What is Lao Gan Ma, and can you make it at home?

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How to make chili crisp? It's an increasingly popular chili sauce - particularly Lao Gan Ma, of course - and in this video we wanted to show you how to make it yourself at home.

But in addition to a recipe, we also wanted to show you... where this stuff came from. So in addition to a bit of a love letter to the Guizhou province (where chili crisp is from), we also wanted to dive into a bit of the history of Lao Gan Ma, and what made them unique.

Written recipe's over here on /r/cooking:

A few links to a couple videos that I used here. Always need a touch of extra b-roll :)

Monkey Abroad's trip to Guiyang. He always makes good stuff, definitely check out his channel too if you like travel vlog kind of content:

John Cena expressing his undying love for Lao Gan Ma (Chinese):

There was one shot of Juanfen from a couple vloggers (Chinese):

Footage of the canteen is courtesy of Youtuber “欧文老师”. It's the canteen of Zhejiang University:

And I think that's it. Check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!

Outro Music: "Add And" by Broke For Free

ABOUT US
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Learn how to cook real deal, authentic Chinese food! We post recipes every Tuesday (unless we happen to be travelling) :)

We're Steph and Chris - a food-obsessed couple that lives in Shenzhen, China. Steph is from Guangzhou and loves cooking food from throughout China - you'll usually be watching her behind the wok. Chris is a long-term expat from America that's been living in China and loving it for the last nine years - you'll be listening to his explanations and recipe details, and doing some cooking at times as well.

This channel is all about learning how to cook the same taste that you'd get in China. Our goal for each video is to give you a recipe that would at least get you close to what's made by some of our favorite restaurants here. Because of that, our recipes are no-holds-barred Chinese when it comes to style and ingredients - but feel free to ask for tips about adaptations and sourcing too!
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Hey guys, a few notes:

1. Ok, so the Sichuan peppercorns and the toasted sesame seeds. Apologies for rushing those in at the end there – the video was already proving to be on the long side. For the Sichuan peppercorns, toast them in a dry wok over a medium flame until little oil splotches start to form, ~2 minutes. Then grind in a mortar until more or less a powder. As for the sesame seeds… same deal, but take them out when they’re *just* starting to pop, ~3-4 minutes. As for pounding the sesame seeds, you want to *just* crack them, just to release a touch of oil.

2. I’m worried that in the video I wasn’t sure if I sufficiently answered “what makes Lao Gan Ma unique”? Lao Gan Ma’s original sauce was the douchi-heavy black soybean chili – the douchi-heavy sort make for ideal toppings for Liangfen. Different places in China have their own ways of fermenting douchi – Lao Gan Ma’s is actually proprietary. If you happen to live in a place where you can specifically buy Sichuan-style douchi, those would be much closer… we used Cantonese-style douchi because that’s usually what’s available outside of China.

3. I’m going to sound like a bit of a curmudgeon here, but it always makes me scratch my head when I see certain English language sources put out a recipe for things they… obviously don’t know how to make. There’s no shame in ignorance of course – like, we’ve been working on trying to make proper hand-pulled noodles for years now and still can’t quite get it. But we wouldn’t *try to teach people* yet, you know? I guess I… expect more from the Bon Appetits of the world.

4. Most English language recipes for chili crisp seem to be derived from Danny Bowien’s recipe in his Mission Chinese cookbook. Which seems to (a) use the Sichuan technique for chili oil and (b) be strangely super heavy on shallot (we’ve never seen shallot in Guizhou cuisine). Danny Bowien’s sort of proudly a mad scientist though, so it’s hard to make a value judgement there. SeriousEats interestingly came the closest, with their toasting of the chilis, basing the chili mix around Kashmiri chili (surprisingly close to Chicken Claw), and addition of MSG (very important here, Lao Gan Ma is *really* heavy on MSG).

5. I know this was a longer one. I'm never sure whether you guys like listen to me blab on and on about food/history or if you prefer straight up recipes.

6. An apology and a big thank you to Mikael Pashkov, Jesse Youngblood, and Andrew Carrier. I’ll get you guys up in the credits next week, promise. I was editing this on the plane and didn’t get the chance to update the outro with the most recent patrons.

Travelling in the USA now, so if we're a touch less responsive than usual, that's why :)

ChineseCookingDemystified
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On video length: if we want the short, to the point version of a recipe or the "easy" Westernized variety there are of sources out there. When I come to this channel it's usually BECAUSE of the deep dive into Chinese cuisine. Y'all provide very helpful context for flavors, cuisines and history which greatly informs my understanding of a dish as well as what the original "should" be.

