Last month I bought half a dozen books on programming and calculus and other scientific topics, to improve myself and make me look even more fantastic than I really am on my postdoc applications. To leaven this worthy stuff, I also ordered a copy of Fuchsia Dunlop's Sichuan Cookery, a book I have been eyeing off ever since it first came out in 2001. I am so glad I gave in to temptation: it's brilliant.

It begins with a short history of the area, and a description of traditional Sichuan cuisine, including meal structure, ingredients, food preparation, and equipment. Then there are the recipes, each one introduced by a paragraph of interesting and relevent information. There are only a few pages of colour photos scattered throughout the book, but they're well-chosen and very very tempting-looking. Although like most cookbooks the majority of recipes call for some meat, there are more than enough vegetarian recipes to make it worthwhile, and she suggests vegetarian versions of quite a few recipes which traditionally incorporate meat.

I cooked a quartet of dishes from this book, enough to serve 4 with rice. The lettuce dish should be served first, while the others are being finished in the kitchen. Some notes: the dried chillies used in these recipes are the plump Sichuanese kind; if you can't obtain these it is OK to substitute long Indian chillies. Don't use short Thai chillies, which are far hotter. The brand of chilli bean paste Dunlop recommends is Lee Kum Kee, which I found at my local Asian market - if you can't find this brand, make sure whichever one you buy is based on broad beans, not soy beans.

The dishes are pictured below. Clockwise from the top left, they are lettuce with sesame dressing, ma po tofu, stir-fried amaranth leaves with garlic, and dry-fried green beans. I found the sesame sauce on the lettuce a bit too sesame-y, but the tofu was utterly delicious, and both the greens were good. I will be cooking lots more from this book soon!

In the original recipe, the lettuce was used raw. I decided to lightly cook it first, by quickly sauteing the lettuce quarters in a little peanut oil in a wok, then adding a tablespoon or two of water and cooking for a further two minutes, then removing the lettuce with tongs and shaking off any remaining water.

Place the lettuce on a plate. Combine the sesame paste and oil in a little bowl, then season with sugar and salt to taste. Pour this over the lettuce, and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Serve at room temperature.

Cut the tofu into 2 cm cubes and steep in very hot, lightly salted water for 10 minutes. Cut the spring onions into thin slices at a steep angle.

Heat the peanut oil in a wok over medium heat, then add the chilli bean paste and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Add the black beans and ground chillies and stir-fry for another 30 seconds, until they are fragrant.

Pour in the stock and add the drained tofu. Gently mix everything together by pushing the spoon gently from the edges to the centre of the wok. Take care not to break up the tofu. Season with the sugar, soy sauce and salt to taste. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add the spring onions. Gently stir and cook for 1 minute. Add half the potato flour mixture, mixing well. The sauce should thicken enough to be glossy and cling to the bean curd. Add a little more if necessary to reach this stage. Pour into a bowl, scatter with the ground Sichuan pepper, and serve.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok over a low-medium heat, the add the green beans and cook, stirring, for about 6 minutes, until they are tender and the skins are slighly puckered. Set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of fresh oil in the wok over high heat. Add the chillies and pepper and stir-fry very briefly until they are aeromatic. Add the garlic, ginger and spring onions and stir-fry until they are also fragrant. Add the beans, toss the ingredients together, adding salt to taste. Serve at once.

Wash the amaranth thoroughly to remove any grit, then shake dry. Remove the leaves and any tender stems, discarding the coarse stalks. Heat the oil in a wok over a high heat. Add the garlic and stir-fry briefly, then throw in the amaranth. Cook, stirring thoroughly until the leaves have wilted and the stalks are tender. Season with salt to taste, and serve at once.

21 July 2004