Zhergen liangban, cold-dressed fishwort root salad

As tradition built it

No serving count or time given.

Ingredients

The tradition's method, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them.

• fresh zhergen roots, plump and tender, with tender shoots if you like
• a little salt
• dried chillies
• soy sauce
• vinegar
• garlic
• MSG
• a little sugar

Method

1. Pinch the plump, tender roots by hand into lengths of about one cun, roughly 3 cm.
2. Wash them, salt them briefly, then rinse them clean in fresh water.
3. Roast the dried chillies until charred and crisp and pound them fine. Guizhou people call this hulajiao. Scatter it over the roots.
4. Add the soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, MSG and sugar, mix well and eat.

Notes

The Guizhou method is the one the Guizhou agricultural economy portal (Guizhou Nongjing Wang, 6 September 2021) gives, crediting its text to Baidu; it gives no quantities. The same page prints two weighed versions that dress the roots with chilli oil instead of charred chilli and do not salt them first.

What a modern chef changes

A texture the traditional dish never had, built from the same flavour.

Rung 5

Method

1. Where fresh zhergen root cannot be sourced (the honest, common case in Britain), dehydrate thin slices of a milder relative or, more usefully, build the dressing's flavour profile (chilli, garlic, vinegar, a controlled fermented element) into a standalone condiment rather than pretending a substitute root replicates the plant.
2. Emulsify the dressing in a high-power blender with a little extra oil until it forms a stable, pourable sauce rather than a loose dressing, then pass it through a chinois for a completely smooth finish.
3. Serve as a dressed carpaccio-style plate where fresh root is available, thin-sliced on a mandoline rather than chunked, letting the dressing coat a larger surface area for a more even hit of sourness per bite.