So, yeah. All for super long videos detailing the intricacies of Chinese cuisine variation!

terrencehopkins
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I heard this stuff is good on popcorn. The guy who told me is clinically insane though.

les
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I really enjoy the segments where you start exploring the food history of certain regions like you did here. I could watch a whole vid on just that

tinysurvivor
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A note on the dou gan: in Asian grocery stores in the US, it's often labeled 'Dry Pressed Tofu' or 'Dry Press Tofu' in English. It's also frequently sold marinated in soy sauce and spices, in which case it's usually a dark brown color.

lishange
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Hello! I am from Guizhou and I just want to let you know that I appreciated your video. Thank you for making this video.

lige
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Mix a little bit of Lao gan ma into cream cheese, then smear it on a toasted sesame seed bagel. You can thank me later.

tofu_golem
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12 minutes of Chinese Cooking Demystified? Hell yes.

Gabethecreeper
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Chris, re: "Apologies for rushing those in at the end there – the video was already proving to be on the long side". Please, don't rush. We subscribe to your channel because you are a valuable and meaningful link to one of the oldest, most significant culinary cultural legacies the world has to offer—that of Chinese cuisine via the depths of regional diversity. The result of thousands of years of evolution with human relationship to the land over at least the last 13, 000 years. Due to China's closed and censored internet, we are all grateful to you and Steph for the research you do. Providing insight into history, with the thoughtful and thorough attention to context and detail in which you share, along with the simple (while being complex) techniques that are truly best learned when passed down from generation-to-generation. These are extraordinary insights into our past. Again, please don't feel the need to rush. We are here because we choose to be. My favorites are those with Steph's father. ; )

violetviolet
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I really like how Chris says Chinese words properly. At first I thought he was Chinese American dude explaining things. No, it was a white guy speaking both languages like it's nothing. So cool.

seankim
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I love all your videos.
They are genuine, authentic and very easy to follow.
I'm a Singaporean living in Ireland.
Whenever I feel like having a Chinese meal, I follow your recipes and never your regretted.
Always enjoyed cooking your step by step guide and always enjoyed the dishes.
Thank you for good work and may long it last.
Good on you and all the best to you and your missus.

tikus-sqxi
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Me reading the video title:

“What is Lao Gan Ma...”
Haha, _finally_ a creative cop-out video from this channel! Well I’m not going to judge. Nobody is an infinite wellspring of ideas, and they’ve been churning out high-quality content now for years...

“...and can you make it at home?”
OH SHI—

deadfrg
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I just had my first bowl of rice with chilli crisp lao gan ma and i can't believe i've spent 25 years with this absent in my life. Thankyou! Love from the UK

ArmouredUnicorn
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I'm so glad to refer back to this video as less of a recipe and more like a technique guide for making an insanely addictive condiment. I've made several batches now and it gets better every time as I dial in exactly what flavor I want. Even in a city with a few asian markets, I can't really get the typical dried chiles without paying out the nose. However, because I'm in the Southern US and cook a lot of Puerto Rican and Mexican food, I have about 10 large bags of dried arbol, chipotle, guajillo, pasilla, ancho, etc. And only one of the bags cost me more than $2. After a few batches, I've found that a mix of Arbol, guajillo and pasilla add the right flavors of earthy, fruity, and spicy.
All of the ingredients I've added to my chile crisps may add up to more than a $4 jar of LGM, But it's certainly less than the $12-15 a bottle of Fly by Jing's crisp. And every ingredients is a pantry staple of mine so the process to make a new batch actually doesn't cost anything.
If you're trying to replicate LGM exactly when you could just buy it, yeah seems like a waste of time. But to make a condiment to your exactly spicy and salt level and make your house smell spectacular in the process, it is a technique well worth learning.

Shrifbun
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I only recently discovered this at the local grocery store, and I am instantly in love with it. So many levels of flavor and texture. 💕

ad_nauseous
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Admittedly, I'm a bit of a sentimental idiot (I'm a Cancer. We're all hopelessly like this.), but I REALLY enjoy listening to you "blab on and on about food / history" as opposed to just rushing to a recipe. To me, learning about the origins, history, and culture behind any recipe (or the recipe's ingredients) makes the entire food experience that much better and more enjoyable.

jamesmcgarity
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Because of your videos, I just found/bought/tried Lao Gan Ma for the first time in my life. Didn’t know what to expect, but WOW — SO GOOD! Thanks!

geraldcournoyer
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Your Video changed my life. Picked up a bottle of Lao Gan Ma 2 days ago and nearly finished it already. Was so suprised to find it in my asian store here in Germany. I will definately try to do a home version. Thank you and greetings from Germany.

jeremiasschoenherr
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Finally, I know the name of what I've been calling grandma sauce for years

roserenee
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More Steph art is the real reason to watch this video

mb
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