The Sinosphere · Volume 35, The Sour Jar, the Steam Funnel and a Border That Runs Both Ways
Zhergen liangban, cold-dressed fishwort root salad
Guizhou
Illustration
- Time
- 10 minutes
- Researched
- Researched from 107 sources in the brief
Guizhou, shared across Miao, Yi and Han tables in the province, and named among Guizhou's own "hardest to eat, most loved" dishes.
As tradition built it
Serves 4 as a side. 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 150 g fresh zhergen root (houttuynia cordata), where obtainable, or see Sourcing for the honest gap
- 1 tbsp crushed dried chilli
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Method
- Trim and wash the root well, then cut into roughly inch-long pieces.
- Salt lightly and leave 5 minutes, then drain any liquid released.
- Dress with the chilli, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, sugar and sesame oil, tossing well.
- Serve immediately as a palate-clearing side, the dish's genuinely divisive, medicinal-sour flavour meant to cut through richer dishes on the same table.
What a modern chef changes
A texture the traditional dish never had, built from the same flavour.
Rung 5
Method
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.