Beyond the Great Wall:
Recipes and Travels in the Other China

by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Artisan, 2008

Hardcover, jacketed; $40.00; 1378 pages

List price is $40, however Amazon has it at $326 and some Costco stores carry it at a lower price I am told.

I own every cookbook written by this adventuresome husband-wife team.  They write cookbooks as I would want to write.  Not only are their books filled with authentic recipes but each contain a wealth of cultural and travel information accompanied by gorgeous photos. Reading about this couple's travels, and absorbing the photographs in each of their six cookbooks.  I also have traveled many of the places they write of and each page brings back wonderful memories, as well as providing great and authentic recipes!

 While this latest book is truly a coffee table volume it is a marvelous cookbook going far beyond the typical Westernized "Chinese" recipes of Mu Su  and General Tsao's Chicken.

"With enticing recipes, engaging stories, and magnificent photographs, Beyond the Great Wall gives us thrilling insight into the fascinating world of the outlying regions of China." - Claudia Roden, author of Arabesque When you start reading this book you find yourself transported to the land of the upcoming Olympics in a fresh way.  I have traveled various areas in China for many years including a 5 year time as VP of a Chinese (Taiwanese) import company based in San Francisco with officers throughout China.  My observations and experiences were far from the path of tourists in remote hard to get to ceramic factories far above the tea terraced landscape of Chouzhou and freezing cold factories in Hubei to name just a couple.  Each of these areas had their own specialties never seen on Western menus.With these travels in my background I opened this latest book of Duguid and Alford with great expectations - and I wasn't disappointed.Their latest effort, Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China, may be their best effort yet. And that's saying a lot. 

Hani Soy Sprout Salad

Serves 4 as a salad or side dish

My favorite parts of the Hani markets in southeastern Yunnan (see page 316 of the book) were the long aisles piled high with sprouts. There were chickpea sprouts, soybean sprouts, mung bean sprouts, and several others I couldn't identify. They were in giant piles, in beautiful shades of white, brown, and yellow, all bursting with freshness.

This salad is like one I ate at Luchen market. It makes a bright tasting side dish.

Salad

• 1 pound soybean sprouts
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped seeded red cayenne chile
• 2 tablespoons minced scallions (white and tender green parts)
• 1/4 cup coriander leaves

Dressing

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon roasted sesame oil

Wash the soybean sprouts and drain them. Bring 8 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the sprouts and soy sauce and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and let the sprouts cook, uncovered, for 1 hour, or until tender.

Drain the sprouts in a colander (if you like, drain them over a bowl and save the cooking water for a vegetarian broth), and put them in a shallow bowl or on a plate.

Place the dressing ingredients in a cup and use a fork or small whisk to blend them together well. Pour the dressing over the sprouts and toss gently to mix. Add the red chile, scallions, and coriander leaves and gently toss again. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Note On Soybean Sprouts: Unlike the more commonly available mung bean sprouts, soy sprouts, which have larger green or yellow halfbeans attached to them, can take long cooking without turning to mush. Look for them in Chinese grocery stores and specialty produce markets.

Kazakh noodles, from Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's new book Beyond the Great Wall:

KAZAKH NOODLES
    • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, preferably unbleached, plus extra for surfaces
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 2 large eggs
    • About 3/4 cup lukewarm water
    • About 8 cups goat or chicken broth

Method:
1. At least an hour before you want to serve the noodles, place the flour, salt, and eggs in a food processor and process briefly. With the blades spinning, slowly pour the lukewarm water through the feed tube until a ball of dough forms (you may need slightly less or slightly more than 3/4 cup). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.
2. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. Flatten each piece under the palms of your hands into a rectangle approximately 12 inches long and 3 to 4 inches wide. Use a sharp knife or a metal dough scraper to cut the rectangles crosswise into strips just under 1/2 inch wide. Cover the dough with a cloth or plastic wrap and let rest for at least 30 minutes, or for as long as 2 hours.
3. Before starting to stretch the noodles, lightly dust a large work surface with a little four. You will then be able to dust the stretched noodles with a little flour to keep them from sticking, and you can lay the stretched noodles on the floured surface when they're shaped. (You could instead drape them on a rack or over the back of several wooden chairs.)
4.  Stretching the dough the Kazakh way is amazingly easy. Once you pick up a piece of dough and see how it yields and thins with the pressure of your fingers and thumbs, you'll find your own technique. We often make these with one of our kids or with a guest, so the work goes quickly, and everyone gets to practice noodle stretching. Pick up a dough strip and touch both sides of it to the floured surface, then pinch it gently near one end between the thumb and forefinger of one hand, holding it nearer the centre with the thumb and index finger of your other hand. You'll be stretching it both by pinching it along its length and by pulling the pinched section gently away from where you're holding it in your other hand. Gradually work your way along the strip, pinching it and gently pulling your hands apart a little as you do, to flatten and stretch it. When the strip is 12 to 15 inches long, touch it again to the floured surface to dust it with flour, then lay it to one side of the floured surface. Repeat with the remaining dough strips.
5. Bring the broth to a vigorous boil. Add the noodles,bring back to a boil, and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, about 6 minutes.
6. Use a mesh basket or tongs to lift the noodles out of the broth and into wide individual soup plates. Ladle broth over the noodles and serve.

Makes a generous 11/2 pounds noodles; serves 4 as a main course, 6 as a hearty soup course