I was in the mood for some Chinese noodles, and nothing was going to stop me. This recipe from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty combines sesame paste (tahini works too), chili oil, two kinds of soy sauce, and sesame oil to create a shockingly quick and filling meal. To balance out the fiercely spicy dish, I added quick-pickled carrots using David Chang's approach from the Momofuku cookbook. More

I'm obviously on a little Fuchsia Dunlop kick. Last Wednesday it was her recipe for Mapo Tofu, and now it's fish fragrant eggplant which I found on the food blog Jessie and the Giant Plate. Now, about the smell. Your house won't start reeking of seafood when this dish is done. But honestly, there's a faint fishy flavor in the air. It's kind of miraculous. More

Mapo Tofu kind of perfectly sums up what I love about Sichuan cuisine. It's feisty and slightly out of control, and yet it still feels homey and relaxed. Sure, the chili bean paste adds a wallop of heat, and the Sichuan peppercorns numb the inside of your mouth, but it's not overly greasy or heavy. It's meaty, but as much of the umami punch comes form the fermented black beans as the ground pork. This recipe comes from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty, and she really hit the necessary balance here. More

By far the smallest kidneys I've had the pleasure of cooking, these lamb kidneys pack a lot of aroma into one small package. I had originally planned to grill the kidneys but after one whiff, I knew they needed plenty of tongue-numbing chilies and pepper and alcohol (like rice wine) to counter their assertive smell, so I went with this recipe for fried kidneys by Fuchsia Dunlop. More

[Photograph: fuchsiadunlop.com] I've been meaning to make this recipe for at least a month. Ever since I laid eyes on Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province, I've been drooling over the recipe on the book's cover: Chairman... More

[Photographs: Nick Kindelsperger] Chinese cuisine is one I've been flirting with now for a few months. But with a copy of Revolutionary Chinese by Fuchsia Dunlop, I felt confident to move beyond the standard take-out fare and see what else... More