepper with onion and cubed firm tofu until it all had a nice char. Used riced cauliflower and sautéed it with the garlic and ginger. Added the grilled vegetables, sauce. Served over jasmine rice. Delicious!!!!
Easy to put together for a weeknight, and the sauce has a great tangy flavor to it. However, some comments said to double the sauce and I disagree. It's too much sauce and overwhelms the rest of the flavors.
This was great. Real gong bao flavors.
I didn't like this at all. I added a rounded 1/2 teaspoon of sichuan peppers and that was all I could taste. I used 5 dried chiles and it wasn't very hot. Not much else to add.
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