The Origins and Variations of Jiaoyan Flavor Profile

Jiaoyan flavor profile is a taste commonly found in various Chinese cuisines, but unfortunately, it has been mistranslated to "salt and pepper." This mistranslation occurs because 'Jiaoyan' refers to a mix of salt and Sichuan peppercorn. Pepper uses the same Jiao character (椒), and some local variants of this flavor profile also include other ingredients such as fennel, dried tangerine peel, ginger, garlic, and MSG.

The authors of the video are from Hubei province, and their personal favorite dish is Deep Fried Corn, a classic example of the Jiaoyan flavor profile. They have developed a unique spice mix for this recipe that includes half a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorn powder, one-quarter teaspoon of white pepper powder, and a half teaspoon of sugar. The authors also like to add a sprinkle of MSG to balance the flavors.

For their Hubei-style Deep Fried Corn, they start by blanching two small ears of fresh corn in hot water for about 1.5 minutes or until the corn starts to float. They then toss the corn in a bowl of cool water to stop the cooking process and transfer it to a strainer to dry off for about 15 minutes.

To coat the corn, the authors use a mix of cornstarch and egg. They prefer this midpoint coating method because it provides the right balance between crispy exterior and tender interior. To make this coating mixture, they start by beating an egg until no stray strands remain, then add one tablespoon of cornstarch and mix well. They also like to save some egg for fried rice or scrambled eggs.

The authors note that depending on the moisture content of the corn kernels, more or less starch may be needed to achieve the right consistency. For their batch, it took an extra tablespoon of starch to get the desired texture. With six tablespoons of starch in total, they can now proceed with deep-frying the corn in a wok.

To deep-fry the corn, the authors heat a couple of cups of oil up to 180°C and toss in the coated corn kernels. They fry this for about 45 seconds and then shut off the heat to let it cool slightly. To crisp the corn further, they perform a double fry: first at 195°C for just a few seconds, and then again after letting it cool.

To make their Hubei-style Deep Fried Corn recipe complete, the authors stir-fry a mixture of aromatics, including one inch of ginger finely minced, three cloves of garlic also finely minced, and thinly sliced scallion whites. They fry these for about 15 seconds to infuse them with flavor, then add in eight dried chilis that have been deseeded, followed by the fried corn. The authors give everything a brief ten-second fry together before tossing in their powdered seasoning mixture and frying this all together for one more minute.

Finally, they add scallion greens to the stir-fry for just another 15 seconds before taking it out of the wok. This makes for a deliciously crispy Deep Fried Corn dish that is perfect for weeknight meals.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enToday, we wanted to show you how to make oneof my personal favorite dishes from the Hubeiprovince…Jiaoyan Yumi, or Deep Fried corn.Now this dish is part of the Chinese Jiaoyanflavor profile, a taste that you can findin a lot of different Chinese cuisines, but’soften mistranslated into English as ‘saltand pepper’.Why the mistranslation?Well, because… at its core, ‘Jiaoyan’refers to a mix of salt, that is, Yan andSichuan peppercorn that is, Huajiao.Pepper, meanwhile, uses that same Jiao character(椒), and is sometimes also in the mix, thusthe confusion.Now know there’s a ton local variants forthis Jiaoyan flavor… another classic Jiaoyanmix is salt, Sichuan peppercorn, fennel, anddried tangerine peel… in Cantonese cookingit generally refers to a mix of salt, sandginger, and sometime white pepper powder…and we’ve even seen Jiaoyan refer to a mixof salt and five spice powder.For our Hubei-style Jiaoyan spice mix, we’reusing a half teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoonof Sichuan peppercorn powder and the cheappowdered stuff actually works better here…a quarter teaspoon of white pepper powder,and a half teaspoon of sugar together witha sprinkle of MSG to balance.Now just FYI for Hubei-style Jiaoyan thatwhite pepper’s actually kind of a rarity,but we quite like it, so feel free to go eitherway there.So right, for this dish we’ll be fryingtwo small ears of fresh corn which shouldgive us about 250 grams of kernels.Then we’ll be frying that corn togetherwith about eight dried chilis, sliced into1 cm pieces and deseeded… three sprigs ofscallion, white and green portions separatedand both thinly sliced, some aromatics, whichwas an inch of ginger finely minced, threecloves of garlic, also finely minced, andof course those scallion whites.Then together with that spice mix we justmade, that’s honestly it.So before deep-frying, we’ll give that corna quick blanch in hot water.So just add in your corn, cover, and let thatboil for about a minute and a half, or untilyou see the corn floating.Then just take those out, toss in a bowl ofcool water to stop the cooking process…or ice water if you feel strongly on the subject.Then transfer to a strainer and let thosedry off about fifteen minutes or so.Now to coat, some Jiaoyan dishes use justcornstarch and some’ll coat with egg.We personally prefer the midpoint betweenthe two and add a little egg… so crack that,and beat it until no stray strands of eggwhite remain.Now to your corn add in a tablespoon of cornstarchand mix well… you’re looking for the cornstarchto’ve absorbed any obvious surface moisture.So then add in just a tablespoon of your beatenegg, save the rest for fried rice or scrambledeggs or really whatever, and again feel freeto just skip if you prefer.Mix that well, then add five tablespoons ofcornstarch.Now, depending on how wet your corn kernelswere this might need a little more or littleless starch, so we’re primarily going bytexture here.I know with the bowl we’re using it’sa little hard to tell what’s going on, sowhat you can see here is that the corn’skinda sticking together but when you grabthe corn the individual kernels can stilleasily flow from your hand.For us, this took an extra tablespoon of starchto get here with this batch, so six in all,and now… we can deep fry.So in a wok get a couple cups of oil up to180 centigrade and with the flame on high…toss in the corn.Fry that for about 45 seconds, then shut offthe heat and take it out.Then we’ll do a double fry to crisp thingsup… so heat the oil up to at least 195 centigrade,drop in the corn, fry for literally just tenseconds, then take it out and drain on a papertowel lined plate.Now, to stir-fry.As always, first longyau… get your wok pipinghot, shut off the heat, add in a touch orabout a half tablespoon of oil, and give ita swirl to get a nice nonstick surface.Flame on high now, immediately go in withthe aromatics.Now the reason the oil quantity’s so lowhere is because for Jiaoyan dishes you reallywant to keep everything dry and crispy…so just a quick fifteen second fry until fragrantthen in with the chilis.Quick ten second fry, then toss in your friedcorn.Give that all another brief ten second frytogether, then toss in your powdered seasoningand fry that all together for one more minuteuntil you can see the seasoning’s evenlymixed in.Scallion greens, in, quick fifteen secondfry, heat off, and… out.Hubei-style deep fried corn, done.So this makes for a pretty easy and simpleweeknight dish, although I know many of youmay be scared of deep frying… so what wedo is have a little pot like this and putit next to our wok.And then we strain the oil back in every timewe’re finished using it… and change theoil about like once every week.So this makes for a very handy set-up.But – I also know you probably don’t wantto get in the habit of deep frying for healthreasons, but there’s also another very importantstep in stir fries called “passingthrough oil”… which takes the meat anddips it in high temperature oil for abouttwenty seconds.This step makes for very juicy meat and barelyadds any calories!So it’d be a great way to use up that oil.So check out the Reddit link in the descriptionbox for a detailed recipe… a big thank youto everyone supporting us on Patreon – andas always, subscribe for more Chinese cookingvideos.\n"