02 March 2007

Spicy Sichuan Noodles

As requested by Rev. Dr. Mom. This is originally from the May/June 2001 issue of Cook's Illustrated, but I've made a few minor modifications/simplifications. Once you've made this a few times, the whole shebang goes together in about 30 minutes from start to finish.

This is actually a double recipe of what's printed in Cook's. Theoretically their original makes four servings, but I like leftovers and I found their servings to be slightly stingy.

SPICY SICHUAN NOODLES (DAN DIN MIAN)

1 lb. or so "Asian-style" noodles. At my supermarket, I can find these in the section with tofu, etc. They are packaged in 9 oz. packages, so I use two. You can also just use a pound of dried linguine.
1 lb. ground pork
6 T. soy sauce, divided
1/4 c. sherry
1/4 c. oyster sauce
1/2 c. natural-style peanut butter, crunchy or smooth
2 T. rice vinegar
2 c. chicken stock
2 T. minced fresh ginger
10 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 t. red pepper flakes
2 T. sesame oil

For serving: bean sprouts and minced scallions

1. Combine pork, 2 T. soy, sherry, and a bit of fresh-ground black pepper in a bowl. Mix well with fork. Set aside.
2. Whisk together oyster sauce, remaining soy (4 T.), peanut butter, vinegar, chicken stock, and a bit more pepper in medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Combine ginger, garlic, and red pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.
4. Set water to boil for noodles.
5. Heat a bit of peanut or vegetable oil in large skillet until very hot. Add pork. Brown pork well, breaking up large chunks with spatula. Stir in ginger/garlic/red pepper mix and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute). Add chicken stock mixture and stir well to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until thickened.
6. Stir in sesame oil.
7. Drain noodles and serve topped with a generous sprinkle of bean sprouts and minced scallion.

This meal goes very well with a cold beer.

I've been wanting to try making this with tofu. If anyone does, let me know how it is.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my, thank you, thank you, thank you, I'm making it this weekend:) Can't wait to tell you about it, yum.

OTRgirl said...

I'm foreseeing some noodles in my very near future!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this! I'm going to have to try it if I can get my act together. Until then, I'll drool thinking about it.

Yankee, Transferred said...

Sounds terrific. I'm going to try it. Hey, email me sometime-I dumped my blog and I'd love to keep in touch.

Anonymous said...

ok, I made them on Saturday, SO GOOD!!! My kids loved them, even the baby, and my husband loved them, thanks so much!

Anonymous said...

okay, I know this post is really old, but I want you to know that I have made this 3-4 times and my husband and I love it!! Thank you!!

Pineygrrl said...

Hi Snick! I actually have the huge cookbook this was also published in, The New Best Recipe-2004 edition. Because I cant tolerate much fat, I made the following tweaks : only 1 TBSP sesame paste, (or peanut butter), omitted peanut oil, only 1 teaspoon sesame oil ( I actually did that not just for fat, but flavor. Sesame oil has an overpoweringly strong taste!) Added 1 TBSP cornstarch so the sauce would still thicken up, added 1/2 c. water to make up for volume of missing oil and paste. Believe me the sodium level is still way up there! I took a trick from PF Chang and added 2 TBSP brown sugar (still much less than Chang's; their recipe would have added an incredible 1/2 cup!!) And since I had my own hot peppers I grow, I added one whole jalapeno (this Biker Billy hybrid is nice and hot!) I minced the garlic, ginger, and jalapeno in my little 2 cup chopper and scraped it into the container I put the sauce in. Tasted it and found it perfect, by the time I cook it 6 hours from now those flavors should be well married! Final tweak : ultra lean ground turkey. Now I gotta run out and get that sherry and those noodles. Happy Chewing!