The Cultural Revolution Cookbook

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. My son will be 16 months this week and while I usually am chasing him all over creation, he has been sick for the past few days. During a break from the crying and Motrin dispensing, I was able to read the Cultural Revolution cookbook.
Despite having lived in China, I never learned how to cook any authentic Chinese food. I like to cook, but for some reason I have always been intimidated to cook Chinese food, even though its authentic dishes are usually simple to prepare. Maybe it was the time consuming Jiaozi assembly process that put me off a bit...anyway, I was very excited to see this book available. Not only is it a cookbook full of delicious recipes, author Sasha Gong includes her personal account about what it was like to grow up in China during the Cultural Revolution. The book is also full of other interesting bits about what was happening in China during the time, it's like a culinary history lesson.
Here's an excerpt from her NPR interview about the book:

Gong has lived in the U.S. since 1987, and she earned a Ph.D. from Harvard. But her childhood in China was a hard one. Ten years old at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Gong was sent to the countryside as punishment because her grandfather was accused of being a counter-revolutionary.

Gong and her family worked on farms, but the food all went to the government. Her family, like so many others, was left to fend for itself, and she learned to cook with whatever she could find.

In the cookbook, she shares the peasant recipes of that time and how food kept families together, despite a revolution that was pulling them apart. Seligman says the book is not meant as an apology for the Cultural Revolution.

"It was a horrible time. People starved, people died. A lot of people suffered. And that's not really the point of the book," he says. "This is a celebration of the people who triumphed though this horrible time when there wasn't enough food, and there wasn't freedom, and all those awful things were happening. But somehow they managed to make do with what they had."

When Gong sits down to these meals now, it reminds her of family ties. She remembers cooking many meals for her friends when she was a dissident in China, working in a factory.

"We put things together — whatever meager ration we [had]," she says. "There's something about humanity. It's hard to suppress."

One thing I quickly learned, while living in China, was the importance of sitting down and enjoying a meal. Chinese people gather over food and meals can last long into the night.

I'm looking forward to making some of these recipes myself and finding people to test them on. 

Here's a recipe from the book that looks tasty. It was also included in the NPR interview. 

Photo: Melissa Goh/NPR

Recipe: Braised Pork in Soy Sauce 

Ingredients 

1 lb. (450 g.) pork shoulder

1 large piece ginger, about 1 inch (2.5 cm.) on a side
1 Tbsp. (15 ml.) cooking oil
4 Tbsp. (50 g.) sugar
4 Tbsp. (60 ml.) soy sauce
1 cinnamon stick (1/2 tsp. or 5 g. powdered cinnamon may be substituted)
1/2 cup (120 ml.) rice wine (or any other wine)

This dish is traditionally made with pork belly, but it's hard to find in many supermarkets and it's far fattier than other cuts. There's enough fat in pork shoulder to give the dish a great taste, and still save a few calories and maybe a hardened artery.

Cut the pork shoulder into cubes, about one inch (2.5 cm.) on each side. Smash the ginger with the side of a cleaver; no need to peel it.

Heat a wok and add the oil. When it begins to smoke, add the ginger and then the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved completely, add the pork. Stir-fry the mixture until most of the liquid has evaporated, but not until it is completely dry. Then add the soy sauce, cinnamon and wine.

Mix well and then cover the wok tightly. Turn the heat down to medium and let simmer for 1/2 hour. Remove and serve.

The Chairman's Brain Food

Chairman Mao believed that the fat in Braised Pork in Soy Sauce had the capa­bility to boost his brainpower. The dish is traditionally regarded as brain food in his native Hunan Province, and it was well-known as the Chairman's favorite. In fact, he insisted that his Hunanese chef cook it for him often, even during his years in Beijing and over the strenuous objection of his personal physicians.

Mao was especially fond of eating this dish before he went into combat — either physical or political — and believed he nev­er lost a battle when well-fed on braised pork.

The Cultural Revolution Cookbook by Sasha Gong and Scott D. Seligman. Copyright 2011. Published by Earnshaw Books.