Ingredients

Instructions

• Toast the 1 teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorns until fragrant. Grind using a mortar & pestle, then set aside.
• Heat wok/pan until hot. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and heat until just begins to smoke. Add meat and stir-fry, breaking it into a small mince, until it is cooked through and starting to brown. Remove the meat and hold.
• Clean the work, return it to heat until hot, then add the remaining 5 tablespoons oil. Heat briefly, then add the chili bean paste, fermented black beans and chili flakes. Let these sizzle until fragrant, being careful not to burn them. Add the chicken stock, soy sauce and scallions. Add the cornstarch slurry a bit at a time until the dish thickens. You may not need it all.
• Return the minced meat to the wok. Add the tofu cubes, and simmer for a couple minutes, gently tossing the tofu with the sauce.
• Sprinkle in the ground Sichuan pepper.
  
• Optional: Serve with chopped green onions.

• 10lbs sweet rice, 6tsp salt
• Use 1cup to scoop to make thin 2", or 1-1/4 to scoop to make thick 3"
• 3 bags of mung beans, 6tsp salt, 6tsp ground pepper
• 3-1/2 bags of banana leaves
• 3lbs pork bellies
• 1/3lbs of shallots

• 3lbs of sweet rice
• 1 bag of mung bean
• 1 bag of banana leaves
• 1lb of pork bellies
• 1/2 bag of shallots

• Soak the rice 
• Soak the mung bean 
• Peel and slice shallots
• Wash and cut pork bellies into 3/4" x 2" strips, add 1 tsp coarse ground black pepper, 1 tsp salt, and shallot slices.

• Cut 16 squares, 8" min - 10" max. Make sure they are square
• Cut 8 5" x 10" rectangles.
• Cut 4 5" squares. 
• Wash and wipe them clean
• Double fold the big squares into small squares

• Make sure the water cover the bánh chưng. We have a small pressure cooker, so we do a batch of 2. Set the pressure level of medium, and the temperature 160degree-C, and for one hour. So, in two hours we can cook 4 bánh chưng.

• Less salt in the rice, next time. I had 2 tsp, reduce down to 1.
• The color on the rice is not as green as the batch cooked in the turkey fryer

• With 3 new banana leaves bags, and 1/3 last year bag, we can cut & prepare for 15 bánh chưng
  
• This time we cooked/steamed three 14oz bags of mung beans, and for each bag we added 3.5 tea spoons of salt, and 6 tea spoon of freshly ground black pepper.
• We found it's easier to have card-board templates, to use to cut the banana leaves
• One 7" square, to make 4 corners
• One 5"x10" rectangle, to make 2 sides
• One 5" square, to make top & bottom
  
• We bought 6lbs pork belly 
• We bought one bag of shallots
• On Friday, the day before
• We steamed the mung beans & mixed it with salt & pepper, and put them in smaller containers. About 2hrs to do this.
• We cut & wash banana leaves, prepare about 3hrs to do this.
• We cut 3lbs pork belly, mixed with 4 cloves of shallots, 3 tea spoons salt, and 3 tea spoons of freshly ground black pepper
• On Saturday
• We use 1 cup to scoop sweet rice
• We use 1/2 cup to scoop mung bean
• About 3 piece of pork belly for each cake
• Started around 9am, by 11am we made 15 to fit the pot we have, and started the cooking
• We also use saran wrap outside of each bánh chưng, to contain the blow out, if any.
• We use the 12" diameter mesh to keep the bánh chưng to submerge under the water
• We cook inside the garage to avoid the wind and potential snow/rain
• For each mung bean bag, we used 2 teaspoon salt & 2 teaspoon black pepper
• For each 5lb sweet rice, we used 3 teaspoon salt
• For 3lbs pork belly, we used 2 teaspoons salt and 2 teaspoons black pepper

Roasted Mushrooms Escargot-Style

• Accompaniment:

  crusty bread