Garlic in a Chinese Kitchen: Growing, Pickling, and Cooking

Channel: Li Ziqi Published: July 15, 2026 Duration: 12:27 Views: 39.0M

What this video shows

The video follows Li Ziqi, a Chinese woman living in a rural setting, as she grows, harvests, preserves, and cooks with garlic over roughly two seasons. It opens in fall 2019 with a meal of stir-fried tofu and pork with garlic scapes shared with her grandmother, then moves to spring 2020 when the garlic bolts and she picks the stems. She pickles garlic scapes, air-dries and ferments garlic in jars, and prepares several dishes including braised pork with garlic cloves, chicken feet with garlic sauce, and a fish mint leaf salad. The video closes with a shared meal between Li Ziqi and her grandmother.

At a glance

Locationnot stated in the video
Settingrural, mountain area with a home furnace and garden plots
What it coversgrowing, harvesting, pickling, and cooking garlic; meals with an elderly grandmother
Costs mentionednone mentioned
Time of daydaytime across fall 2019 and spring 2020, ending with an evening-style shared meal

What stands out

Garlic appears at nearly every stage of its life here: fresh scapes in fall, bolting stems in spring, then bulbs dried, salted overnight, and fermented in jars for more than a month, and in one case more than two months, in a dry place away from sunlight. The pickling liquid is made from brown sugar, rock candied sugar, water, and white vinegar, with Chinese white wine added before the jar is sealed with water. Several dishes are built around garlic rather than merely seasoned with it, including braised pork with whole garlic cloves and chicken feet marinated overnight in lemon juice, soy sauce, rice wine, and fermented glutinous rice. The grandmother cannot eat spicy food, so Li Ziqi steers her away from the chicken feet and toward softer items like flower rice, a small detail of how elders are fed in a shared household.

Video transcript

Fall 2019 Are you finished with your work? Almost finished We can eat garlic sprouts soon. Stir-fried tofu and pork with garlic scapes Taste this dried tofu, grandma. Spring, 2020 Bolting the garlic stems Pickle the garlic scapes Fried bacon with garlic sprouts Grandma, you don't need to do it yourself, I'll help you. These dishes smell delicious, hahaha... The garlic sprouts are very tender for you to chew, try some Grandma Eat slowly, grandma, don’t choke hahaha you eat so quickly... I must be a good chef Grandma, come over here and have a look. You

are a lady, can't you have a softer voice tune? Come here, help me and check out these garlics. These garlics look ripe enough. Can you verify for me? I think it's ripe as well. Are they ready for air-drying? Yeah, okay. Left salted overnight Drying them Brown sugar, rock candied sugar, water Add white vinegar and let it cool down The garlic is put into the pickling/fermenting jar with other spices Ferment for more than a month Add Chinese white wine and seal the jar with water Ferment for more than two months in a dry place away from sunlight I'll trim

them.. this looks fine Blanch the chicken feet in water with sliced ginger and green onions Sichuan peppercorns, dried chilies, cinnamon stick, star anise, rock sugar, fresh coriander seeds Celery tips, lemon peels, chives, and sliced ginger Lemon juice, salt, soy sauce, rice wine, fermented glutinous rice Passion fruit vinegar, spices water Marinate overnight Houttuynia - Fish Mint (Fish Leaf) White Acacia Flower Grandma, the flowers on the mountain are blooming. So many of them. See this is full of bloomed branches. You are very fortunate. This furnace

is ready, grandma, no need to heat it any more. Dressing: minced garlic, chopped green onions, soy sauce, chilli oil + paste, and oyster sauce Fish mint leaves salad with garlic dressing Celtuce Sliced Pork Belly with Garlic Sauce Add oil and flour Add rock sugar in oil, stir fry the pork until caramelised Garlic cloves, sliced ginger, bay leaf, star anise, spring onions Add water until ingredients are half-submerged in water, add soy sauce Chicken feet with garlic sauce Pickled garlic and veg fermented from before Picked sweet garlic fermented last year

Braised pork with garlic cloves Steamed flower rice Grandma, hurry up, come over here so you can have them Let me peel you a clove of roasted garlic Here you go Let me try a clove of picked sweet garlic Wow, there is nothing more happier than this. "This one is not spicy." (Her grandma can't eat spicy food) You may not eat those chicken feet, it is hard (for you to chew) Let me try some flower rice Haha, they are soft...

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