Hunan Pounded Chillies with Century Egg

Ingredients

• 450 g long green chillies, such as Anaheim, Hungarian wax or long hots
• 6 fat cloves garlic
• 3 century eggs
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
• 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 1 spring onion

Before you cook

• Wash the chillies and dry them thoroughly, leaving the stalks on for now.
• Peel the garlic cloves.
• Peel the century eggs and rinse off any clinging ash.
• Slice the spring onion finely.

Steps

1. Set a metal rack directly over a gas burner and turn the flame to medium-high.
2. Lay the chillies on the rack and turn them often until the skins blister and blacken in patches, about six minutes a batch.
3. Move the charred chillies to a bowl and leave them until they are cool enough to hold.
4. Rub away most of the blackened skin with your fingers, but leave a few sooty flecks behind for flavour.
5. Pull off the stalks and scrape out the seeds if you want a milder dish.
6. Put the garlic in a large mortar and pound it to a coarse paste.
7. Add the chillies a few at a time and bash them until they collapse into rough shreds rather than a smooth purée.
8. Pour in the soy sauce, black vinegar, sesame oil, sugar and salt, and stir them through the chilli.
9. Cut each century egg into six wedges.
10. Fold the egg wedges gently into the chilli so they stay in recognisable pieces.
11. Scatter the spring onion over the top and serve at room temperature with hot rice or congee.